FB: American Rivers Conference

[sportsknight]

I was able to have a short chat with the UD president while at the UD/Wartburg game today.  The W is very impressive by the way!!!

In other news my father and I enjoyed the Fainting Goat afterwards.  Though their bleu/blue cheese burger I did not think was as nice at the Blue/bleu cheeseburger at Chameleons in Mt. Vernon.  

The Philly I had for lunch before the game was pretty good.  The Goat's food usually doesn't disapoint, but you can have a bad experience every now and then.

Good win for the Wartburg men yesterday.  Nice to see a kid like Lee Nelson have a good game in the last outing of his career.

I was going to look for you after the game, Doolittle, but my friends and I heard that the Drake game was a close one so we bolted for Joe's to watch that right after the Wartburg game ended.

[doolittledog]

Hey sportsnight, the Fainting Goats food did not dissapoint, we enjoyed our meal and the atmosphere there.  I was just complimenting Chameleons. 

Again, the W at Wartburg is very impressive.  My dads take on it was "How in the world will they ever be able to afford to heat this place?!?!"  He also didn't think his 74 year old bones would ever want to try the rock climbing wall. 

We look forward to visiting Wartburg again next fall. 

[Klopenhiemer]

Anyone willing to give their predictions regarding the Oscar's tonight? 

[sportsknight]

I really don't care about the Oscars one bit, but if I had to make one pick I'll take Daniel Day Lewis for Best Actor.

[Klopenhiemer]

I really don't care about the Oscars one bit, but if I had to make one pick I'll take Daniel Day Lewis for Best Actor.

I will take No Country For Old Men as best picture. 

[doolittledog]

I just like watching the beginning to see the women walk the red carpet.  BUT, we are watching Cars for the 2nd time today now.  Our son got his Cars bedding today so that got him excited enough that we had to see the movie again.  And the kids are lucky because we are letting them eat dinner in the TV room while watching the movie...that doesn't happen very often!!!  Usually only during football season because dad wants to watch football while eating 

So what are the odds on hearing any announcements regarding the Coe HC tomorrow???  25/75...50/50...75/25???

[The Show]

Show....Did you ever talk with Larry regarding the recruiting in general?

Talked with both Jay and Larry last night. They seemed to be pretty satisfied so far. I think there were about 15 recruits up for the BB game and scholarship days. Said they landed a big kid for the OL that day. They are also in pretty good standings with the main JSPC recruits and will know more now once the financial aid stuff comes out shortly.  I think their main competition for our kids is coming from Iowa Central.

[Klopenhiemer]

Show....Did you ever talk with Larry regarding the recruiting in general?

Talked with both Jay and Larry last night. They seemed to be pretty satisfied so far. I think there were about 15 recruits up for the BB game and scholarship days. Said they landed a big kid for the OL that day. They are also in pretty good standings with the main JSPC recruits and will know more now once the financial aid stuff comes out shortly.  I think their main competition for our kids is coming from Iowa Central.

Thats very interesting.  I never really gave ICCC a thought, in regards to impeeding on BV's recruits.  I guess it makes sense though.  They can give a bit of money, and can tout passing kids onto a higher level. 

Glad to hear that things are going well.  Lets hope it relates to a few more w's in the future. 

[DutchFan2004]

I think Ellsworth could also be that mix trying to recruit against the IIAC.  Iowa Central is closer to BV but I don't think you can ignore any school in Iowa.  The are all trying to get the same players.  I will say that Morningside never recruited my son.  I don't think any of the NAIA schools recruited him. 

[dutchfan1]

Isn't Briar Cliff's football program relatively new (and small in comparison?) I know that Northwestern has a thriving football program in Orange City. According to their website, they make a playoff run every few years or so.

Are any of these colleges (Northwestern, Dort, Briar Cliff, etc.) really recruiting threats to BV (or anyone else)? In looking at the colleges themselves, they seem to recruit a different sort of student athlete.... That feels like saying that Graceland competes with Central for recruits because of their geographic proximity. I could be wrong, but I just don't see it happening a lot.

[dutchfan1]

A bottle ban, are you kidding me.  We were pissed when they banned kegs.  We had to get rid of our keg cooler, what a sad day that was.  Thank goodness for the Coors Light Party Ball.

Unfortunately, no we're not kidding.  Do any of the IIAC schools still allow kegs on campus? (Not rootbeer, Dutchie! )

Show, you mean you can DRINK real beer at your college, too? You mean, without having RA types follow you around? Wow, wonder what that was like...   

(Sorry -- I've had a busy weekend, and I am finally catching up on some of these posts....)

[Klopenhiemer]

Isn't Briar Cliff's football program relatively new (and small in comparison?) I know that Northwestern has a thriving football program in Orange City. According to their website, they make a playoff run every few years or so.

Are any of these colleges (Northwestern, Dort, Briar Cliff, etc.) really recruiting threats to BV (or anyone else)? In looking at the colleges themselves, they seem to recruit a different sort of student athlete.... That feels like saying that Graceland competes with Central for recruits because of their geographic proximity. I could be wrong, but I just don't see it happening a lot.

All of these schools are threats to BV.  I had a couple close friends whom I played with at BV strongly consider Briar Cliff.  The reason they ultimatly did not choose to go to Brair Cliff is that they did not offer the major they wanted. 

