FB: American Rivers Conference

[doolittledog]

With word that Cornell is leaving after this next season I looked up how the IIAC has stacked up since our conference became a 9 team league.  Upper Iowa left after the 2002 season so we have 8 seasons of play with 1 more to go.  Should be interesting to see if there is any shuffling of the order after this next season. 

Wartburg 53-11 4 titles
Central     49-15 4 titles
Coe          44-20 2 titles
BVU          31-33
Luther      31-33
Simpson   29-35
Loras       26-38
Dubuque  20-44
Cornell       5-59

[warthog]

With Upper Iowa leaving after the 2002 season and Cornell leaving after the 2012 season, it appears that within ten years the conference will have lost both ends of the academic spectrum.  

Disclaimer: The above post was intended as a jab at members of Warthog's immediate family who have attended UIU.  The post in no way reflects the opinion of this board, its employees, or its advertisers.  Any emotional distress the post may cause Peacock fans is purely unintentional.

[doolittledog]

All-sports competition is over.  Here are the standings...

Men
Luther      - 59.5
Wartburg - 56.5
Coe          - 56.3
Central     - 51.5
Loras        - 48.0
Dubuque   - 43.6
Simpson    - 30.4
Cornell      - 30.0
BVU           - 29.2

Women
Wartburg - 55.0
Luther      - 54.2
Loras        - 46.8
Central     - 46.3
Coe          - 45.2
Simpson   - 39.5
Cornell     - 31.0
Dubuque  - 22.0
BVU          - 20.0

Overall
1 - Luther      - 17
1 - Wartburg - 17
3 - Central     - 12
3 - Coe          - 12
3 - Loras        - 12
6 - Simpson   -  7
7 - Dubuque  -  6
8 - Cornell      - 5
9 - BVU           -  2

So...what is up with Buena Vista?  I've never thought of them as a bottom feeder.  They had a large endowment and large enrollment and they seemed to have a decent athletic department.  Now I hear their enrollment is half what it was 5 or 6 years ago and both their mens and womens athletics teams finished last in the all-sports trophy.

[DBQ1965]

Purple Heys ... unless I missed it, what do you think about Cornell moving to the MWC?

[ncc_fan]

This should make scheduling a bit more difficult in the future.  It will be interesting to see where this takes us.   

You know the WIAC is always looking for an extra game to fill their schedules

UW-Platteville had to drop Dubuque this year...a school that is 20 miles away because the WIAC is forcing member schools to play a 2nd game against another WIAC school and count it as a non-con game.  Platteville and Osh-Kosh and some others have scheduled games against IIAC competition...though perhaps we'll shy away from Whitewater

If last year's selection committee taught us anything, it's that SOS is VERY highly regarded come selection time. Either Coe/Central/Wartburg and Whitewater would greatly benefit from playing one another if they were to meet in the regular season.

The folks at Ohio Northern would tell you that the 2009 selection committee sent a different message:  SOS carries very little weight and W/L record trumps everything.  It's hard to know what the selection committees are teaching us when their "lessons" are not consistent from one year to the next.

[Mav45]

It would be nice if it were that simple?  IMHO, Central simply tried to "out-athlete" other teams in a couple of key positions, namely QB and WR.   The Snead brothers are indeed an effective twosome, but I thought the Central offense was lacking at crunch time.  And what was just as interesting, the defense also lacked late in both losses.

Coe ran all over the Dutch D; a poor effort in 2nd half.  Against W'burg, Central D controlled the entire game aside from the drive at the end, when the game was on the line.  A late Central drive dried up, due in part to a good defensive stand, but mostly because it appeared that Central could think of nothing else to do except for throwing long to bro, or to run that predictable QB draw.  Never mind that it is still tough to stop....but the lacking edge on defense and creativity on offense rank for me as bigger concerns for me than are the special teams.

All said, much credit to #1 and #2 in conference last year; certainly both proved to be better competitors on game day.

