FB: American Rivers Conference

[doolittledog]

You can now get your Wartburg Football replica jerseys.

http://www.go-knights.net/FBjerseyform.pdf

Jr. gave me his 2008 Jersey for Christmas...game worn complete with holes.  It's size Large.  If you've met Jr., you'd wonder how he was able to fit into it.  It is very stretchy.  Undersized I suppose to give less to grab onto.

It was my favorite gift.  Even better than the Wireless N Dual Band Router.

Make sure he signs that jersey.  That way you can help fund a lavish retirement by selling it on ebay the week he gives his acceptance speech at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, OH!!!  Later, when he asks you about it, you can say..."uh, I think your mother packed it away somewhere or something"  Then quickly change the subject. 

[DBQ1965]

11 weeks from today IIAC teams will be kicking off!

[Walston Hoover]

Connections to IIAC Schools-
If we're going with only relatives, I don't have many.
Myself and 2 brothers at Wartburg, as well as Wife, bro in law, mother in law, and father in law (and uncle in law)
B-I-L's wife was a Dutch
1 cousin at Loras
2 cousins, uncle, aunt, 1 grandpa that played basketball, 1 that played football, and a grandmother that was in the band at Luther
1 aunt that went to Coe.
1 cousin played bball at Augustana and everyone else has been public.
OK I guess after typing that out I do have a lot of connections.
Oh yeah, and a brother who coaches at Augsburg.

[Purple Heys]

11 weeks until the regular season.   That will last virtual year.

11 weeks of the regular season.  That will last a virtual minute.

[DBQ1965]

11 weeks until the regular season.   That will last virtual year.

11 weeks of the regular season.  That will last a virtual minute.

You got it!

[warthog]

I was looking over the IIAC schedule and I noticed a couple items I thought seemed odd. 

Loras and Wartburg have conference schedules where they are either home or away for two consecutive games all year.  I wouldn't care for this too much.  Loras in particular has 2 home -2 away -2 home - 2 away.  UD fits in there as an away game so that might not be classified as a completely away game.  Yet they play four of their last six games away from their home field.  Wartburg is in the same boat, but at least they have four of the last six games at home.

With two consecutive games away from home and bye weeks three teams go four weeks between home games.  Cornell (October 10th to November 7th) , Wartburg (September 12th to October 10th) and Loras (September 26th to October 24th).  That would certainly be adequate time for the student body and casual fans to lose interest in the team.

I'm not a schedule maker, but it seems these aren't ideal situations.  Perhaps with an odd number of league teams, that is just the way it has to be.

[doolittledog]

Is scheduling done completely by the leage office?  Or do the schools have any sort of say with scheduling? 

I suppose this will also bring up the expansion talk again. 

Grinnell???  Probably makes the most sense.

If we grabbed an NAIA program, who would it be???

St. Ambrose?
Waldorf?
Northwestern?
Dordt?
Grand View? 
Briar Cliff?

I have not heard anything regarding St. Ambrose having any desire to make a move.  Though they are an old school IIAC team. 

Waldorf kinda sorta makes sense.  Geographically is close for BV.  Has only been in the NAIA for abou 6-7 years since making the move up from being a JC.  They don't have any historical ties to the NAIA. 

The only thing I have heard about Northwestern is they are starting to have trouble enrollment wise.  Maybe they might make the switch.  Though I doubt it.  They are in the middle of NAIA country. 

Dordt, while they are new to having a football program, they...like Northwestern, are an old NAIA school. 

Grand View, like Dordt, just recently added football to their athletics department.  It would be nice to have a school in the state capital.  But from the few Grand View people I have talked to, they have historical ties to the NAIA.  Or, they think of themselves as bigger than they really are and might eventually think about D2.  They are playing Drake this season in football. 

Briar Cliff would be a heck of a long drive from Dubuque.  I don't know why they would make the move other than they might believe they could be more competitive in D3.  Though I don't think they would. 

[Walston Hoover]

Grand View is sitting on a gold mine for their football program. I bet 20 kids at least leave the metro area each year thinking they are D1 material and come back home to DMACC, ISU, or Iowa to party and never play football again. GV gives them a place to play and claim a "football scholarship" and still be in a larger area.
No chance they give up their scholarship status.
I'm all for the 9 team league and would leave it at that.  Gives the IIAC much more of a chance to see where we stand nationally, or at least regionally for football.
When I played there was 11 teams in the league and I really didn't care for playing the same teams all the time.
Also I really wish all noncon games were played the first 2 weeks of the season.

[doolittledog]

Loras came back to the IIAC in 1986.  Coe and Cornell joined in 1998.  William Penn left after 2000 and Upper Iowa left after 2002. 

Can anyone see any of the current schools wanting to leave the conference?  Billie Penn and UIU were somewhat bottom feeders.  I could see them leaving.  I know there was some talk around the conference of dropping UD about a decade or so ago because the Spartans weren't too competitive in most sports.  Thank God that didn't happen.  In my opinion the current schools seem pretty happy with the current set up.  Just curious if anyone out there has ever heard of any schools looking around at D2 or the NAIA. 

[Kohawk Krazy]

I believe I'm correct concerning the basic colors in the IIAC (I'm not quibbling over tones of color)

Buena V. - Navy Blue/Gold
Central - Red/White
Coe Coll - Red/Gold
Cornell - Purple/White
Dubuque - Blue/White
Loras C. - Purple/Gold
Luther C. - Blue/White
Simpson - Red/Gold
Wartburg - Black/Orange

Recent departures:

Upper IA. - Light Blue/White
Wm. Penn - Blue/Gold

So for you historians; What colors were uniforms of former IIAC schools?  Did any former conference members have uniforms that were; green, silver, brown, pink , etc.?

Coe is Crimson and Vegas Gold.

[sportsknight]

I guess they don't teach the meaning of the word "basic" at Coe.

[warthog]

Kohawk Krazy:

I refer you to Webster's New World Dictionary, Second College Edition:

quibble (kwib'l) - (2) an objection to the main point as by emphasizing some petty detail.
(3) a petty objection or criticism

As I wrote, I didn't want to quibble over the tones of color.  Crimson and Vegas Gold is Red and Gold to someone who chooses not to quibble.

[warthog]

I don't know if there is any serious discussion of adding a 10th IIAC member, but Waldorf would be an interesting choice.

1) Reasonable distance to three other conference members. 
Forest City to Waverly - 95 miles
Forest City to Decorah - 100 miles
Forest City to Storm Lake - 125 miles

Plus be able to shoot down I-35 for 150 to 160 mile trips to Indianola and Pella.

2) Waldorf would have the same religious affiliation as Wartburg and Luther.  The Lutherans could fortify the northern border of the IIAC.  I'm sure it was the same at Luther, but in my day we often had Waldorf transfers come into Wartburg for their last two years.  All three schools share much common history and many family loyalties.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I don't know if there is any serious discussion of adding a 10th IIAC member, but Waldorf would be an interesting choice.

1) Reasonable distance to three other conference members. 
Forest City to Waverly - 95 miles
Forest City to Decorah - 100 miles
Forest City to Storm Lake - 125 miles

2) Waldorf would have the same religious affiliation as Wartburg and Luther.  The Lutherans could fortify the northern border of the IIAC.  I'm sure it was the same at Luther, but in my day we often had Waldorf transfers come into Wartburg for their last two years.  All three schools share much common history and many family loyalties.

Protecting against those Lake Wobegon hordes?!

[warthog]

That is correct Mr. Ypsi.  We would band together and protect IIAC territory while singing a medley of Martin Luther songs in four part harmony.