FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[robertgoulet]

One of the bigger stats from Mugsy's stat page is the sack totals. Wabash has given up 24 sacks in 11 games (which would be the worst total in the CCIW for reference and among the 2-3 worst in most conferences). North Central has 36 sacks through 11 games. That is an impressive number. (Wabash has 27, Mt Union has 26 and UWW has 26). What's more impressive is the distribution of sacks. Bulandr has 9, Garza has 8, Hayes has 7, and Tripp has 6. Wabash has one player with 6.5 and the next two have 5 and 4. Mt Union has a player with 5.5 and another with 5. UWW has a player with 5.5. Keep in mind North Central plays 6-8 defensive linemen regularly.

The NCC pass rush (they don't blitz much) is about as strong as you will ever see on a d3 team. And Wabash, as a team that hasn't done a great job protecting their qb, will have their hands full. This could be a huge factor on Saturday.

I continue to think Wabash is going to have a very difficult time scoring points and the Bash D, while very good, has a much steeper hill to climb to keep the NCC offense out of the endzone.

I think this really showed up in the 2nd half of the Dubuque game. NCC didn't get much pressure on Dubuque's QB early, relying mainly on the play of their LB's and secondary in coverage. The 3rd quarter started and they D-line of NCC was all of the sudden all over Dubuque's QB on nearly every drop back (or so it seemed). You would have to think that had to do with NCC's line still being fresh compared to Dubuque's.

[cigarstore_indian]

So a couple of months ago I was consulting for a client and looking at a possible sponsorship opportunity with the NHL's Florida Panthers down here in S. Florida.   The representative I dealt with in the Panther's Business Office was Brandon Lott, former NCC player and alum.

Going to try and get him to come up and watch the game with some Bash folk at a sports bar near my house that lets me hook my laptop up to a 60" big screen.....  Anyone on here know Brandon?

Lott graduated '09.

[cigarstore_indian]

By the way, It's good to be back on the boards.  I had to take a mini-hiatus (about 4 months) due to a busy schedule... and not knowing if it would show up on the work computers...  Anyway, glad to be posting again!

[79jaybird]

I do not envy the judge(s) who have to choose 1 Gagliardi Award winner.  All (10) candidates look worthy of this great award.  Congrats to all the finalists and (eventual) winner.

[Gregory Sager]

I have always respected the level of Football IQ and the actual content on the CCIW Board.  Every member of the conference, that I have been around or watched games at, have all been class.   Any chance of the CCIIW?   

That would be something!  You'd have to bring DePauw with so we get a little of that hatred going!   

I assume your question was posed with tongue firmly planted in cheek, but I'd be actually be OK with the C²I²W.  It would certainly make travel easier for the LGs & Tigers.  Didn't Wabash & DePauw inquire about CCIW membership back in the late '90s when they were looking for a new conference home?  I've always wondered why it didn't happen then.   

As I understand it, Wabash did explore joining the CCIW before it joined the NCAC.  From what I have been told (from a good, but not impeccable, source), one of the CCIW member schools objected to adding Wabash due to the fact that it was all-male.  So, it didn't get any traction.

I can't comment to that truthfullness of statement above, but the topic of possible CCIW expansion has come up numerous times each year.  Each year regardless of the school in the discussion and the relative merits of the proposal, I believe it ultimately comes down to the fact the CCIW does not want to add another school.  8 schools is viewed as the perfect number for most sports.  Plus many of the schools mentioned do not participate in the full range of women's and men's sports.

Others closer to the various institutions could comment much more indepth and intelligently than I.  Or someone could search the CCIW football or bball boards for a detailed post on this topic from the past year.  As I mentioned this is a common topic on CCIW boards.

Mugsy is correct. The CCIW has not seriously considered expansion since the departure of Carroll for the MWC after the 1990-91 school year brought the league down to eight members, in spite of the fact that a number of schools (including Wabash and DePauw) have made inquiries at one time or another over the past twenty years, some of them more than once. Wabash wasn't nearly as close to getting into the CCIW as gobash83's source seemed to think. There was more than one school that objected to expanding the league, and the all-male issue was secondary to the fact that the CCIW's presidents and ADs simply didn't want to (and still don't want to) ruin the ideal situation that the league has going with its eight-member circuit. As Mugsy said, eight is the perfect number for scheduling purposes, and the eight CCIW members have been peers in this league for the last four and a half decades. That's a tremendous feat of continuity for any league.

