FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Augie6]

All the chatter about NCC being ready for the purple powers can be put to rest.  This terrible loss proves that.  National championship contenders don't blow 21pt leads in the 4th quarter.  National championship contenders put you away! This loss is tough swallow.  Hats off to Wabash for the heart they displayed this afternoon.

Congrats to NCC on a great season.  Sounds like a tough loss.  I really agree with cardinalpride on his comment above.  I was a little surprised at all of the folks putting NCC in the same sentence as MU and UWW.  For a team that lost it's first game of the season and was in a 10-3 game with a few minutes left against a bad Augie team, I was really surprised at the level of chatter I saw over the past few weeks.  I even saw one comment that referenced NCC as a unique team in the conference's history, even comparing them to our 4 national championship teams at Augie.  Yes NCC dominated the CCIW this year, but I believe the conference was not a strong as it's been in the past, starting with stunning collapse of Augie's program, Carthage's continued decline and the fact that our second place team lost at home to the Monmouth, who was destroyed this week by St. Thomas.  As several people have posted, I also believe that NCC has the things in place (committed administration, great coaching, great facilities, etc) to be the dominant force in the CCIW for years to come.  But until they (or someone else) actually beats one of the purple powers, I think the comparisons to any team that has actually won something besides the conference championship is way off base.  As CP points out, the MU's and UWW's don't lose with a 21 point lead in the 4th qtr. 

[NCF]

All the chatter about NCC being ready for the purple powers can be put to rest.  This terrible loss proves that.  National championship contenders don't blow 21pt leads in the 4th quarter.  National championship contenders put you away! This loss is tough swallow.  Hats off to Wabash for the heart they displayed this afternoon.

Congrats to NCC on a great season.  Sounds like a tough loss.  I really agree with cardinalpride on his comment above.  I was a little surprised at all of the folks putting NCC in the same sentence as MU and UWW.  For a team that lost it's first game of the season and was in a 10-3 game with a few minutes left against a bad Augie team, I was really surprised at the level of chatter I saw over the past few weeks.  I even saw one comment that referenced NCC as a unique team in the conference's history, even comparing them to our 4 national championship teams at Augie.  Yes NCC dominated the CCIW this year, but I believe the conference was not a strong as it's been in the past, starting with stunning collapse of Augie's program, Carthage's continued decline and the fact that our second place team lost at home to the Monmouth, who was destroyed this week by St. Thomas.  As several people have posted, I also believe that NCC has the things in place (committed administration, great coaching, great facilities, etc) to be the dominant force in the CCIW for years to come.  But until they (or someone else) actually beats one of the purple powers, I think the comparisons to any team that has actually won something besides the conference championship is way off base.  As CP points out, the MU's and UWW's don't lose with a 21 point lead in the 4th qtr.

good season-yes great seaon-no. and i'll agree the conference was down a little but there were several good underclassmen getting quality playing time this season. should help the conference in 2012. while winning the conference gets you the AQ what you do in the play offs defines your teams greatness. Great teams dominate and find ways to win. Can NC take the next step? After today, I'm not sure.

[NCF]

Whooo...tough crowd up in here.  It was a helluva ballgame out there today.  You guys can say North Central didn't finish, Wabash fans could say they didn't start until the third quarter.  It's a four quarter game, guys.  Y'all can say that your Cardinals choked it away today, but I don't see it that way.  That was two damn fine football teams that traded their best shots.  Both sides made some great plays today.  Both sides made some bad plays today.  Wabash happened to make the last big play and got the win.  I know there was a lot of chatter about North Central being in Mount Union's league this time around...all of that is still valid, you know.  Sometimes, even if people aren't talking all that much about them, the other guys have good players too. 

Congrats on the season...CCIW champion is a tremendous accomplishment.  We should do this again next November.

if it's a four quarter game-north cental didn't play four quarters. teams that want to be compared to the purples don't blow 21 point leads-period. you can say what you want but NC should have put the game away in the third quarter and failed to execute. then the defense couldn't make a stop. very poor play by the cards and would love to play you again next november-with a different outcome -of course. and until you beat one of the top two you're not as good.

[USee]

All the chatter about NCC being ready for the purple powers can be put to rest.  This terrible loss proves that.  National championship contenders don't blow 21pt leads in the 4th quarter.  National championship contenders put you away! This loss is tough swallow.  Hats off to Wabash for the heart they displayed this afternoon.

