FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Gregory Sager]

The problem is that the Pantagraph is behind a paywall ... and does anybody who lives outside of Bloormal really want to subscribe to the Pantagraph just for Stormin' Norman's postgame pearls of wisdom?

The best way to get your weekly Norm dose is to catch his postgame interview with the IWU broadcast team. No paywall, and you're getting fresh Norm, rather than stale Norm filtered and expurgated by whomever's doing the Pantagraph story on IWU football.

[D3FLETCH]

IWU has not consistently recruited against NCC since DeGeorge was HC for Cardinals. I am sure a few kids over the years have chosen the Titans over the Cardinals but most current NCC recruits would not even consider talking to a D3 school. IWU is closer to Elmhurst and North Park than it is to competing with North Central. I think IWU should consider joining the NCAC. They would consistently finish top 2-3 and have a good chance to compete for a conference championship.

Sure. Abandon a conference in which every one of your fellow schools is within 3 1/2 hours distance, and most are within 2 1/2, so that you can join a conference that has two schools within the 2 to 2 1/2 hour driving range, another school that's about five hours away, and in which everybody else is 6-7 hours away. That would make tremendous sense.

Well if we are trying to save nickels on travel they could attempt to join the NACC or HCAC. Maybe Norm can run a bake sale/push up contest. I think the NCAC  aligns better academically.

The conference you're looking for in terms of both proximity and academic cachet is the MWC, not the NCAC.

Still, I can't help but enjoy the mental picture of Norm pulling sheets of cookies out of the oven or doing push-ups in the Tucci Stadium parking lot in order to raise funds to cover the IWU bus trips to Lawrence or Ripon.

MWC would definitely make the most sense. I don't think they would take them.

What makes you think that the NCAC is any more likely to "take" Illinois Wesleyan than the MWC?

I'm always amused at the idea that schools can simply just go to a different conference as if every collegiate athletic conference has in/out privileges like your favorite hotel parking garage.

Me, too -- especially when the poster ups the ante by suggesting that a school can simply just go to a different conference that consists almost entirely of teams located six hours' driving distance from the school in question.

And that a school like Illinois Wesleyan could "compete for a conference championship" elsewhere.  The Titans win... a fair number of conference championships in an array of different sports right where they are!  Football is not the straw that stirs the drink in D3 to the same extent that it is in other, lesser NCAA divisions.

This needs to be stated more often. I've noticed that a lot of people who frequent the football boards are football-specific people who may not be familiar with the broader sweep of D3 athletics in general. As you said, just because football pays the bills and thus calls the shots at the D1 level doesn't mean that the same thing holds true in D3 ... and, in fact, with very, very few possible exceptions, it doesn't hold true in D3 at all.

I am sure at North Park football does not call the shots in the athletics department. It does not mean that is the standard or best practice.

It has absolutely nothing to do with NPU per se. It is standard practice for football not to dictate policy at most D3 schools. I've been around D3 for 40 years, and I've talked to lots of different athletic department personnel from lots of different D3 schools, and I've never gotten the sense that when the football coach says "Jump!", the AD (or the president) says "How high?"

The reason why is obvious. Football does not make money at this level. Football does not finance the rest of the athletic department at D3 schools. Nor is it the public face of the school the way that it is in D1. It therefore doesn't have the power to throw its weight around the way that it does in D1.

I have been around D3 athletics for 45 years (Also did admissions/alumni relations/marketing) and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. My comment was about football driving decisions in the athletic department. Football makes plenty of money for D3 schools by collecting tuition.

[USee]

https://pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-wesleyan/no-1-ranked-north-central-takes-control-after-halftime-to-roll-past-illinois-wesleyan/article_79b4f86f-1755-5ff6-90b6-ed5bf73d2ca9.html

"I don't know if I've ever been as proud of a team as I was the first half, and I don't know if I've ever been as disappointed of a team in the second half," said IWU head coach Norm Eash. "It was a rollercoaster. We played really well the first half.

"We talk about game awareness and game management. I thought we did a good job. Their first score we kind of gave them on a fumbled punt and then we settled down and played really well."

"We got their attention, there's no doubt about it," said Eash. "They just ratcheted it up a little bit and we didn't match that intensity level they came out with the second half." 

Lehnen threw a 40-yard TD pass to DeAngelo Hardy and Hill had a 54-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter. Jake Johnson's 28-yard run with 2:55 left closed the scoring.