While there are occasional rumblings from year to year that things might soon change (the latest rumor involves the departure of Millikin for destinations unknown), the upshot of the matter is that the CCIW has a good thing going, and almost everyone involved with the league doesn't want to see it disrupted.

[USee]

So we got that going for us, which is nice.

[MasterJedi]

So we got that going for us, which is nice.

[Always.A.Titan]

So we got that going for us, which is nice.

John Winger: C'mon, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick 'em up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going into Wisconsin.
Russell Ziskey: Well I got the **** kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it!

[cigarstore_indian]

So we got that going for us, which is nice.

So I says to him... Hey, Lama!  How bout a little somethin', ya know, for the effort?

[robertgoulet]

So we got that going for us, which is nice.

On a roll with the pictures, Jedi. +K! (apparently I can only heap karmatic praise on you once every 24 hours. +K tomorrow!)

[BashDad]

There're a couple of minutes of first round highlights in Raeburn's pre-game show this week, for those who didn't get to watch the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_3390q1ybg&feature=youtu.be&t=2m40s

[hazzben]

I'm laughing that the Whitewater guys are the overconfident ones in here!!     We appreciate the confidence coming from the Warhawk Nation!

We were duly impressed with the Cardinals last year and many of us have been following NC this year fairly closely, especially those of us who live in Illinois, not far from Naperville.  Overconfident in NC, not really, just recognition of the improvement NC has had over the last several years.


WarhawkDad

Well, UWW has Franklin who they already beat 45-0. They have nothing to discuss but deer hunting and DMZ Balls. Plus, NCC and UWW are on opposite sides of the bracket. At this time last year, UWW venom was headed directly at NCC. This year's bracket was reallly mellowed the Warhawk Nation.

Very true. Last year we were fired up when receiving the #2 seed in the bracket.

Can also be applied to the Wabash faithful this week as well. RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!

HA! Classic...

Keep it up guys, this is seriously entertaining.

[ncc58]

So we got that going for us, which is nice.

John Winger: C'mon, it's Czechoslovakia. We zip in, we pick 'em up, we zip right out again. We're not going to Moscow. It's Czechoslovakia. It's like going into Wisconsin.
Russell Ziskey: Well I got the **** kicked out of me in Wisconsin once. Forget it!

Oh, that's just perfect.  And it wasn't Kenosha where we got our ***** kicked (not meant to upset our Carthage brethren).

[ncc58]

I'm laughing that the Whitewater guys are the overconfident ones in here!!     We appreciate the confidence coming from the Warhawk Nation!

We were duly impressed with the Cardinals last year and many of us have been following NC this year fairly closely, especially those of us who live in Illinois, not far from Naperville.  Overconfident in NC, not really, just recognition of the improvement NC has had over the last several years.


WarhawkDad

Well, UWW has Franklin who they already beat 45-0. They have nothing to discuss but deer hunting and DMZ Balls. Plus, NCC and UWW are on opposite sides of the bracket. At this time last year, UWW venom was headed directly at NCC. This year's bracket was reallly mellowed the Warhawk Nation.

Very true. Last year we were fired up when receiving the #2 seed in the bracket.

Can also be applied to the Wabash faithful this week as well. RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE!

Which game was that picture taken? Witt? Depauw?

Is that the hospitality we'll see on Saturday?

[USee]

Great article on the front page on th gam this week. Also comments from Wheaton Head Coach Mike Swider.

Scout's take

Wheaton head coach Mike Swider knows good defenses.

He sent two defensive players to the NFL, plays North Central annually and has regular preseason scrimmages against Wabash. Because the Thunder have lost to Mt. Union six times in the playoffs, it's high praise for Swider to suggest North Central's defense is nearing the Purple Power:

"They've got depth and they've got speed. Every single kid on the team can run. ... Here's the biggest thing that you've got to do. You cannot get penalized, because once you get in long yardage, it's over. So you've got to be good on first down, and that's the critical, critical down. Once they get you in any bad situation, they just overwhelm you. ... Those three defensive linemen — (Valente) Garza, (Willie) Hayes and (Peter) Bulandr — they're fast, they get up field. They've got depth. They're all good, and they all can run. They play with an edge. ... They've got a good shot [in the playoffs]. When you can play defense and special teams, you've got a shot to beat anybody. And that's what they do. ... In our conference, they've dominated this year like few have ever dominated."


To be clear, NO team in the Stagg Bowl era has ever dominated the CCIW the way NCC has this year. That includes Augie's 4peat National Championship run. We are witnessing something unique.