FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[79jaybird]

I think it is  great to see North Park start to land some promising recruits.  You have to start somewhere.  Hopefully NPU can make this an annual thing and start to make the CCIW strong 1-8.

[matblake]

Jaybird, being competitive may make things more interesting, but it can hurt you come playoff time.  Being able to qualify 2 teams has been special the past couple of years.  However, if you have several teams with 7-3 overall records you are most likely only going to get one team in.  Granted, I would enjoy seeing the conference becoming stronger too.

[irish21]

OK what am I missing?

6'2" - 175# and an all state player from the state of Michigan.

And he's going DIII?

I know a 6'1" - 180# QB who was not all state going to Wisconsin.

Something wrong with this picture my friends!

[Augie6]

matblake,  have to agree with you that while more competitive teams in the CCIW may make the regular season more interesting, it doesn't help in getting a CCIW team a national championship.  Because most of the teams in the CCIW are recruiting from the same general area (with the exception of Wheaton), more parity within the conference means the talent base is being spread among many different teams.  This is ok if the goal is to have good teams and to try and qualify more than one team from the conference to the playoffs.  My personal choice would be to have 1 or 2 truly dominant teams that have a real chance of winning it all come playoff time.  When you look at our playoff teams over the past several seasons, the CCIW hasn't measured up when it comes to playing the top teams in Division III.

[Mr. Ypsi]

matblake,  have to agree with you that while more competitive teams in the CCIW may make the regular season more interesting, it doesn't help in getting a CCIW team a national championship.  Because most of the teams in the CCIW are recruiting from the same general area (with the exception of Wheaton), more parity within the conference means the talent base is being spread among many different teams.  This is ok if the goal is to have good teams and to try and qualify more than one team from the conference to the playoffs.  My personal choice would be to have 1 or 2 truly dominant teams that have a real chance of winning it all come playoff time.  When you look at our playoff teams over the past several seasons, the CCIW hasn't measured up when it comes to playing the top teams in Division III.

You might want to qualify that a bit to 'when it comes to playing the top TEAM in Division III'. 

Since 1999, the CCIW rep(s) are 9-2 against all opponents NOT named Mount Union, but 0-7 against The Mount.

[CardinalAlum]

OK what am I missing?

6'2" - 175# and an all state player from the state of Michigan.

And he's going DIII?

I know a 6'1" - 180# QB who was not all state going to Wisconsin.

Something wrong with this picture my friends!

I'm with Irish on this one.....when does the other shoe drop?

[Mr. Ypsi]

Irish and CA,

You need to know that Michigan (for football)  has EIGHT classes of schools by enrollment.  For the smaller schools, even all-state does not generally translate into d1 (or even d2).  For this recruit specifically, I have no knowledge, but I would guess that Berrien Springs is among the lower classes (I'd guess 6 or 7).

His stats may or may not translate into even d3 success.

[79jaybird]

Until they have success in one of the CCIW's school's uniforms, what difference does it make?  A kid could be All Universe in High School, but if he flops in College.. well.
I agree with earlier posters that excluding Mount Union,  the CCIW is a very tough foe come playoff time.  There aren't many schools that can consistently beat (measure up) with MUC, that doesn't mean the CCIW doesn't have a good playoff resume.  Take a look at Augie in the 80's and the (non MUC) games in the 90's.
Any word on how spring practices are going for the CCIW?  With my beloved Cubs having not scored a run in 4 of the last 5, I am ready for football!

[irish21]

Ypsi...thanks for the clarification of the classes. But I was pretty much going by his size. 6'2" is the magic number all the recruiters look for in a qb and it just seemed strange to me, coupled with the all state tag, that he would be going DIII out of state.

Good for NP if he turns out to be their starter for the next few years.

[Augie6]

Ypsi, I agree that the CCIW's record has been good against schools not named Mt. Union, however, Mt. Union is not the only team I am looking at.  I don't believe that any of the CCIW playoff teams in the past few years would have been able to beat St. John's in 2003, Linfield or MHB in 2004 or Linfield and UWW in 2005.  My point is that I would much rather see a team from the CCIW get out of the North Region and actually compete for a National Championship as opposed to getting a couple of teams in and winning a game or two.  I am not sure that will happen in a conference where 4 or 5 teams have a chance at the conference championship each year.   I'm not saying that the CCIW isn't a tough conference, I'm just saying I don't see a national championship coming out of this scenario.

[washdupcard]

Alum:

Any word on NCC's recruits? 

Also do you guys think you can spare a pitcher and a power hitter for us poor North Side fans?

[jdean]

   I'm not saying that the CCIW isn't a tough conference, I'm just saying I don't see a national championship coming out of this scenario.

Augie was able to do it several times before Mount had their run. I find it hard to believe they won't be able to do it again someday.

[usee]

when augies run ended it became pretty obvious that the talent that augie had monopolized was being spread around to other schools. millikin most notably was a great cciw team in the late 80s under karl poelker, known for dominant defenses. IWU had a great run in the early 90s w the monken thru lon erickson days. and now you see that 6 of the 8 cciw schools have been playoff reps since in the last 5 seasons. parity has its price and its difficult to get the quantity of dominant players it takes to make a run at the national title. the best thing that has happened in the cciw i believe is the exposure we have gotten to mount and other north region football. it has raised the bar so teams are shooting for that level rather than simply the level wheaton and augie have competed the last several years. I know wheaton thinks about beating mount when they recruit and train, not just winning the cciw title. carthage, ncc, millikin, iwu and augie have played playoff games vs oac opponents and national champs which helps them understand where the bar is. i think we will see more titles in the cciw. we are moving that direction.

[CardinalAlum]

Alum:

Any word on NCC's recruits? 

Also do you guys think you can spare a pitcher and a power hitter for us poor North Side fans?

Not hearing of any big name recruits other than the Naperville North QB, they have been working on a RB out of the Catholic league, and a pretty good WR out of the South burbs who's Dad is an NCC grad,  but everyone else is after them too.  I would let the Sox lend you guys a pitcher, but you would send him back injured! 

[matblake]

The following is the participation rates in Division III football for the years 81-00.  Here is the source: http://www.ncaa.org/library/research/participation_rates/1982-2001/009-056.pdf
Year        #Schools     Participants
1981             189            13,095
1982             196            14,275
1983             196            15,382
1984             197            16,087
1985             202            17,489
1986             207            19,121
1987             211            16,709
1988             213            16,635
1989             213            16,399
1990             221            17,450
1991             224            17,398
1992             229            17,885
1993             198            15,305
1994             201            15,919
1995             216            17,690
1996             217            17,794
1997             217            17,816
1998             217            18,315
1999             220            19,162
2000             221            19,161
I couldn't find from 2001-present, but I probably just didn't look hard enough.  As you can see, overall there was a steady increase in participation.  The more students you have participating, the larger the talent pool and some parity is increased that way.  Also, there was an increase in DIII programs by 32. That simply means that the student interested in playing football has more choices as far as DIII goes.  Sorry for the long post.