Congrats to NCC on a great season.  Sounds like a tough loss.  I really agree with cardinalpride on his comment above.  I was a little surprised at all of the folks putting NCC in the same sentence as MU and UWW.  For a team that lost it's first game of the season and was in a 10-3 game with a few minutes left against a bad Augie team, I was really surprised at the level of chatter I saw over the past few weeks.  I even saw one comment that referenced NCC as a unique team in the conference's history, even comparing them to our 4 national championship teams at Augie.  Yes NCC dominated the CCIW this year, but I believe the conference was not a strong as it's been in the past, starting with stunning collapse of Augie's program, Carthage's continued decline and the fact that our second place team lost at home to the Monmouth, who was destroyed this week by St. Thomas.  As several people have posted, I also believe that NCC has the things in place (committed administration, great coaching, great facilities, etc) to be the dominant force in the CCIW for years to come.  But until they (or someone else) actually beats one of the purple powers, I think the comparisons to any team that has actually won something besides the conference championship is way off base.  As CP points out, the MU's and UWW's don't lose with a 21 point lead in the 4th qtr.

Augie 6,

I don't disagree but it's obviously a lot easier to talk about the quality of a national championship team AFTER they won the championship than it is to see the process evolving. It's wrong to say comparing them to the Purple Powers is "way off base". If you don't compare yourself to the best where are you? The fact is last year NCC came the closest to beating last year's National Champion and actually led the game in the 4th quarter. That was noticed by most people as a sign they could compete. I haven't seen anything on here (and certainly haven't posted anything) that crowns NCC as the heir to the throne. My observations of the advancement of their program (along with others) comes from 30+ yrs of D3 football including your Augie teams and all the Mt Union and UWW teams. NCC has the look and feel of that level of program. Obviously, their warts became apparent this year and it remains to be seen whether they will elevate their program to a top 1-2 level. That doesn't mean they aren't a top 5 program for now, it also doesn't mean they won't fall back or fall apart like we have seen happen.

Hindsight is 20/20 and I still believe NCC is a top 5 team. I wouldn't be surprised to see Wabash beat Mt Union next week and play for a Stagg berth on Dec 10. That game yesterday was a great game and their are no less than 6 plays that absolutely had to go Wabash's way for them to come back like that. I agree with Wally Wabash in that it doesn't necessarily denigrate NCC as much as validate Wabash's arrival on the national scene.

And I mentioned NCC's accomplishment this year as unique in CCIW history because it was! No team has gone through the CCIW by beating opponents by 21+ pts. None of your teams did it. Does that mean the CCIW is down or the does it mean the rest of D3 is better than when you played? No one can know for sure. But the only comparison to the 4peat Augie team was the FACT that no one did what they did in this conference, EVER! That doesn't earn a national championship ring but it stands on its own as a unique accomplishment.

Comparison's to the top 2 are never "way off base". That should be the measuring stick. I know much of Wheaton's success in the late 90's up to now was based on their comparison to the National power that Augie was in the 80's. It just took them a long time to execute and get them to a level they could compete nationally. It's not easy winning nationally in D3, much harder now than it was in the 80's in my opinion as D3 recruiting is far more efficient and competitive. I don't think NCC's loss yesterday is an indictment of their program as much as it is an indicator of how competitive D3 Football has become.

[Augie6]

All the chatter about NCC being ready for the purple powers can be put to rest.  This terrible loss proves that.  National championship contenders don't blow 21pt leads in the 4th quarter.  National championship contenders put you away! This loss is tough swallow.  Hats off to Wabash for the heart they displayed this afternoon.

Congrats to NCC on a great season.  Sounds like a tough loss.  I really agree with cardinalpride on his comment above.  I was a little surprised at all of the folks putting NCC in the same sentence as MU and UWW.  For a team that lost it's first game of the season and was in a 10-3 game with a few minutes left against a bad Augie team, I was really surprised at the level of chatter I saw over the past few weeks.  I even saw one comment that referenced NCC as a unique team in the conference's history, even comparing them to our 4 national championship teams at Augie.  Yes NCC dominated the CCIW this year, but I believe the conference was not a strong as it's been in the past, starting with stunning collapse of Augie's program, Carthage's continued decline and the fact that our second place team lost at home to the Monmouth, who was destroyed this week by St. Thomas.  As several people have posted, I also believe that NCC has the things in place (committed administration, great coaching, great facilities, etc) to be the dominant force in the CCIW for years to come.  But until they (or someone else) actually beats one of the purple powers, I think the comparisons to any team that has actually won something besides the conference championship is way off base.  As CP points out, the MU's and UWW's don't lose with a 21 point lead in the 4th qtr.

