FB: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[79jaybird]

Happy New Year to each and all.  Hope 2007 is prosperous for everybody.  Since it is the season of resolutions, what would each school's resolution be?  I think each team has a few vacancies and question marks to square away.  For example, NC replacing Kniss, EC replacing most of the defensive graduated Seniors, for IWU it's getting the O-Line squared away, etc.

[Tailgater]

Since it is the season of resolutions, what would each school's resolution be?

Good question jaybird. For Carthage I would offer a few resolutions for 2007. 1) Figure out why so many injuries occured during the 2005 & 2006 seasons and work toward staying healthy throughout the 2007 season. 2) Develop and/or recruit a solid offensive backfield, both RB & FB, to help take the spotlight and load off of QB O'Boyle. 3) and most important in my opinion, develop a strong and reliable offensive line to replace the leadership and skills of the 5 graduating seniors.

Happy New Year to All of you. May 2007 bring new prosperity to us all!

[79jaybird]

Tailgater, I think you hit it on the head with the replacement of Carthage's O-Line.  The 2006 O-Line was the major reason why Carthage was overachieving all year, based on their injuries.  Don't they stretch before practices?   
Injuries are inevitable and are going to pop up occasionally.  I hate to see them ruin a young man's season.

[79jaybird]

I think the best Bowl Game thus far was the Boise State/Oklahoma game last night.  What a doozie!  I hope each week in 2007 CCIW competition is just like that one.  Congrats to BSU.  Do any of you feel that BSU deserves a share of the Nat'l Championship and/or a chance to play the winner of the OSU/Florida game?
I am so glad we have a playoff system in Division III and let the players decide the outcomes on the field.

[Gotberg]

A nice front page article in the Chicago Tribune about Elbert Kern, 92' grad and former football player at North Park: (Link to article is from NPU's website)

http://www.northpark.edu/home/index.cfm?northpark=RNews.RNews_Story&ID=1761

[79jaybird]

Very nice contribution and article on Elbert Kern.  Coincidentally my Mother, Aunt, and Uncle all attended Steinmetz HS. Mom graduated in 1970, Aunt 1966, and Uncle 1974.  The school's enrollment is down from where it was when Mom attended there and the Demographics have changed too.

[Redmen96]

Yes Jaybird  I also think BSU could claim a piece of the National Title.  If I were the coach the one reason to wait until after the Ohio St. game to order the rings is to find out if you put Undefeated Champs or Co Champs.

[79jaybird]

Redmen96-- I agree with you too.    I think if it were any other team in a major conference, there would be no doubts as to a share of the title.  You win all of your ball games, you upset the favorite in a major bowl, what more can you ask from a team? 
This is just another indicator that the D-1 world NEEDS a playoff format like the other divisions.  Also makes me appreciate what we have at the D-3 level! 

[Gregory Sager]

A nice front page article in the Chicago Tribune about Elbert Kern, 92' grad and former football player at North Park: (Link to article is from NPU's website)

http://www.northpark.edu/home/index.cfm?northpark=RNews.RNews_Story&ID=1761

Thanks for linking that. I was going to link it after I read it in the paper Tuesday morning, but I forgot. It's a very inspirational story. I just wish that the Trib had mentioned Elbert's alma mater in the piece.

[keil59]

I think D1 needs a playoff and a season of bowls to generate the revenues for the smaller schools and the ones that dont make the playoff.  the BCS top 10 should have a playoff to determine the champ and the rest of the bowl eligable teams could compete in other bowls to make the schools happy monitarily. Thats just my opinion of D1 football post season ideas

[devildog29]

I assume we all agree the only reason for the current bowl system is money with all the corporate sponsorships and tv rights.  I wonder if a playoff format and the resulting revenues have ever been seriuosly studied.  The accounting arguments in favor of the current system are that the schedule would have to be reduced to a 10 game season, thus eliminating that 11th game for a lot of teams and presumably a lot of gate and television revenue.  Then, an eight team playoff would yield 7 playoff games (assuming no 3rd place game), which is far fewer than the 476 or so bowl games that are currently played.  I wonder how much bigger of a television contract they could sign for a more "exclusive" playoff structure and would they get a higher payout for corporate sponsorship per game in a playoff system to make up for the reduction in games.  I certainly have no idea as to the actual numbers involved, but the economics of it seem like it should be possible.  Kinda like when they redid Soldier Field and actually put in less seats to create more exclusivity and luxury boxes actually increased the revenue for the stadium presumably.  Where's Laffer when you need him?

[diehardfan]

I just wanted to say...

...that Naperville School STINKS! 

Okay, I feel better now. 

[79jaybird]

2006 football was the year of the Cardinal
NC-Cardinals   CCIW co-champs 2nd round playoffs
UL Cardinal  Orange Bowl Champs
St. Louis Cardinals MLB World Series Champs
Arizona Cardinals ah well, pass 

[Mugsy]

I just wanted to say...

...that Naperville School STINKS! 

Okay, I feel better now. 

WOOOOO!!!! Comes out with guns blazin'!  Welcome back!

[diehardfan]

Re: guns blazing

Yeah, I definitely learned that skill from Coach Swider and Coach Peltz via my little bro