FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[Cardinal773]

This scholarship foundation out of St. Louis has Lake Forest on a watch list too. No details as to why. Just states it has 37 schools on a watchlist that have shown signs of significant financial distress in one or more of last 5 years. Some other D3 schools on it, I notice are Millikin, Benedictine, Coe, Ripon and Rose-Hulman.
https://sfstl.org/financial-solvency-alert-midwestern-colleges-in-danger-of-closing/

Benedictine College in Kansas is on the list.  Benedictine University is the one in Lisle.  We gotta keep BU around so we can daydream about having them in the CCIW.

[Cardinal773]

In the podcast today the guys were talking about The Streak.  They referenced the 104-32 win NP put on NC back in 1968, Park's last winning season.  Greg's (Wally Wabash's) deadpan caveat, "That was Pre Thorne-era."

[wally_wabash]

In the WashU student paper there is an article on the game v Wheaton. The article references a pass interference call late in the game that had WashU supporters up in arms:

After Carter's touchdown, the Bears were in position to get the ball back with over three minutes left. On third down, Forcucci fired a deep ball to Bonga that was incomplete. But, to the ire of the WashU sideline and supporters, the referee threw a late flag on the play, penalizing Hill for pass interference. The penalty forced WashU to burn their timeouts, and while they held Wheaton scoreless, it killed the momentum that the Bears had garnered.

"We're down two scores, and that would have been a huge play to get a stop there," Keen said. "The bottom line is, they saw something they called, and we've got to deal with it."

Having seen this play and reviewed it later via tape I can say it was the right call. DB Caiden Hill had his left arm on Bonga's shoulder as the ball arrived which affected Bonga's ability to jump for the ball. Tough call but it looked legit to me on tape.

I'm going to go back and watch this. Honestly thought about skipping this because it's on a Sidearm player which is AWFUL.  Wish me luck. 

aaaand we're back.  I got lucky with my attempts to magically place the ridiculous Sidearm slider at the right spot. 

Yeah, that's an interference.  And I think you know it's an interference because of all the people hopping around mad about it, none of them are the guy who did the interference, who definitely reacts like somebody who just did some pass interference.  That guy wasn't mad, he was disappointed.  Tough penalty in that spot when the Bears had momentum, but yeah, that's a foul. 

[Gregory Sager]

In the podcast today the guys were talking about The Streak.  They referenced the 104-32 win NP put on NC back in 1968, Park's last winning season.  Greg's (Wally Wabash's) deadpan caveat, "That was Pre Thorne-era."

That was Pre-Everything era. In 1968 the NFL and the AFL were still separate leagues, the Big Ten actually had ten teams (and the Big Eight had eight), and the goalposts were still located on the goal line rather than at the back of the end zone.

At least I wasn't walking three miles in the snow to get to school. We had school buses by then.

[CuriousCCIWfan]

Replying to USEE on the pass interference call against Wash U. It reminds me of the Wheaton vs. Oshkosh call when they called pass interference on the Thundar with a minute to go in the game. I thought the call was terrible, the pulling of the jersey was so insignificant, and if they didn't make that call Wheaton would have beaten Oshkosh and just think where they would be ranked today!!! That still makes me mad, but I guess that is the way it goes!

[Jbothe]

Williams ran for Elmhurst, not Millikin.  My bad.

Greg embellished Eash's demonstrativeness and reactions after the final play. I too specifically watched the coach during the handshake line, recalling ppl here have described him as classless, cantankerous, and curt.  Since he held his trusty clipboard in his right hand as he sauntered, chin down, parallel to the line, I saw two NPC coaches extend a left arm to Eash. Eash did not reciprocate.