It isn't hard to tell we are in the slow season.  I'll try a little football talk.  Looking forward to the 2011 football season, I don't have my normal Central fan's optimism.  I have been thinking about last season to figure out what Central will have to do to reclaim its proper spot at the top of the IIAC.  The thing I have come up with is that The Dutch need to get back the special teams advantage.  In the two games Central lost last year, there were two really key fumbles, but I don't want to talk about those.  Against Coe, Central missed both of its field goal tries and in the Wartburg game, they had both a punt and a field goal blocked against them.  I was afraid this would happen once the kicking coach was no longer the college president.  What makes it especially scary is that Central loses a lot of talent this year including both the punter and place-kicker.  I'm pretty sure both were four year starters.  I know they were both big contributors to the team's success during their careers.  I hope the team finds some talented toes to take their places.

[DBQ1965]

With Upper Iowa leaving after the 2002 season and Cornell leaving after the 2012 season, it appears that within ten years the conference will have lost both ends of the academic spectrum.  

Disclaimer: The above post was intended as a jab at members of Warthog's immediate family who have attended UIU.  The post in no way reflects the opinion of this board, its employees, or its advertisers.  Any emotional distress the post may cause Peacock fans is purely unintentional.

Well done warthog.

[warthog]

All-sports competition is over.  Here are the standings...

Overall
1 - Luther      - 17
1 - Wartburg - 17
3 - Central     - 12
3 - Coe          - 12
3 - Loras        - 12
6 - Simpson   -  7
7 - Dubuque  -  6
8 - Cornell      - 5
9 - BVU           -  2

Parity

[warthog]

It would be nice if it were that simple?  IMHO, Central simply tried to "out-athlete" other teams in a couple of key positions, namely QB and WR.   The Snead brothers are indeed an effective twosome, but I thought the Central offense was lacking at crunch time.  And what was just as interesting, the defense also lacked late in both losses.

Coe ran all over the Dutch D; a poor effort in 2nd half.  Against W'burg, Central D controlled the entire game aside from the drive at the end, when the game was on the line.  A late Central drive dried up, due in part to a good defensive stand, but mostly because it appeared that Central could think of nothing else to do except for throwing long to bro, or to run that predictable QB draw.  Never mind that it is still tough to stop....but the lacking edge on defense and creativity on offense rank for me as bigger concerns for me than are the special teams.

All said, much credit to #1 and #2 in conference last year; certainly both proved to be better competitors on game day.

It isn't hard to tell we are in the slow season.  I'll try a little football talk.  Looking forward to the 2011 football season, I don't have my normal Central fan's optimism.  I have been thinking about last season to figure out what Central will have to do to reclaim its proper spot at the top of the IIAC.  The thing I have come up with is that The Dutch need to get back the special teams advantage.  In the two games Central lost last year, there were two really key fumbles, but I don't want to talk about those.  Against Coe, Central missed both of its field goal tries and in the Wartburg game, they had both a punt and a field goal blocked against them.  I was afraid this would happen once the kicking coach was no longer the college president.  What makes it especially scary is that Central loses a lot of talent this year including both the punter and place-kicker.  I'm pretty sure both were four year starters.  I know they were both big contributors to the team's success during their careers.  I hope the team finds some talented toes to take their places.

Controlled the entire game might be a little overstatement.

                                                      WAR      CEN
FIRST DOWNS...................             13         14
RUSHES-YARDS (NET)............        40-118   39-101
PASSING YDS (NET).............          129        154
Passes Att-Comp-Int...........           27-13-2   30-10-0
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS.....   67-247    69-255
Fumble Returns-Yards..........           1-24       0-0
Punt Returns-Yards............             4-50       5-21
Kickoff Returns-Yards.........             3-72       3-49
Interception Returns-Yards....          0-0         2-15
Punts (Number-Avg)............          7-39.3     10-33.5
Fumbles-Lost..................               1-1          1-1
Penalties-Yards...............               7-57         2-15
Possession Time...............              28:56       31:04
Third-Down Conversions........         6 of 15      4 of 18
Fourth-Down Conversions.......         0 of 1       0 of 0
Red-Zone Scores-Chances.......        3-3           2-2
Sacks By: Number-Yards........         5-27         2-8

[Fannosaurus Rex]

It would be nice if it were that simple?  IMHO, Central simply tried to "out-athlete" other teams in a couple of key positions, namely QB and WR.   The Snead brothers are indeed an effective twosome, but I thought the Central offense was lacking at crunch time.  And what was just as interesting, the defense also lacked late in both losses.

