FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[CardinalAlum]

I talked to Coach Swider earlier this week and while he doesn't deep down "like" the idea of Spring Ball, he does like the opportunity of getting out there and learning the reps, getting in shape, and getting that football "taste" back into the Thunder's mouths.
As somebody mentioned earlier, he did NOT like that Wheaton was Co-Champs and that is the goal this year... sole possessors.  Coach says, "Winning the CCIW never gets old" but (now I am guessing here) I don't think Coach likes sharing the CCIW Title either. 

Neither did we at NCC.   We'll try to win it outright this year!   

[NCC_alum62]

While not in the relm of D-III or football for that matter, anyone else taking note of the Duke Lacross?

All charges were dropped in the case and the three men are probably going to have any record of thier arrest wiped.

I have to think based on the evidence that these young men were innocent of crimes, if guilty only of bad judgement in having a stripper at a team party (not that I advocate strippers in anyway, bu go to a strip club, don't have someone come to your off-campus home where there is no staff/bouncers etc etc)

If these young men are indeed innocent as the evidence now suggests then I feel incredibly sorry for them. Thier University and community seemed to turn thier back on them.  Now that the charges have been dropped everyone is quick to say they believed and supported them all along.  However thier college careers, thier team, thier coach all were horribly affected by this occurance and the stupidity an unethical actions of the Durham D.A. who is now facing being disbarred for his actions.

I believe civil suits against everyone from the State of N. Carolina to Duke University itself are forthcomming from these young men so adversly affected.

[79jaybird]

CardinalAlum-- Hehe,  (Hopefully soon/when) Elmhurst wins their next CCIW title, it will be outright also. 
I have experienced sharing in this regard first hand.  For example, a little different but same guideline.. my birthday is 2 weeks before Christmas, so often as a kid I would get the "This is your birthday AND Christmas gift".
It's like "thanks, but I want my own"
If I was to look ahead and gamble, I would not be surprised if this year's title is shared also.  Wheaton looks very strong, Augie has McGinnis running the offense well, and who knows if the NC/EC/Car can jump into the front seat(s) also?

[Titanwatcher]

Just read the NCAA has decided to return to the old time rules.

[usee]

I don't think it is going out on a limb too far to say Wheaton will run the table this year in the CCIW. and the game against the team from Naperville won't be close.  I haven't often said this and I am clearly not opposed to giving other teams their due but no one else has a team coming back like Wheaton. The only team that's close is IWU and I don't think anyone will be picking them to upset the Thunder at E. McCully field. Wheaton will be the undefeated AQ and the rest of you can battle for a pool C. You heard it here in April from me. (not from April, In April ).

[Mugsy]

I don't think it is going out on a limb too far to say Wheaton will run the table this year in the CCIW. and the game against the team from Naperville won't be close.  I haven't often said this and I am clearly not opposed to giving other teams their due but no one else has a team coming back like Wheaton. The only team that's close is IWU and I don't think anyone will be picking them to upset the Thunder at E. McCully field. Wheaton will be the undefeated AQ and the rest of you can battle for a pool C. You heard it here in April from me. (not from April, In April).

One key to your stance from a defensive point of view will be the complete recovery of Pete Ittersagen's freak ankle injury during the Mount Union game.  From what I hear he is progressing nicely.

[usee]

I don't think it is going out on a limb too far to say Wheaton will run the table this year in the CCIW. and the game against the team from Naperville won't be close.  I haven't often said this and I am clearly not opposed to giving other teams their due but no one else has a team coming back like Wheaton. The only team that's close is IWU and I don't think anyone will be picking them to upset the Thunder at E. McCully field. Wheaton will be the undefeated AQ and the rest of you can battle for a pool C. You heard it here in April from me. (not from April, In April).

One key to your stance from a defensive point of view will be the complete recovery of Pete Ittersagen's freak ankle injury during the Mount Union game.  From what I hear he is progressing nicely.

That is assumed. 

