FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

NCC2010 · November 13, 2023, 10:21:15 AM

Just had to give my 2 cents on the bracket as someone who was directly affected by the last time the committee made an undefeated defending champ travel in the playoffs...i played in that game against UWW in 2010 and it still bothers me to this day that we had to play them that early in the tournament, when we easily could've been in another quad and been the first NCC to make the semis or even the championship (we finished 3rd overall in the D3football poll). We also could've just been the 2 seed and played at the Perk, which i would've preferred as i got to play there in 2007 and think its one of the best D3 stadiums there is. i regularly read these boards when i was playing and still remember how mad the UWW posters were (rightfully so) and how there would be a "triple monkey stomping" in Naperville when UWW came to town. I thought the secondary criteria they came up with after that season would prevent this from happening again, but here we are.

mostly just feel for the other teams/kids who will have their careers end a game or two earlier than they should due to the committee applying the criteria with blinders on (both Texas schools, UWL, possibly NCC as well).

to look at it from a positive standpoint, if NCC is able to do what the 2010 UWW team did and run the gauntlet it will be a legacy defining performance. UWW made that run in the heart of their 3 peat (Levell Coppage, what a stud) and i regard that team/run of seasons as some of the best ever in D3. Hoping NCC can do exactly what that UWW 2010 team did and prove they are the best team in the division on the field.

sorry i know this post just comes off as me whining about an imperfect process, (because i am lol) but truly thought it would not happen again nor that NCC would be involved/affected by it again.

hazzben · November 13, 2023, 11:31:28 AM

It's mind-boggling to me that NCC, as the unbeaten defending champ isn't a 1 seed. But especially when you consider they lost out on that 1 seed to a 1 loss team. UWL is very good, this isn't a knock on them. But the committee screwed up, plain and simple. There are literally criteria written for just this scenario, to make sure the preceding year's playoff result is considered when building the bracket and you have an unbeaten defending champ in the mix. And then to add insult to injury, they have the hardest quadrant as well.

Augie6 · November 13, 2023, 01:07:39 PM

Quote from: NCC2010 on November 13, 2023, 10:21:15 AM
Just had to give my 2 cents on the bracket as someone who was directly affected by the last time the committee made an undefeated defending champ travel in the playoffs...i played in that game against UWW in 2010 and it still bothers me to this day that we had to play them that early in the tournament, when we easily could've been in another quad and been the first NCC to make the semis or even the championship (we finished 3rd overall in the D3football poll). We also could've just been the 2 seed and played at the Perk, which i would've preferred as i got to play there in 2007 and think its one of the best D3 stadiums there is. i regularly read these boards when i was playing and still remember how mad the UWW posters were (rightfully so) and how there would be a "triple monkey stomping" in Naperville when UWW came to town. I thought the secondary criteria they came up with after that season would prevent this from happening again, but here we are.

mostly just feel for the other teams/kids who will have their careers end a game or two earlier than they should due to the committee applying the criteria with blinders on (both Texas schools, UWL, possibly NCC as well).

to look at it from a positive standpoint, if NCC is able to do what the 2010 UWW team did and run the gauntlet it will be a legacy defining performance. UWW made that run in the heart of their 3 peat (Levell Coppage, what a stud) and i regard that team/run of seasons as some of the best ever in D3. Hoping NCC can do exactly what that UWW 2010 team did and prove they are the best team in the division on the field.

sorry i know this post just comes off as me whining about an imperfect process, (because i am lol) but truly thought it would not happen again nor that NCC would be involved/affected by it again.

Totally agree that it makes no sense to see what the NCAA did to NCC with these brackets, but it is hardly anything new when it comes to how the NCAA has handled the D3 playoffs. It happened twice to us during our run in the 1980s. In 1984, we were the defending champs and the #1 ranked team in the country and had to travel to Dayton for our first round game. In 1986, we were the defending champs (and although not ranked #1 due to our season opening tie with Elmhurst), we had to travel in the first round to a lower ranked, 7-1-1 team in Hope and then travel again in the second round against Mt Union. It pissed us off initially, but I wouldn't say it was a big motivating factor for us. We knew we were going to have to beat goods teams to reach our goals, and it didn't matter if it was at home or on the road. I'm sure that is how NCC will approach it during the playoffs and, if they play to their capabilities, I don't think it will matter much who and where they play, at least until they reach the Stagg. Based on how NCC and Mt Union have looked this season, I would be shocked if that is not the match up we will see in a few weeks.

emma17 · November 13, 2023, 02:00:04 PM

Unless the brackets get reshuffled after the early rounds, I just don't understand how this happened either.
It's not just a negative in terms of not rewarding a team that clearly deserves the #1 position, it's also a loss to the school and community.

lmitzel · November 13, 2023, 03:51:35 PM

Moving temporarily away from the copious amounts of salt I am producing...

Final Regular Season Players of the Week were:
Offense: DeAngelo Hardy, NCC
Defense, Zach McNees, IWU
ST: Matthew Noguez, IWU

Which brings the season's victim total to:

VICTIM TOTAL Offense Defense Special Teams
Elmhurst 6 - 4 2
IWU 5 2 - 3
Millikin 5 2 2 1
Carroll 3 2 - 1
Carthage 3 1 2 -
Augie 3 1 - 2
Wheaton 2 2 - -
WashU 1 - 1 -
NCC 0 - - -
NP 0 - - -

Greg, you made it!

kenoshamark · November 13, 2023, 07:56:40 PM

Carthage news...

https://athletics.carthage.edu/news/2023/11/13/carthage-football-head-coach-dustin-hass-resigns.aspx

Cardinal773 · November 14, 2023, 01:23:36 AM

Good on ya, Greg! Good on ya, North Park! This is kind of the feel good story of the week as far as I'm concerned. Love the attitude and the spirit they've got going on up there. I think/hope the coach wants to see things through and build. He's got solid senior leaders and the whole team has a great attitude. Would love to see them keep building.

