FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[USee]

I have been looking at the 2017 CCIW season and will have some preliminary thoughts in a few days. For now I have a question for NCC insiders:

Last years roster had 130 players on it. The 2017 roster is posted on the website (minus incoming freshman) and their are 77 names. 17 seniors presumably graduated which leaves 35 players not returning. I did a quick check and there were 5 Jrs, 7 So. and 23 freshmen who were on last years roster that are not on the 2017 roster.

Anyone have any insights? The most notable departures of probable returnees is the starting TE Nolan Brannick.

NCC also looks pretty thin at WR with only 6 returnees listed on the roster.

[ncc_fan]

Brannick has another year of eligibility, but he is graduating.  He recently won the Accounting Department's Outstanding Senior award.

Just curious...  The NCC Athletics web site always lists the student-athlete's class year (Fr., Soph, Jr, Sr) according to their athletic eligibility rather than academic standing.  Do other schools do the same?

[izzy stradlin]

Brannick has another year of eligibility, but he is graduating.  He recently won the Accounting Department's Outstanding Senior award.

Just curious...  The NCC Athletics web site always lists the student-athlete's class year (Fr., Soph, Jr, Sr) according to their athletic eligibility rather than academic standing.  Do other schools do the same?

I don't think Wheaton has a concrete policy for how they list players.  For example both Noah Spielman and Patrick O'Connell redshirted at MAC schools the year before they came to Wheaton and O'Connell is listed by his athletic eligibility and Spielman isn't. 

[Gregory Sager]

A better question would be whether other schools' athletics departments have comprehensive class-listing policies at all for their various rosters, rather than whether they have academic-year-based policies for class listing or eligibility-year-based policies.

I don't think Wheaton has a concrete policy for how they list players.  For example both Noah Spielman and Patrick O'Connell redshirted at MAC schools the year before they came to Wheaton and O'Connell is listed by his athletic eligibility and Spielman isn't. 

Same goes for North Park. NPU does not have an overarching departmental policy regarding class listings on athletics rosters. NPU football uses academic standing rather than athletic eligibility. F'rinstance, Vikings WR Norm Cupiccioti is listed as a senior on last season's roster (which is still up on the NPU football page), and he graduated with his class this month. But he was only a junior in terms of his eligibility, having lost a year to injury. He will use that remaining year of football eligibility this coming fall as an NPU graduate student.

Baseball, the varsity sport that tends to have grad-student players more than any other sport on the NPU campus, uses both methods. If you look at the current NPU baseball roster, Cam Adams -- a catcher who, like Cupiccioti, missed a season due to injury, graduated this month, and will come back to play for the Vikings in 2017-18 as a grad student -- is listed "R-Jr.", rather than "Sr." like Cupiccioti. In other words, he's listed by eligibility status. But his teammate this past season, designated hitter Tyler Woolbright (a first-year grad student who sat out the 2015 season with a shoulder injury), is listed with the designation "5th". (I've also seen "Gr." used for graduate student-athletes.)

Basketball and soccer go by athletic eligibility. I sometimes suspect that this is a matter of wishful thinking on the part of the men's soccer coaching staff; as some of you know, NPU's men's soccer team tends to have a lot of international student-athletes from Sweden, and the majority of them graduate with their bachelor's degrees in three years rather than four. (They tend to be highly-motivated students, and they also test out of a lot of required classes.) Therefore, a lot of them are already academic seniors by the time that their junior year of eligibility begins. So you're never quite sure if the Swedish soccer players who are listed as "Jr." on the roster will be back the next season. It's almost as though listing them in that manner is head coach John Born's way of keeping the door open for their possible return if they decide to stick around to get, say, an MBA (which they sometimes do, since most of the Swedish booters are International Business majors).

At North Park, rosters are essentially the preserve of the respective head coaches (and the Department of Student Services, which has to sign off on the academic eligibility of student-athletes), so nobody in the SID's office or the AD's office goes over them with a fine-toothed comb in order to establish any sort of department-enforced continuity. It can be a little confusing, but a class listing on a roster is not something that's set in stone or which carries any intrinsic weight.

I, too, would be interested in seeing how other schools besides NCC and Wheaton handle this, though.

[USee]

I looked a little deeper and it seems the last several years NCC has brought in north of 50 freshman and kept around 25-30 for the following year so last year's roster is about normal. I still think they are very thin at WR next year. Ryan Kuhl is back but they have very little experience or depth with only 6 WR's on the roster. Of course we haven't seen the freshman or heard about possible transfers, and Jeff Thorne is probably very aware of this situation so it's probably best to see the newcomers before making any assessment.

[Titan Q]

IWU's game in Japan is at midnight, with a video stream link here - http://www.iwusports.com/news/2017/5/30/illinois-wesleyan-football-headed-to-japan-for-global-bowl-tokyo-2017.aspx.

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/football/iwu-football-team-begins-practice-for-japan-trip/article_48e98a3b-9a9f-5918-9b00-08618b41f7c4.html

[Neverwas]

You're a real tease, USee.   

[izzy stradlin]

Looks like Zach Lindquist is returning.    Aidan O'Connell opted for a preferred walk on spot at Purdue.

[robertgoulet]

Looks like Zach Lindquist is returning.    Aidan O'Connell opted for a preferred walk on spot at Purdue.