Augie 6,

I don't disagree but it's obviously a lot easier to talk about the quality of a national championship team AFTER they won the championship than it is to see the process evolving. It's wrong to say comparing them to the Purple Powers is "way off base". If you don't compare yourself to the best where are you? The fact is last year NCC came the closest to beating last year's National Champion and actually led the game in the 4th quarter. That was noticed by most people as a sign they could compete. I haven't seen anything on here (and certainly haven't posted anything) that crowns NCC as the heir to the throne. My observations of the advancement of their program (along with others) comes from 30+ yrs of D3 football including your Augie teams and all the Mt Union and UWW teams. NCC has the look and feel of that level of program. Obviously, their warts became apparent this year and it remains to be seen whether they will elevate their program to a top 1-2 level. That doesn't mean they aren't a top 5 program for now, it also doesn't mean they won't fall back or fall apart like we have seen happen.

Hindsight is 20/20 and I still believe NCC is a top 5 team. I wouldn't be surprised to see Wabash beat Mt Union next week and play for a Stagg berth on Dec 10. That game yesterday was a great game and their are no less than 6 plays that absolutely had to go Wabash's way for them to come back like that. I agree with Wally Wabash in that it doesn't necessarily denigrate NCC as much as validate Wabash's arrival on the national scene.

And I mentioned NCC's accomplishment this year as unique in CCIW history because it was! No team has gone through the CCIW by beating opponents by 21+ pts. None of your teams did it. Does that mean the CCIW is down or the does it mean the rest of D3 is better than when you played? No one can know for sure. But the only comparison to the 4peat Augie team was the FACT that no one did what they did in this conference, EVER! That doesn't earn a national championship ring but it stands on its own as a unique accomplishment.

Comparison's to the top 2 are never "way off base". That should be the measuring stick. I know much of Wheaton's success in the late 90's up to now was based on their comparison to the National power that Augie was in the 80's. It just took them a long time to execute and get them to a level they could compete nationally. It's not easy winning nationally in D3, much harder now than it was in the 80's in my opinion as D3 recruiting is far more efficient and competitive. I don't think NCC's loss yesterday is an indictment of their program as much as it is an indicator of how competitive D3 Football has become.

Usee,

I don't disagree with many of the points you make in the post above.  NCC has clearly become a top 5 type program and it seems like the gap is closing, somewhat, between UWW and MU, and the rest of DIII (at least for this season).  My opinion was based more on the 2011 version of NCC and it's standing in the DIII world.  NCC was clearly one of the top 3 teams last year and showed that in their game vs UWW. I wasn't as sure about this year's team based on what I saw when they played Augie and losing their first game of the season.  Yes, NCC dominated the CCIW this year, but based on what's happened in the playoffs so far, that may not have been as impressive of feat as it originally seemed.  Over the past few weeks, many of the posts about NCC seemed a bit over-confident that this was year they would beat one of the top 2. Maybe I was reading into the posts a little too much, but that's how some of them came off to me.

The "way of base" comment may have been a bit strong, but in my humble opinion, it's UWW and MU and then everyone else.  Once someone finally beats  one of the purple powers, then we can have the discussion if it's a changing of the guard or a one year aberration.  Maybe this is the year it finally happens, but people have thought that in past seasons and we all know how that turned out. 

 

[Mugsy]

Shouldn't the Wheaton fans be posting now about how they would have beaten Wabash?

No.  Wheaton didn't even make the playoffs so any discussion like this is a waste.  Not to mention NCC whipped Wheaton and Wabash beat NCC...

Any discussion on how Wheaton would do against Wabash would be pure conjecture and hence a waste of time.

Stop trying to stir the pot and waste time "trolling" on the board.

[USee]

In the interests of prolonging a "discussion" Newcardfan and I were having on the another board, and since NCC is now watching the post season I am sure our NCAC friends won't mind if I mention that Wheaton once again beat a team that the Cardinals couldn't! 