Brair Cliff is a newer program, and Dort is a very new program.  The problem that BV faces with the NAIA's in that area is that they offer need based scholorships.  They can throw a lot of money at a kid to compete with a financial aid package from BV.  Also Brair Cliff has seen some recent success.  I believe they went from winning no games to 5 games in a matter of two season.  I think this says a lot for the level of competition they are playing, but sometimes kids do not see this. 

Northwestern is always a threat.  As BOY stated, some of the kids who were strongly considering BV opted to go play at Nothwestern this upcoming year, I should also add that they are choosing to get their education there as well. 

These schools are much more of a threat to BV than Central for obvious reasons.  Central has a strong tradion of winning year in and year out.  Saying Central competes with Graceland for recruits is like saying Central competes with Billy Penn.  Sure they will get some away, but did you want them in the first place? 

BV being a perenial middle of the road team has to compete against other middle of the road teams.  Now throw into the equation the recent success that Morningside has had, and the strong tradition Norwestern has, and you can see how this gets a bit murky. 

Another thing to take a look at is the kids who signed with Wayne State, SW MN State, and Mankato.  There were a lot of NW IA kids that went to these schools over BV or the other NAIA schools in the area.  For BV to climb to the top of the IIAC they need to show the kid who is going to take a small scholorship from a d2  school that their financial aid package is equal, and they have a better chance to play, rather than take a number and head to the scout team.

[Klopenhiemer]

I should also add a little more insight into the d2 scholorship process.  They will offer a kid a smaller amount of money to sign right away, their schools half the cost of a BV or Luther upfront.  So this makes you think that their is no way that BV or any other IIAC school could compete with this.  They also lure you with the fact that you can "negotiate" your scholorship.  All this means is that if you are a person who makes an impact right away, or works hard they will give you more money.  In all reality this never happens.  Many kids leave after their freshman year review because they did not get anymore money.  All they are doing is dividing full scholorships into pieces to spread them out. 

When you sit down and take a look at this, you can go to a school that costs twice as much, and actually come out of school with less debt.  But there is also that lure that you are getting "paid" to play.  That is a great play on emotions for a high school kid who dreams of getting that scholorship. 

In all reality it does not matter if you are on a full ride or paying you own way, you play because you love the game, and kids have the sift through that in the decsion making process. 

[dutchfan1]

Isn't Briar Cliff's football program relatively new (and small in comparison?) I know that Northwestern has a thriving football program in Orange City. According to their website, they make a playoff run every few years or so.

Are any of these colleges (Northwestern, Dort, Briar Cliff, etc.) really recruiting threats to BV (or anyone else)? In looking at the colleges themselves, they seem to recruit a different sort of student athlete.... That feels like saying that Graceland competes with Central for recruits because of their geographic proximity. I could be wrong, but I just don't see it happening a lot.

All of these schools are threats to BV.  I had a couple close friends whom I played with at BV strongly consider Briar Cliff.  The reason they ultimatly did not choose to go to Brair Cliff is that they did not offer the major they wanted. 

Brair Cliff is a newer program, and Dort is a very new program.  The problem that BV faces with the NAIA's in that area is that they offer need based scholorships.  They can throw a lot of money at a kid to compete with a financial aid package from BV.  Also Brair Cliff has seen some recent success.  I believe they went from winning no games to 5 games in a matter of two season.  I think this says a lot for the level of competition they are playing, but sometimes kids do not see this. 

Northwestern is always a threat.  As BOY stated, some of the kids who were strongly considering BV opted to go play at Nothwestern this upcoming year, I should also add that they are choosing to get their education there as well. 

These schools are much more of a threat to BV than Central for obvious reasons.  Central has a strong tradion of winning year in and year out.  Saying Central competes with Graceland for recruits is like saying Central competes with Billy Penn.   Sure they will get some away, but did you want them in the first place? 

BV being a perenial middle of the road team has to compete against other middle of the road teams.  Now throw into the equation the recent success that Morningside has had, and the strong tradition Norwestern has, and you can see how this gets a bit murky. 

Another thing to take a look at is the kids who signed with Wayne State, SW MN State, and Mankato.  There were a lot of NW IA kids that went to these schools over BV or the other NAIA schools in the area.  For BV to climb to the top of the IIAC they need to show the kid who is going to take a small scholorship from a d2  school that their financial aid package is equal, and they have a better chance to play, rather than take a number and head to the scout team.

That was my entire point.

I have a couple of friends that went to Briar Cliff. According to them, football there is kind of a joke to the student body. To say the football players are not exactly respected is an understatement. The impression I had from them is that the entire conference is the same way, with a few notable exceptions.

I don't get why this would make recruiting difficult for BV. You can go to school and play powder puff for a team/school that may or may not care about the outcome; or you can attend BV who is always in it. The IIAC takes their football pretty seriously. If I were a player, I would prefer to play and have my wins matter for something.

Again, a lot of my opinions are based on the perceptions I've gotten from my friends over the years. To be honest, I don't pay much attention to the NAIA to begin with, so take my opinion for what it's worth.

[sportsknight]

Any word on a Coe coach?