Coe ran all over the Dutch D; a poor effort in 2nd half.  Against W'burg, Central D controlled the entire game aside from the drive at the end, when the game was on the line.  A late Central drive dried up, due in part to a good defensive stand, but mostly because it appeared that Central could think of nothing else to do except for throwing long to bro, or to run that predictable QB draw.  Never mind that it is still tough to stop....but the lacking edge on defense and creativity on offense rank for me as bigger concerns for me than are the special teams.

All said, much credit to #1 and #2 in conference last year; certainly both proved to be better competitors on game day.

I won't argue with a thing you said.  I just know I liked it better when Central was the blocker rather than the blockee when it came to punts and field goals.

[Purple Heys]

Purple Heys ... unless I missed it, what do you think about Cornell moving to the MWC?

It works for Cornell and it puts them in a position to compete with several schools that have a similar athletic commitment, but it doesn't guarantee they'll win more in any sport.  Cornell still needs to commit resources to recruiting athletes, coaching them up, and shoring up facilities.

The Iowa Conference was obviously too big a commitment, but I admire all those athletes and coaches that competed against the IIAC competition and gave their all.

I support the school's decision as right for them.  I would have rather seen them push to compete in the IIAC...some teams managed to do that.  But even then competing in the IIAC in football, for Cornell, was probably a sisyphean task.  (look it up Coe fan    )

As far as the MWC, in football, is concerned I don't see Cornell enduring the same conference losing streaks; and the opportunity to post better than .500 records becomes a realistic opportunity.   Recruiting for a 5-5 team has to be better than for an 0-10 or 2-8 team.

I am glad Jr. got to compete against IIAC competition and earned recognition at that level of play.  I think it is more meaningful than it would have been out of the MWC.

I can unequivocally state that IIAC football is better than MWC football - top to bottom.  I don't know how the rest of the sports stack up.

I wish Cornell nothing but the best, and thank the MWC officials for accepting them back.

Finally, I consider myself an IIAC guy, and you can count on my persistence to represent the Rams on this board...much to the distaste of the Kohack fans   

[Mav45]

Controlled the entire game might be a little overstatement.

Understood, and certainly not intended as a point of contention.  Perhaps it's "red glasses" vs "orange", but from my biased perspective, aside from a couple of Central mishaps, the Knights were not particulary effective putting points on the board.   

To be honest, it "felt" like Central was in control.   You would have to agree that Wartburg's last drive was decidedly more impressive than anything else they had produced up to that point?   Regardless of what transpired earlier in the game, Wartburg won the game and the championship on that last drive, when the game was on the line.  Without that late performance, Central wins, and the stats, for what they're worth, look a lot different. 

No arguement or sour grapes about the outcome here; the Knights answered the bell, just the way champions are supposed to.   

[DBQ1965]

Purple Heys ... unless I missed it, what do you think about Cornell moving to the MWC?

It works for Cornell and it puts them in a position to compete with several schools that have a similar athletic commitment, but it doesn't guarantee they'll win more in any sport.  Cornell still needs to commit resources to recruiting athletes, coaching them up, and shoring up facilities.

The Iowa Conference was obviously too big a commitment, but I admire all those athletes and coaches that competed against the IIAC competition and gave their all.

I support the school's decision as right for them.  I would have rather seen them push to compete in the IIAC...some teams managed to do that.  But even then competing in the IIAC in football, for Cornell, was probably a sisyphean task.  (look it up Coe fan    )

As far as the MWC, in football, is concerned I don't see Cornell enduring the same conference losing streaks; and the opportunity to post better than .500 records becomes a realistic opportunity.   Recruiting for a 5-5 team has to be better than for an 0-10 or 2-8 team.

I am glad Jr. got to compete against IIAC competition and earned recognition at that level of play.  I think it is more meaningful than it would have been out of the MWC.

I can unequivocally state that IIAC football is better than MWC football - top to bottom.  I don't know how the rest of the sports stack up.

I wish Cornell nothing but the best, and thank the MWC officials for accepting them back.

Finally, I consider myself an IIAC guy, and you can count on my persistence to represent the Rams on this board...much to the distaste of the Kohack fans   

Thanks.  By the way, how is the high-jumper in the family doing?

[frank]

any word on dubuques game today in Italy??   

[DBQ1965]

any word on dubuques game today in Italy??   

Didn't know they were playing.