Was O'Connell considering NCC? His interest list seemed above that of D3.

[Neverwas]

Looks like Zach Lindquist is returning.    Aidan O'Connell opted for a preferred walk on spot at Purdue.

Was O'Connell considering NCC? His interest list seemed above that of D3.

Maybe it wasn't posted here (?) but he "committed" to Wheaton, there was a Tribune mention of it.  Then a few weeks later had second thoughts and opted for Purdue. 

[Mugsy]

Looks like Zach Lindquist is returning.    Aidan O'Connell opted for a preferred walk on spot at Purdue.

Was O'Connell considering NCC? His interest list seemed above that of D3.

Maybe it wasn't posted here (?) but he "committed" to Wheaton, there was a Tribune mention of it.  Then a few weeks later had second thoughts and opted for Purdue.

O'Connell did verbally commit to Wheaton back in February.  His brother transferred to Wheaton last year from Ball State and played a ton at DL as a Fr.  He is going to be a really good player for the next 3 years.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/buffalo-grove/sports/ct-lsr-aidan-oconnell-wheaton-brief-tl-0209-20170206-story.html

In the article above O'Connell did allude to the fact that beside Wheaton, he was considering a "preferred walk on" to both Purdue and Illinois.  No hint of considering NCC.   

Obviously he changed his mind about the walk on route only one month later.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/buffalo-grove/sports/ct-lsr-stevenson-waukegan-aidan-oconnell-tl-0309-20170306-story.html

[robertgoulet]

Looks like Zach Lindquist is returning.    Aidan O'Connell opted for a preferred walk on spot at Purdue.

Was O'Connell considering NCC? His interest list seemed above that of D3.

Maybe it wasn't posted here (?) but he "committed" to Wheaton, there was a Tribune mention of it.  Then a few weeks later had second thoughts and opted for Purdue.

O'Connell did verbally commit to Wheaton back in February.  His brother transferred to Wheaton last year from Ball State and played a ton at DL as a Fr.  He is going to be a really good player for the next 3 years.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/buffalo-grove/sports/ct-lsr-aidan-oconnell-wheaton-brief-tl-0209-20170206-story.html

In the article above O'Connell did allude to the fact that beside Wheaton, he was considering a "preferred walk on" to both Purdue and Illinois.  No hint of considering NCC.   

Obviously he changed his mind about the walk on route only one month later.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/buffalo-grove/sports/ct-lsr-stevenson-waukegan-aidan-oconnell-tl-0309-20170306-story.html

I thought the initial post was an NCC post. Read right past Lindquist's name 

[USee]

Ok. My 2017 predictions are ready. I will admit in advance I may not have all the facts on who is coming back and who is not. In some cases there may be 5th year seniors coming back that I am not aware of and in other cases there may be underclassmen who are not returning that were contributors for a given team.

The other thing worth mentioning is the notion of "Returning Starters". Teams count those differently. I tried to use the most conservative approach in most cases. (e.g. IWU has 2 QB's with starting experience back and Wheaton has 8 OL that have started a CCIW game). Bottom line is my numbers may not add up to someone elses numbers.

I will release my analysis for each team 2  each day starting with the bottom of the league and working my way up by order of my predicted finish.

So without further delay........

[USee]

#9 Carroll:

Returning Starters: 14

Offense: 7 (5 OL, TE, FB). Key losses: QB Kyle Burlingame, RB Bennett Koth, WR Brandon Ehrke. Best players returning: TE Michael Langenhohl

Defense: 7 (1 DL, 3 LB, 3 DB). Key losses: DE Pete Menges, FS Dillon O'Donoghue. Best players returning: LB Andrew Danculovich

Carroll had a rude welcoming back into the CCIW last year. Other than their win at home at the end of the year against NPU, they really weren't competitive in many games. And that was with some seniors coming back at key positions. This year they won't have that luxury and their recruiting efforts need to be greatly enhanced if they want to be relevant in the league in the near future. They lose their best skill players on offense and the players coming in have little/no experience. They also need to replace their 2 best players on defense. This could be a long year and long rebuild for the Pios. Prediction: 1-9, 0-8

[USee]

#8 Elmhurst:

Returning Starters: 9

Offense 7 (3/5 OL, 3 WR, QB). Key losses: None. Best players returning: QB Orlando Hernandez, WR Kaylon Miller

Defense 2 (2 DB's). Key Losses: 12 of the top 14 statistical leaders on defense are gone. Best players returning: CB Tristan Bolas, CB Tyler Hosman

Elmhurst has some nice pieces returning on offense with WR Kaylon Miller and Matt Brachman. They also return Orlando Hernandez, who was a one-man show on offense, despite completing just 48% of his passes and rushing for 3.4 yds per carry while leading the team in attempts (134 for him and the next highest was 56). OH12 will have to be much better for Elmhurst to improve and that's because on defense they were decimated. Elmhurst stayed in many games by leading the league in turnover margin at +9. That's because they led the league in takeaways with 26 behind a veteran group of defensive players. They bring back two very good corners in Tyler Hosman and Tristan Bolas and backup DT John Rubino and LB Joe Nixon have some experience but that's it for Elmhurst. We will see how the Ron Plantz plan is unfolding based on the talent of the young players in the program because a lot of them will have to play. The Bluejays will have to grow up fast if they want to take the next step in the CCIW. Prediction: 3-7, 2-6