[CardinalAlum]

Just read the NCAA has decided to return to the old time rules.

Here's the exact verbage taken from one of Pat's fine pages:

NCAA turns back the clock
The NCAA has approved all proposed rules changes submitted by the football rules committee, returning to in-game timing rules used in the 2005 season. The committee's changes were made to eliminate some downtime in the game without limiting the number of plays. The panel's action followed a joint meeting in March with the football rules committee, commissioners representing each division and the executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, which resulted in clarifications and a better understanding of the proposed timing rules.

The committee made two changes that revert to those rules used in the 2005 season. The clock will start on the snap after a change in possession, as opposed to the 2006 rule which started the clock when the referee signaled the ball ready for play. The committee also returned its rules on free kicks to 2005 standards, starting the clock on kickoffs only when the ball is legally touched in the field of play.

Two major changes approved by the panel intended to control overall game times include moving the kickoff to the 30-yard line (decreasing the number of touchbacks) and limiting the play clock to 15 seconds in televised games following commercial timeouts. Both rules are expected to have more impact in Division I than Division III.

The panel requested that the rules committee research and report its findings on a possible change to the play clock that could be proposed in the future. The rules committee is considering a 40-second/25-second play clock combination as a means for a more uniform pace of play.

[CardinalAlum]

I don't think it is going out on a limb too far to say Wheaton will run the table this year in the CCIW. and the game against the team from Naperville won't be close.  I haven't often said this and I am clearly not opposed to giving other teams their due but no one else has a team coming back like Wheaton. The only team that's close is IWU and I don't think anyone will be picking them to upset the Thunder at E. McCully field. Wheaton will be the undefeated AQ and the rest of you can battle for a pool C. You heard it here in April from me. (not from April, In April ).

I would agree that Wheaton is clearly the team to beat this year and running the table isn't out of the question for the Thunder, BUT Wheaton still has to come to Naperville, where the beloved Cards have been pretty tough.  If the new QB(Fanthorpe/Knapczyk)gets comfortable with the offense by then, and I fully expect that he will, this will be a great game.  NCC should be strong up front with a solid group of O-linemen for Sulo to run behind.  Hopefully Sulo puts on some weight this offseason to better deal with the pounding of the season.  As well as he played as a freshman, I felt like he wore down a bit at the end of the year, which is common for most true freshmen.   I don't know if IWU has the horses up front to get back into contention.  They do have some great skill kids back, so I won't count them out either.  Elmhurst lost many quality kids so it will be interesting to see what they have to replace them with.  Carthage is the dark horse for me.  They return plenty of skill people, but lost as much as any team in the conference on the O-line.  Rucks will reload as he always does I'm sure.

[Titanwatcher]

Just read the NCAA has decided to return to the old time rules.

Here's the exact verbage taken from one of Pat's fine pages:

Alum, and you have the audacity to give me grief about my replies to April?
How does Pat sit down with you that close?

[CardinalAlum]

Just read the NCAA has decided to return to the old time rules.

Here's the exact verbage taken from one of Pat's fine pages:

Alum, and you have the audacity to give me grief about my replies to April?
How does Pat sit down with you that close?

Very carefully I would imagine!     

[NCC_alum62]

I would also agree that Wheaton is the team to beat this year in the CCIW, but with Cardinal Alum I agree that NCC will also be up there. We've got the horses on the OL comming back, lots of promising young talent on D and at the skill positions that come back with experience from last year.

Because it all starts up front, I think Carthage is going to have some trouble this year.  The offensive line is not returning a single starter from the last two years and that can be (and I think will be) painful. Every level of college football sees this.  You see it transition best with teams that replace a couple OL every year with top talent, but replacing all five is a nightmare, trying to build all the trust and unity in one offseason among five guys. I'm definetly not counting coach Rucks and his players out though.