[CardinalAlum]

Usee,

I don't disagree with many of the points you make in the post above.  NCC has clearly become a top 5 type program and it seems like the gap is closing, somewhat, between UWW and MU, and the rest of DIII (at least for this season).  My opinion was based more on the 2011 version of NCC and it's standing in the DIII world.  NCC was clearly one of the top 3 teams last year and showed that in their game vs UWW. I wasn't as sure about this year's team based on what I saw when they played Augie and losing their first game of the season.  Yes, NCC dominated the CCIW this year, but based on what's happened in the playoffs so far, that may not have been as impressive of feat as it originally seemed.  Over the past few weeks, many of the posts about NCC seemed a bit over-confident that this was year they would beat one of the top 2. Maybe I was reading into the posts a little too much, but that's how some of them came off to me.

I would love to see a post that said this was the year we would beat one of the top 2.  I have all of the respect in the world for everything your Augie teams accomplished.  I played against those teams and know firsthand how good they were.  Don't lessen what North Central did this year in the conference.  I would argue the conference is much tougher than it was when we played.  Every school in the conference with the exception of Augie and Millikin is better than they were in the Mid to late 80's.   NCC, Wheaton and IWU are arguably top 20 programs in the country.  There was nowhere near that type of balance back then.  Augie is no longer the big dog in the conference and I'm sure that has to be difficult to see having been where you have with your alma mater.   

[NCF]

In the interests of prolonging a "discussion" Newcardfan and I were having on the another board, and since NCC is now watching the post season I am sure our NCAC friends won't mind if I mention that Wheaton once again beat a team that the Cardinals couldn't! 

i would like nothing more than continuing this discussion,however I don't recall wheaton beating anyone in the post season this year-why was that again?

[Mr. Ypsi]

In the interests of prolonging a "discussion" Newcardfan and I were having on the another board, and since NCC is now watching the post season I am sure our NCAC friends won't mind if I mention that Wheaton once again beat a team that the Cardinals couldn't! 

i would like nothing more than continuing this discussion,however I don't recall wheaton beating anyone in the post season this year-why was that again?

I would hope that USee was not sinking to citing a scrimmage against Wabash!

We'll loan you the round one playoff game in 2009, if that would help!

[NCF]

In the interests of prolonging a "discussion" Newcardfan and I were having on the another board, and since NCC is now watching the post season I am sure our NCAC friends won't mind if I mention that Wheaton once again beat a team that the Cardinals couldn't! 

i would like nothing more than continuing this discussion,however I don't recall wheaton beating anyone in the post season this year-why was that again?

I would hope that USee was not sinking to citing a scrimmage against Wabash!

We'll loan you the round one playoff game in 2009, if that would help!

HA HA no just some "friendly" banter-kind of along the lines of our "age" thing. it's too bad though, that people can't post their opinion, even though it steps on someones toes or goes against the grain, without some people getting their panties all in a bunch.

[cardinaldad]

I had a long trip back from Crawfordsville to jot down some ideas about the game on my iPhone.  Here they are:

Officiating:  It was pretty much as bad as I have seen; the white hat was particularly terrible.  He failed to flag blatant holding call after holding call by Wabash, missed a personal foul right in front of his face when Hayes was getting his head punched into the turf, missed an intentional grounding call by the Wabash QB, and WORST OF ALL missed a personal foul by the kicker who STOMPED ON A PLAYER (Ndamukong Suh style) after a roughing the kicker penalty.  He did, however, manage to throw a less blatant grounding and a pair of personal fouls on the Cards (at least one of which was deserved, I didn't see the other, but these things need to be called both ways).  As bad as they were, the officials were NOT why NCC lost that game, though.

IMO, here is why they lost (in no particular order):

4 Quarters: The bottom line is that Wabash played a full game for 4 quarters and NCC did not.  Wabash Always Fights?  You bet your @$$ they do.  NCC came out and played a marvelous first half.  Admittedly, that's how I expected the entire game to go coming into the thing.  The entire team, coaches and players alike, took their foot off the gas after the opening 2 drives of the second half.  I still wasn't worried when NCC answered right back to make it 28-7 after Wabash broke the shut out.  Then NCC got complacent.  At least in some areas.  The entire second half, Wabash had wide open receivers down the field.  It really seemed that the NCC defense was not playing with the same enthusiasm that they did in the first half.  Also, credit the Wabash coaching staff for finding weaknesses and exploiting them.  I don't know enough about secondary play to say whether or not the NCC coaches made adjustments (I'm sure that they had to) but they clearly did not work.  NCC had no answer for the Wabash passing attack in the second half.

