FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Mr. Ypsi]

What the heck, let's put three conference's fans in a twist:

I say Wheaton's entire pre-conference season is 'bye' weeks.

[Now I've gone and done it - since their schedule doesn't seem any worse that most (at 18-13 for last season, it is probably better than most), I've committed the CCIW to something real close to 24-0! ]

C'mon, guys - cover my back!

[Ralph Turner]

No, it explains the high OWP/OOWP's that we see in the CCIW.   

Everyone else that the conference plays in-region and non-conference is weak, except when they play a WIAC or a MIAC!   

[AndOne]

Wheaton has updated the future schedules page to include their non-conference opponents for the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

http://athletics.wheaton.edu/sports/2007/5/23/fbfschedule.aspx?path=football

Of immediate interest, it is the first time I can ever recall in 25 years that Wheaton has had a bye week in the schedule (I could be wrong).

In 2012 Wheaton has a bye week on 9/22 and in 2013 the bye week is 9/28.

The non-conference foes for 2012 and 2013 are:
1. Benedictine University    [8-3 in 2010, won the NATHC conference title]
2. Albion College    [5-5 in 2010, Wheaton won in 2010 by score of 17-6]
3. Luther College   [5-5 in 2010]

Wheaton continues it's series against Albion, in which Wheaton holds the series record advantage at 5-2.  Wheaton plays Benedictine for the 1st time since 1985 and Wheaton holds a 2-1 series record.  Wheaton has never played Luther before (at least according to the history section of the website).

Benedectine gives them TWO bye weeks!!   

Now you've done it.  All the NATHC folks will be in a twist.

What the heck, let's put three conference's fans in a twist:

I say Wheaton's entire pre-conference season is 'bye' weeks.

[Now I've gone and done it - since their schedule doesn't seem any worse that most (at 18-13 for last season, it is probably better than most), I've committed the CCIW to something real close to 24-0! ]

C'mon, guys - cover my back!

Mr----

While 24-0 might be a stretch in any situation, covering your back. or at least most of it, may not be that difficult of a task in this scenario.
Specifically, with regard to Benedictine, they no longer wished to play North Central this year after losing by a combined score of 189-9 the previous 4 years. I would expect Wheaton to dominate Benedictive by close to the same average scores. If this doesn't happen, I think the Thunder will fall short of many expectations. The fact Benedictine won their conference this season is of little consequence as evidenced by what happened when they encountered top competition in the playoffs. I think our friends at Wheaton have struck gold in scheduling BU. Likewise, I wouldn't expect teams that went 5-5 in the IAAC and the MIAA to present much of an obstacle to victory.
As defense exhibits 1-3, I submit the following into evidence:
1. NATHC---Benedictine was 8-3 in a conference with a 2010 overall record 36-45
2. MIAA---Albion was 5-5 in a conference with an overall record of 30-42
3. IAAC---Luther was 5-5 in a conference with an overall record of 46-46

No non-conference opponent from a conference with an overall winning record in 2010.
I sense Wheaton will do just fine (as would several CCIW schools with these opponents).

[RFB]

I know that the Cardinal fans travel fairly well.  How many members of the Caravan are planning on making the trip to Redlands?  Looks like USC v. Minnesota mid-day and NCC v. Redlands in the evening should be possible. 

That should be doable for those that would like to do so. Redlands is 55 miles East from USC/Downtown LA. Traffic in LA can be a bear at times but shouldn't be too bad around 4:30-5:00 PM on a Saturday.

[AndOne]

CCIW FOOTBALL NEWS

2 Pre-season polls ranking North Central 7th and 17th, and Wheaton 11th and 25th.

  http://northcentralcardinals.com/news/2011/6/8/FB_0608114825.aspx

[RFB]

Hard to imagine a better playing surface in the CCIW next season than at NCC.
Possibly one of the best in D3?

http://northcentralcardinals.com/news/2011/6/2/FB_0602115910.aspx

Nice upgrades. The NCC football team will enjoy Redlands natural grass field. It plays fast and is taken care of by one of the best facilities managers (Kelly Cooper) in the country.

[Stagg Again!!]

After seeing the banter about WC's 2011 out-of-conference schedule, I spent a few minutes going back to look at the 2006-2011 regular season, out-of-conference (OOC) schedules for last year's top four CCIW teams.  Opponent conferences are sorted by 2010 OOC winning percentage only, with a break at .500.

                          NCC     WC     IWU     AC
UAA (.750)           2          2         0        0
MIAC (.739)          0          2         0        0
OAC (.705)           2          0         0        0
WIAC (.586)         1          2         0        4
IIAC (.500)           1          0         2        5

SCIAC (.454)        1          0         0         0
NATHC (.346)       6          2         4         0
UMAC (.333)         0          0        0         5
HCAC (.315)         0          0         2         0
MIAA (.300)         4          10       10        2

NAIA Team          1           0         0         0

While this is a very limited data set and ROUGH analysis, a few things pop out at me:  1) IWU has had the weakest OOC schedule during the six-year period, and continues to schedule MIAA and NATHC opponents; 2) AC has had the strongest OOC schedule with half of their games against WIAC or top-tier IIAC opponents; and 3) NCC and WC's schedules have historically been similar in strength, but NCC's schedule has continued to improve over the period under review (and will continue to do so in 2012 when NCC plays two WIAC teams and one SCIAC teams in its OOC schedule), while WC's has not changed much in terms of strength. -- IMO

[Mr. Ypsi]

Nice work, SorB - +k.