As I said, I watched the play again on the Boxcast archive right before I posted yesterday. This was after I got home. I also reviewed it before that in the press box after we went off the air, because several of us wanted another look at it. It happened how I described it. Eash was standing off to the side, he theatrically held his hand to his chest rather than shake Kyle Rooker's, he barked something at Rooker for a few moments, he threw his hands up in the air and backed away from the group of NPU assistant coaches who tried to shake his hand, and then he pointedly refused to shake the hand of the lone NPU assistant coach who came up to him later.

It was an altogether disgraceful display on his part.

Greg is spot on with the INT feat!  Someone has to ask Mt. Butler if he intentionally ran out of bounds or got pushed on the final play. He coulda cut toward the center on his return (there was a LOT of green between him and the endzone) ala his celebration sprint to the endzone and back to the team.

I wish you had been in the press box with us yesterday, Mark, because that would've been a great question to ask Butler during our interview. Wish I'd have thought of it! My guess, since neither Sam nor I thought to ask it, is that he suddenly realized as he was running the ball back that the game wasn't over as long as he was still in the field of play -- and that if he intentionally stepped out of bounds the game would immediately end and North Park would win. As long as he was still running in bounds with the ball, in other words, there was a one-in-ten-million chance that he could've fumbled or had the ball stripped and that IWU could run it back the other way for a touchdown.

One of the most entertaining things about that final play, and something that I didn't notice until I watched the game at home, is that, after he'd stepped out of bounds and then jubilantly sprinted in a long arc over to the NPU sideline, Butler ran into the cheerleading section, grabbed a pair of pom-pons from the hands of a surprised cheerleader, waved them three or four times, and then tossed them back to her and continued on into the jubilant arms of his teammates celebrating on the sidelines. I got a big laugh out of that!

Having watched <50% of the game...but the entire 4th qtr while walking during a glorious fall day...just soaked it all in.  SKOL!

That was definitely one of the most fun fourth quarters I've ever called, hands down.

Are you serious. Did Norm seriously not shake hands? 

[Gregory Sager]

Here's Norm Eash with his right hand on his chest, refusing to shake Kyle Rooker's hand.

[Gregory Sager]

Here's Norm Eash with his arms out, telling three NPU assistants that he would not shake their hands.

[Gregory Sager]

And here's Stormin' Norman, walking right past an NPU assistant who has his hand extended for a shake.

[WUPHF]

I'm going to go back and watch this. Honestly thought about skipping this because it's on a Sidearm player which is AWFUL.  Wish me luck. 

You may already know, but if you click the picture in picture mode button on the right hand side, the Sidearm slider is much better.

[WUPHF]

The picture in picture mode also give you a quick replay options so I watched it again and honestly, I hate the call.

I also disagree with the assertion that everyone was hopping around mad.  There was one guy on the sidelines, but everyone else had similar shocked body language.

[CarollFan]

Games this week.
Spreads courtesy of Logan Hansen. https://hansenratings.github.io/

Elmhurst @ Wheaton -52.3
Carroll @ NCC -47.8
Millikin @ WashU -44.5
NPU -15.5 @ Carthage
Augie @ IWU -9.1

3 predicted blowouts. 2 predicted not blowouts...
Btw thru 30 conference games we are running 60% blowouts, 40% not blowouts.

[GusD]

Seems the 2 big CCIW FB questions of the week are;

1. Will all the possible PI calls on Saturday be made correctly?
2. Will the IWU coach shake hands with the Augie staff after their game?

[CarollFan]

3 CCIW players on D3football.com team of the week.
https://www.d3football.com/awards/tow/2024/week8

Carroll TE Reed Breckheimer, JR
Wheaton DE Peter Johanik, JR
North Park S Ben Butler, JR

For us Reed has been a beast this year, mowing tacklers over. They have been using him out of the wildcat too especially in the red zone.

[CarollFan]

Seems the 2 big CCIW FB questions of the week are;

1. Will all the possible PI calls on Saturday be made correctly?
2. Will the IWU coach shake hands with the Augie staff after their game?

3. Does NPU get win #6 on the road @ Carthage?