Silver Lining?: The one unit that I observed not being complacent is the defensive line.  That was the best game I've ever seen a defensive line play as a unit at the Division III level.  There was no quit in those young men.  I wish it were so with the secondary.

Injuries: Something that I talked about with other former players all season was how deep this team was.  People got hurt and there seemed to be no drop in performance; whereas, a couple of injuries like that would have derailed NCC a few years ago.  I think the injury bug finally caught up to NCC with the loss of CB Stew Charles last week.  It may not have made the difference in the game, but then again it may have as the NCC secondary got shredded in the second half and the Cards only got beat by 1 point.  Stew was a phenomenal player who had a special year.  While his backup (who was a pretty young guy if memory serves) played well, it was evident that something was very wrong in the secondary.  The second half (and 4th quarter in particular) really looked a lot like Franklin in 2008.

#12: The Wabash quarterback, Tyler Burke, has already been talked about, but he deserves to get a shout in here too.  I've never ever seen a quarterback take a beating like he took.  Ever.  NCC out "Pain Trained" Wabash in this one.  The odd thing is that IT DIDN'T MATTER!  This kid shook it off, and as others have pointed out ACTUALLY GOT BETTER as the game went on and he took more punishment!  I've never seen anything like it.  What a display of guts and balls and gumption and moxy and mojo and whatever else you want to throw in there.  That is a REAL football player and, from what I saw, every bit the embodiment of Wabash's motto.  Tyler Burke most certainly Always Fights.

Chance: Another contributing factor to NCC's downfall was that there were a ton of bounces in the second half that just seemed not to go their way.  Not just turnovers and the like, but bounces at CRUCIAL moments.  Some that stick out in my mind (listed in the order of amount of hair that I pulled out as they happened) were the lollipop pass on 4th down thrown by Burke as he was getting destroyed by 3 Cardinal defensive linemen to Chamblee for a first that I can't believe wasn't picked by one of the three Cardinal defenders standing around him.  Then the roughing the kicker penalty when the Wabash kicker shanked the extra point.  Lastly, the 2 point conversion when the target of the pass got completely drilled as the ball got to him and he dropped it only to have it SAIL THROUGH HIS HANDS STRAIGHT INTO THE HANDS OF ANOTHER WABASH RECEIVER!  I don't know if it was because he was that hurt or because he thought he lost the game by missing that pass, but the initial target didn't get up for a long while after that 2 point conversion was completed.  At times it really felt like the football gods didn't want NCC to win this one. 

I'm sure I'm missing some things in here, but these are the main reasons that NCC lost the game that stick out in my mind.  Cardinalpride really hit the nail on the head when he said that NCC cannot be mentioned in the same breath with the purple powers if they take their foot off of opponent's throats and cough up 21 point leads.  Championship caliber teams never do that.

In spite of the loss, the future continues to look brighter for the Cardinals.  From what I've seen (and Mugsy and Matblake also pointed out) I don't think that there will be any decline at NCC for quite some time.  Because of the margins of victory throughout the season, the young Cards got a lot of valuable experience playing varsity games at varsity speed this season, and did it without much of a drop off in performance from the first teamers.  As Cardinals got injured, they also stepped up and filled starting roles very nicely (ALMOST to the point where you didn't even notice when a starter was gone).  Hopefully the program can learn a lesson from this and keep burying opponents like they had all year rather than get complacent and let them back into the game.  I have a feeling that they will.

Congrats to the whole team and staff on an excellent season.  You continue to improve each year and are always fun to watch.  Thank you.

Finally, I want to thank all of the seniors for a great 4 years.  You were all very fun to watch and I wish you the best of luck as you continue on with your lives.  The lessons that you learned as a North Central College Cardinal from Coach Thorne and his staff will be invaluable as you continue on into life.  I can personally vouch for that.