Elmhurst looses alot of talent, but thier schedule gets harder game by game in the non-con games and that could help them gain confidence and build sharpness heading into the conference schedule.  The game against Olivet will be a huge measuring stick.  I think they did a good job scheduling incresing talent, BU is getting better, Chicago has a great tradition, and Olivet is going to be a contender in the MIAA this year.

Auggie weighs on my mind a bit.  The D needs to do something and become the force it used to be because that is how they have won thier games and thier national championships is with great D.  Its been debated on this board about the wing-T and lack of a balanced offense, but I don't see that changing under Barnes so the D is where I think they need to focus.  If they can return to playing top defense they can return to the play-offs.

Millikin...well I don't know much about returning Big Blue players so I don't want to speculate.

NPU...I'm excited to see what the coach will bring to the table this year. If he can build a solid base (now that they have some good facilities) and stick around longer than a couple years to build some trust in the players and the system an continue to recruit good kids that will stay four years...

looking back at those if's lets me know how hard a road is they have to travel.  I wouldn't be surprised if they won a conference game this year, but it also wouldn't surprise me if they didn't.

[matblake]

While I do think Wheaton will be the team to beat, I am really uncomfortable with the lack of press that Augie seems to be getting.  With that team and tradition, you can never count them out.  They seem to perform best in years when there is not a huge amount of expectations placed on them.  So far, at least on the board, Wheaton appears to have the pressure on them.

I think North Central will be tough.  A great running attack will be the key for them.  If Sulo can't get going, the poor quarterback that has to follow Kniss might be in for, shall we say, a learning experience.........

Millikin posters are few and far between and for that reason, I always consider them a dark horse until a few conference games have been played.  You can't take anyone lightly, but because of my lack information, I make sure I give any team that I have little information on their respect.

Carthage and Elmhurst will be very interesting to watch this year.  Teams being able to reload and remain competitive is a key component to determining the success of a program (if you base success on only wins and losses).

North Park, will this be the year they get their conference win?  Coach Pethtel seems to be keeping his website up to date, interesting stories, and is bringing recruits through.  It seems as if he is taking the correct steps to show off the program and get kids interested in Viking football.  I don't know if that will translate to the field yet, but here is hoping he is in this for the long haul.

IWU, any time you have quality skill players they can have a breakout game.  Sure, they have been down the past few years, but I just can't bring myself to count them out. 

The upcoming year of CCIW action should be super-entertaining. 

modified to correct spelling

[NCC_alum62]

Auggie is tough to judge for me going into next year.  I feel like I don't know how good they can be next year becasue the past season they've had jeckle and hyde games with teams at the top:

W 17-14 against Wheaton...great job holding a prolific offense (35+ pts/game) to less points and finding a way to score enough points to win.

L 27-0 against NCC...with the conference championship on the line and an AQ birth they couldn't get anything going on offense and the D couldn't keep the points off the board.  Had they beat NCC they go undefeated in CCIW play and get the AQ.

If Auggie shows up well coached, ready to go all cylinders firing on D and doing enough on O to score some points and chew up the clock they will win games, but they are not a comeback team, not a quick scoring team, and that makes them predictable.  They have to execute perfect plays to win becasue everyone knows when they line up what is comming.

[usee]

My assessment of wheaton simply comes from the fact they have 6 all conference players returning and 5 of them were 1st team. looking at their team I think they have 6 players who are the best in the conference at their positions. The conference hasn't seen that since NCC had 5 of the best players at their positions coming back for the 2005 season (and they were an offsides call from the conf title). experience tells me whey you have that many difference makers back, barring injuries, you should win the title. To be fair in 2005 NCC had 6 all conference returnees and 5 of them were 1st team (augie had 5 all conf players returning for 2005). for this year the next best team actually appears to be carthage as they will have 4 all conference players returning with the return of moore and shenault. NCC also has 4 all conf returnees w 2 of them 1st team. the biggest disparity is that Wheaton really has difference makers at 6 key spots on the field. I do believe wheaton's qb will be the player of the year on offense and ittersagen and/or studebaker on defense.