"We told them all week it was going to be a high-level game," said Eash. "We played at a high level the first half, and they went up the next level (in the second half) and we didn't."

[Gregory Sager]

I have been around D3 athletics for 45 years (Also did admissions/alumni relations/marketing) and stayed at a Holiday Inn Express. My comment was about football driving decisions in the athletic department. Football makes plenty of money for D3 schools by collecting tuition.

Different thing entirely. That's an admissions function; in other words, the football program is actually slaved to the administration in a way by the program's need to collect tuition for the school. That's why, especially at schools that are tuition-driven, football coaches are put on a recruiting quota by the school. And if your administration is giving you a recruiting quota, that means that you're the tail and not the dog.

I remember very well a postgame gathering I once spent in a Kenosha watering hole with a bunch of Carthage coaches, in which I listened to the late Tim Rucks complain for a good five minutes about the fact that the school's administrators were forcing him to recruit to maintain a minimum 140-man roster. He felt that a roster that big was ridiculous, although he understood full well why he was expected to provide the school with that many warm bodies.

Again, kiko was right:

Football is not the straw that stirs the drink in D3 to the same extent that it is in other, lesser NCAA divisions.

[Gregory Sager]

https://pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-wesleyan/no-1-ranked-north-central-takes-control-after-halftime-to-roll-past-illinois-wesleyan/article_79b4f86f-1755-5ff6-90b6-ed5bf73d2ca9.html

"I don't know if I've ever been as proud of a team as I was the first half, and I don't know if I've ever been as disappointed of a team in the second half," said IWU head coach Norm Eash. "It was a rollercoaster. We played really well the first half.

"We talk about game awareness and game management. I thought we did a good job. Their first score we kind of gave them on a fumbled punt and then we settled down and played really well."

"We got their attention, there's no doubt about it," said Eash. "They just ratcheted it up a little bit and we didn't match that intensity level they came out with the second half." 

Lehnen threw a 40-yard TD pass to DeAngelo Hardy and Hill had a 54-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter. Jake Johnson's 28-yard run with 2:55 left closed the scoring.

"We told them all week it was going to be a high-level game," said Eash. "We played at a high level the first half, and they went up the next level (in the second half) and we didn't."

Kudos to you for taking one for the team by paying the Pantagraph toll collector in order to supply us with fresh Norm Eash goodness.

[lmitzel]

https://pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-wesleyan/no-1-ranked-north-central-takes-control-after-halftime-to-roll-past-illinois-wesleyan/article_79b4f86f-1755-5ff6-90b6-ed5bf73d2ca9.html

"I don't know if I've ever been as proud of a team as I was the first half, and I don't know if I've ever been as disappointed of a team in the second half," said IWU head coach Norm Eash. "It was a rollercoaster. We played really well the first half.

"We talk about game awareness and game management. I thought we did a good job. Their first score we kind of gave them on a fumbled punt and then we settled down and played really well."

"We got their attention, there's no doubt about it," said Eash. "They just ratcheted it up a little bit and we didn't match that intensity level they came out with the second half." 

Lehnen threw a 40-yard TD pass to DeAngelo Hardy and Hill had a 54-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter. Jake Johnson's 28-yard run with 2:55 left closed the scoring.

"We told them all week it was going to be a high-level game," said Eash. "We played at a high level the first half, and they went up the next level (in the second half) and we didn't."

Kudos to you for taking one for the team by paying the Pantagraph toll collector in order to supply us with fresh Norm Eash goodness.

And here I was about to share a note from NCC professor Gary Ireland about IWU bragging about its performance. I'll echo Greg's thanks, USee.

[blue_jays]

https://pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-wesleyan/no-1-ranked-north-central-takes-control-after-halftime-to-roll-past-illinois-wesleyan/article_79b4f86f-1755-5ff6-90b6-ed5bf73d2ca9.html

"I don't know if I've ever been as proud of a team as I was the first half, and I don't know if I've ever been as disappointed of a team in the second half," said IWU head coach Norm Eash. "It was a rollercoaster. We played really well the first half.

"We talk about game awareness and game management. I thought we did a good job. Their first score we kind of gave them on a fumbled punt and then we settled down and played really well."

"We got their attention, there's no doubt about it," said Eash. "They just ratcheted it up a little bit and we didn't match that intensity level they came out with the second half." 

Lehnen threw a 40-yard TD pass to DeAngelo Hardy and Hill had a 54-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter. Jake Johnson's 28-yard run with 2:55 left closed the scoring.