NT,

     A very good assessment. We have to give Wabash a lot of credit for playing all four quaters, especially their quarterback. We did pound him and he kept getting up. They won the game for all the reasons you listed. We can't take that from them. We didn't make the plays when we had to. The way the ball bounced, yesterday was their day. We did get complacent on offense. We couldn't stop the pass as we couldn't in some playoff games in previous years. If you remember, that was our knock, defensively, a few years ago.
      The d-line was outstanding. I never saw such effort by a group of young men in all my life. They played 110% on every play. I keyed on them throughout the entire game. And here is where I disagree with you and I'm sure I will take my lumps for the rest of this post. You mentioned the officiating. I agree with you that overall, it was the worst officiated college game I've ever seen. We all have been witness to an official's call deciding the game, etc. But, the officiating for this game stunk throughout. There were bad calls that favored NCC. There were all the evident incidents that you mentioned. However, in that 4th quater, Willie Hayes was getting raped on almost every pass play. And as you stated, right in front of the white hat. On many occasions, you can see the referee reaching for the flag, then deciding not to pull it out and throw it ( almost as if he was thinking that this infraction wasn't THAT noticible so I won't have to throw it). If Hayes is not held and tackled, Burke doesn't have time to throw down field, game over, game NCC. That right tackle and TE got away with a lot. Too much. I don't care what people say, it did effect the outcome of the game.
     With that said, we did lose the game. We sit home and cheer on Wabash to beat Mount and carry on next year.

[cardinaldad]

Cardinals,

     Thanks for another GREAT season and all the great memories! Seniors, good luck on all your future endeavors. Use what you have learned during your football careers. You will benefit for the rest of your lives from ALL you have learned through athletics. You had great careers at NCC. Now carry that into what lies ahead for you. Good luck!
      For the rest of you Cardinals. Remember how yesterday felt. I hope you want to never feel that way again. Use that feeling to fuel your offseason workouts. Work hard to carry on the Cardinal tradition and take it to the next level that we have all been desiring you to do. You can do it!!
      By the way.....I have to mention this. Yesterday, at the beginning of the fourth quarter, I saw only one Cardinal raise four fingers up signifying that the fourth quarter was yours' and to play four quarters. That was a tradition when THIS winning tradition began. Perhaps you should start this tradition again. Remind yourselves that the game is four quarters. Just a suggestion so you won't have to feel this way again.

Thanks again for a GREAT season! You can and should be very proud!

[cardinaldad]

You must be careful.... you said it yourself, you were keying on the NC D-Line all day.....  were you keying on the NC Offensive line with as much intensity? or were you watching the ball?   Were there holding calls that were missed when NC had the ball? I bet there were.....

You guys lost a game... move on.  No need to wine about officiating when you were watching one side of the story.

These are the same officials who gave you another set of downs to score your first TD in the 1st qtr. on the defensive holding on the punt.

I have a friend that is a retired SEC official..... he flat out said that he could have called holding, if he wanted to, on almost every offensive play.     

Bashbro,

I gave credit were credit is due. To win the game NCC shouldn't have been in that situation. As several people have pointed out, championship teams don't give up 21 points in the 4th quarter. Especially when they have a good defense. Champions find ways to win. Yesterday, Wabash found a way to win.

If you know football and particularly offensive line play, holding can probably be called on every play. The blatant ones are the ones usually called. Hayes was getting raped. That tackle couldn't handle him and did all he could to stop him including tackling him.

I'm just stating a fact that I personally observed. For the 4th quarter, your right offensive line was on our side of the field and it was hard not to see when it was occurring right in front of me.

I've moved on. Wabash fought hard all game and won it. Now, go beat Mount!

[Always.A.Titan]

What a game on Saturday. Unfortunately, I missed it to attend the MSU-NU game on Saturday. But, got updates as the seconds wound down. Congrats to NCC on a solid season. I know it is not the result that you were hoping for, but that program is well on its way to being a mainstay in the top 5 of DIII for a long time. Question...is this senior class the winningest class in NCC history?

Congrats to Wabash. Good luck against the Mount. I am glad you guys got the tight game comeback win after getting one of those playoff losses 2 years ago.

I really expected a tight game like this all week leading up to the game. Wabash is always one tough @$$ team with some tough dudes. They don't lay down, give up, and keep hitting. At the same time, the Redbird Machine has a way of continuing to churn week after week. NCC is right on the edge of that purple-ness I think. However, they need to be more disciplined. You can't have personal fouls in a game of that magnitude. I believe that come next August, NCC will again be found at the top of the preseason polls and they will make their way through the CCIW with a giant chip on their shoulder until December.