It appears that you did not remove games against the top CCIW teams in assessing each league's OOC winning percentage, which could make the data a bit misleading.  The MIAA, for example, played nearly half their games against these four schools (and, I dare say, won VERY few of them) - I wonder what their OOC % would be without those 26 results?!

[Stagg Again!!]

Nice work, SorB - +k.

It appears that you did not remove games against the top CCIW teams in assessing each league's OOC winning percentage, which could make the data a bit misleading.  The MIAA, for example, played nearly half their games against these four schools (and, I dare say, won VERY few of them) - I wonder what their OOC % would be without those 26 results?!

I admit that there are a number of flaws in the analysis (I did not exclude CCIW games, factor in opponents' opponents winning percentage, etc.), but felt that the conference rankings were directionally correct.  There were a couple that made me scratch my head (UAA was higher than I thought it would be and HCAC was lower than I thought it would be), but regardless of the data analysis flaws, I think that the message stays the same.

A bit more color.  IMO, the toughest games that each of the top four CCIW teams have played in the past six years are as follows:

NCC -    ONU (2008, 2009); UW-Eau Claire (2010); Redlands (2011); Bethel-NAIA (TN) (2011)
WC -     Bethel (MN) (2008, 2009); UW-Platteville (2010, 2011)
IWU -    Coe (2006, 2007); Mt. St. Joseph (2006, 2007)
AC -      Baldwin-Wallace (2006, 2007); UW-Platteville (2006-2009); Coe (2008, 2009);
           Central (2010, 2011)

BTW, I did look further at the other four CCIW teams, but felt that their OOC schedules were, generally quite weak.  For example, EC has played only four different OOC teams in the past six years (Loras, Olivet, Chicago, and Benedictine); eight of MU's 18 OOC games have included those against Illinois College and Greenville; eight of CC's 18 OOC games have included those against Lakeland and Concordia (WI); and nine of NP's 18 OOC games have included those against Benedictine, MacMurray, and Eureka.  There is a clear difference in OOC strength of schedule between the top four teams and the bottom four teams in the CCIW.  Looks like Ralph Turner is about half correct anyway!

[79jaybird]

I will admit I was somewhat surprised to see Wheaton schedule Benedictine on their slate, however I understand why.  A) Geography. Budgetary wise and geographically it makes sense to have two close schools competing to save on travel $$ and get the entire family out to see the game.  B) moreso,  it goes back to W's and L's and unfortunately, we have seen early season L's in the non conf. come back and bite a playoff bubble team.

[d3fan1515]

Hey everyone, I'm new to the board and am a Benedictine supporter, I saw BU was playing Wheaton in a couple years and would like to join in on CCIW conversation.  I'm very familiar with the CCIW and think it is a great conference and I am in no way saying BU will beat Wheaton when they do play them, but I do want to say that I feel BU is heading in the right direction. I only base this on the fact that they had a decent yr last year and they are making a huge commitment to athletics as a university! Their stadium is great, they are in the process of renovating their weight room (11,000 Sq Ft), they are also renovating the training room which will be equipped with hot and cold tubs etc... The final peace is the new locker room which rumor has it is coming in 2012, which will be the whole 9 yards with big wood lockers etc... So with the university making this commitment and spending the money, Its a no brainer that the school is making the commitment, but what do the coaches have to do to turn the corner and make them a legitimate threat to other teams in the area? Just looking for some insight from people who seem Knowledgable about D3 football. For example, how did North Central turn the corner, I mean a few years back they were not the greatest team around... Thoughts?

[lakeshore]

I think BU's goal should be to become like the Trine of the MIAA.  A nationally competitive program in an otherwise weak league.  For that to happen, they will have have to consistently beat out the likes of NCC, Augie, Carthage & Elmhurst on the northern, western and southwest suburban HS football recruits.

Very good HS football is played in the Chicago suburbs and when you look at the rosters of many of the CCIW schools, their starters have come from great HS programs.  I've said before the CCIW has established such great tradition amongst HS coaches that those same coaches often only expose their best small college players to the CCIW.

IMO, a NorthCon team could become good enough to hang with and possibly beat some mid to upper level CCIW teams, however it will be tough for them to compete with 1-2 big boys of the CCIW

[robertgoulet]

A little Matt Wenger news. It looks like instead of sitting and waiting for the NFL to get it's act together so he can try to sign with someone as an Undrafted Free-Agent he went ahead and signed on with the Omaha Nighthawks of the UFL on June 10.

Good luck to Matt, hopefully he can use this as a stepping stone to get into the league!


It's not a horrible gig, fresh out of college. Looks like position players will make $40K/each for the 2011 season (kickers get paid less). Comes out to $5K/game (8 games).

[oldnuthin]

Millikin has announced its class of incoming Freshmen. Pretty good numbers, 38, considering the change at the top not being finalized until well into the spring. Second link to 2 new coaches and 1 promotion. Maybe the new DC can work some of his local connections to increase the number of Chicago area kids going to Decatur. Probably about 60 days until camp starts




http://www.millikin.edu/sites/athletics/Pages/AthleticNews.aspx?ID=8599

http://www.millikin.edu/sites/athletics/Pages/AthleticNews.aspx?ID=8598

[New Tradition]

Happy Father's Day to all of the Dads out there who supported and helped us to become the men we are today.