"We told them all week it was going to be a high-level game," said Eash. "We played at a high level the first half, and they went up the next level (in the second half) and we didn't."

Kudos to you for taking one for the team by paying the Pantagraph toll collector in order to supply us with fresh Norm Eash goodness.

And here I was about to share a note from NCC professor Gary Ireland about IWU bragging about its performance. I'll echo Greg's thanks, USee.

We're all gonna miss Norm when he hangs it up. Where else would we get such a fount of head-scratching hubris? I mean, the game is 60 minutes for a reason. NCC racked up nearly 600 yards, while 40 percent of IWU's total offense came on one drive. Six of their other drives totaled 6 yards or fewer.

[Next Man Up]

https://pantagraph.com/sports/college/illinois-wesleyan/no-1-ranked-north-central-takes-control-after-halftime-to-roll-past-illinois-wesleyan/article_79b4f86f-1755-5ff6-90b6-ed5bf73d2ca9.html

"I don't know if I've ever been as proud of a team as I was the first half, and I don't know if I've ever been as disappointed of a team in the second half," said IWU head coach Norm Eash. "It was a rollercoaster. We played really well the first half.

"We talk about game awareness and game management. I thought we did a good job. Their first score we kind of gave them on a fumbled punt and then we settled down and played really well."

"We got their attention, there's no doubt about it," said Eash. "They just ratcheted it up a little bit and we didn't match that intensity level they came out with the second half." 

Lehnen threw a 40-yard TD pass to DeAngelo Hardy and Hill had a 54-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter. Jake Johnson's 28-yard run with 2:55 left closed the scoring.

"We told them all week it was going to be a high-level game," said Eash. "We played at a high level the first half, and they went up the next level (in the second half) and we didn't."

Kudos to you for taking one for the team by paying the Pantagraph toll collector in order to supply us with fresh Norm Eash goodness.

And here I was about to share a note from NCC professor Gary Ireland about IWU bragging about its performance. I'll echo Greg's thanks, USee.

Make that three. Thanks USee.
Ya gotta love "NCC ratcheted it up a little bit in the second half." Just think of the trouble the Cardinals might have been in had Norm not forgotten his 2nd half ratchet.   

[TrueGreen]

I was going to try and sit quietly, take our beating and move on. I opted to not respond to the post game article. and then I read the iwusports.com postgame recap, and with the sub headline I couldn't take it any longer!

Football Setback by No.1 Cardinals Second Half Surge
"Titans held NCC to second-lowest point total of the season"

THIS is the mindset that makes me furious. We are celebrating and highlighting the fact that we only gave up 55 points to NCC. Shameful.

[Gregory Sager]

I was going to try and sit quietly, take our beating and move on. I opted to not respond to the post game article. and then I read the iwusports.com postgame recap, and with the sub headline I couldn't take it any longer!

Football Setback by No.1 Cardinals Second Half Surge
"Titans held NCC to second-lowest point total of the season"

THIS is the mindset that makes me furious. We are celebrating and highlighting the fact that we only gave up 55 points to NCC. Shameful.

Titanic setback by No. 1 iceberg collision surge
"Orchestra played beautifully throughout the evening"

[blue_jays]

Titanic setback by No. 1 iceberg collision surge
"Orchestra played beautifully throughout the evening"

I LOLed

[Next Man Up]

Just saw NP up 32-3 in the 3rd vs Elmhurst.

Is this the nail in the coffin for the BlueJays staff?

Now it's 45-3 with about five minutes left.

That turns out to be the final score.  The Vikings move to 2-5.

Very good building year for NP. Lots to look forward to in 2022r

NPU is not looking forward to next year. NPU is looking forward to next week. Saturday's game at Illinois Wesleyan is very winnable.

And it appears the following Saturday's game vs Millikin can be viewed in the same manner. 🏈

[mr_b]

Titanic setback by No. 1 iceberg collision surge
"Orchestra played beautifully throughout the evening"

I LOLed

"Titans Finish Second at North Central Invite"

[lmitzel]

Norm last night after the game?

[TrueGreen]

Titanic setback by No. 1 iceberg collision surge
"Orchestra played beautifully throughout the evening"

I LOLed

"Titans Finish Second at North Central Invite"

Both of these are great!

I am all for "silver Linings & glasses half full", BUT whoever wrote the online article is certainly from participation trophy generation!

I know that the HC doesn't write these recaps, but this is not the culture that a competitive, proud alum wants the school to project.