Now on to other matters... Dear Augie, please, PLEASE beat the hell out of Platteville. Help take the piss out of the WIAC just a little bit. Perhaps Wheaton can make the Warhawks eat some humble pie on Thanksgiving weekend. Wouldn't mind it if NC finished the job up in Lacrosse a week after that.

cciwman · November 14, 2023, 08:05:46 AM

Would be interesting to feed Chat GPT the NCAA tourney rules, automatic bids and other info including rankings which I realize are not part of the "tourney considerations" and see what it turns out for a bracket. Maybe we don't need this committee anymore since many agree annually (without bias) there are some really odd decisions in seeding.

SpartanHouse4 · November 14, 2023, 12:23:27 PM

FWIW...rather than host every playoff game every year, as a fan, I like to see teams travel to new places. I know there's a home field advantage and advantages to sleeping in your own bed but....its a cool experience to go on the road, to see new places, for the fans to travel and spectators to see teams play at new places.

Personally, I'd like to see teams have to travel more in the playoffs than the current format. I'd also like to see Mount come west and have to go through the CCIW, MIAC and WIAC more often.

NCC2010 · November 14, 2023, 12:56:13 PM

the All-CCIW teams just announced. Congrats to all the recipients!

https://cciw.org/news/2023/11/14/all-cciw-football-selections-announced.aspx

USee · November 14, 2023, 02:26:43 PM

Quote from: NCC2010 on November 14, 2023, 12:56:13 PM
the All-CCIW teams just announced. Congrats to all the recipients!

https://cciw.org/news/2023/11/14/all-cciw-football-selections-announced.aspx

Congrats to all these award winners, many deserving recipients. In particular Martin Egbo for NCC, he made dramatic improvements throughout the season and was quite dominant down the stretch. And Luke Lehnen, 35 incompletions and 34 TD's if video game numbers. Wow.

That said, I don't remember ever complaining about any of these picks. This year, I have one beef that I feel compelled to share. I don't know how this works but usually the first team is the first team and all the others get packed into the second team. This year, for whatever reason, Carroll's QB was somehow awarded co-first team with Lehnen. Now, I don't know the kid and have nothing against him but if there should have been a co-first team QB (I don't remember this happening previously) it should have been Wheaton's Ben Thorson. Here are the numbers:

Ben Thorson (9-1) 205-294-0 INT, 30 TD's, 70% completion, 2,598 yds, 178 QBR
Josh Raby (5-5) 200-337-5 INT, 26 TD's, 59% completion, 2,697 yds, 149 QBR

I can't remember a CCIW quarterback with that many completions/TD's and zero interception. It certainly has never happened at Wheaton, and they have a long history of AA QB's. Diving a little deeper (which isn't hard to do), here are the stats in the 4 biggest games for these two (NCC, Augie, WashU, Carr/Whea)

Ben Thorson: (3-1) 91-139-0 INT, 16 TD's, 66% completion,1,169 yds
Rosh Raby: (0-4) 77-147-3 INT, 5 TD's, 52% completion, 1,064 yds

And head to head:

Ben Thorson: 22-28-0 INT, 6 TD's, 79% completion, 273 yds
Josh Raby: 8-19-0 INT, 0 TD, 42% completion, 81 yds

If Raby had been named 2nd team along with Thorson, fine, you would not have heard from me. But somehow elevating him over Thorson and equal to Lehnen is egregious.

And I think Coach Rooker got robbed. They can name 2 1st team QB's they certainly could have done Co-COY. Weak move.

Ok. I've said my peace. Congrats to all the winners!

SpartanHouse4 · November 14, 2023, 04:24:42 PM

Pretty wild that Martin Egbo was a 2nd Team all NACC player last year at Concordia Chicago and is this years CCIW DPOY!!

WLCALUM83 · November 14, 2023, 07:28:11 PM

Lakefront Bowl Statistic Comparison

St. Norbert: https://athletics.snc.edu/documents/2023/9/2/teamcume-fb23.pdf
Augustana: https://athletics.augustana.edu/sports/football/stats/2023

In St. Norbert's last game vs Benedictine, the Eagles got deep into Green Knight territory several times in the 2nd half-only to have the drives end with interceptions. St. Norbert ate up a lot of clock time mostly with their ground game in the 2nd half of that one.

Gregory Sager · November 14, 2023, 10:11:48 PM

Quote from: lmitzel on November 13, 2023, 03:51:35 PM
Moving temporarily away from the copious amounts of salt I am producing...

Final Regular Season Players of the Week were:
Offense: DeAngelo Hardy, NCC
Defense, Zach McNees, IWU
ST: Matthew Noguez, IWU

Which brings the season's victim total to:

VICTIM TOTAL Offense Defense Special Teams
Elmhurst 6 - 4 2
IWU 5 2 - 3
Millikin 5 2 2 1
Carroll 3 2 - 1
Carthage 3 1 2 -
Augie 3 1 - 2
Wheaton 2 2 - -
WashU 1 - 1 -
NCC 0 - - -
NP 0 - - -

Greg, you made it!

Gregory Sager · November 14, 2023, 10:22:22 PM

It's not often that NPU gets five guys on the All-CCIW team, so I'm happy about that. I would've liked to see Kyle Rooker and/or Jaydin Miller win a specialty award (COY/DPOY, respectively), but, as I said a few days ago, I'm not gonna argue about the specialty awards all traveling a few blocks from the CCIW offices in Naperville to the NCC campus in a season in which the conference was essentially nothing more than the Cardinals' playpen.