BB: CCIW: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin

[OshDude]

The CCIW used to assign a point value for game and post season games... most points earned got the bid. Carthage once lost the conference tourney and got the auto-bid regardless based on higher points.

That actually seems to make a lot more sense.  That might sound like sour grapes coming from a North Park fan, but wouldn't it be more logical to take an automatic bid from a larger body of work than a single weekend in a tournament?

I've always liked the balance of the OAC volleyball AQ structure. Most years, if not all, the OAC VB regular season champ will be a Pool C lock anyway, but I like the safety net. It's an eight-team single-elimination event. Higher seeds host Round 1. Highest remaining seed hosts semis and finals.

The regular-season winner is the automatic qualifier of the NCAA tournament as long as that team makes it to the finals of the OAC tournament championship.

If the regular season champion does not advance to the tournament championship match, then the automatic qualifier will be the tournament winner.

If there are co-champions of the regular season and only one advances to the Tournament final, that team is the automatic qualifier.

If there are co-champions of the regular season and both (or two) advance to the Tournament final, then the Tournament champion is the automatic qualifier.

[warrior35]

Do you think money has anything to do with the way conferences select their AQ?  I don't have any idea if the CCIW benefits as a whole from having more teams in the playoffs, but I'd like to think that conferences would always make decisions to get more schools in the playoffs both from a pride standpoint of course, but also potentially money?  The conference is a good conference, and you would hope the 2 teams would get in every year... but the reg. season champs only win the tourney a fraction of the time, so in a way it's kind of like playing the odds to make sure 2 teams get in.  I don't know if any of that is true or not... but it makes logical sense to me... lol.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park swept Carthage today, 9-0 and 9-6. According to Carthage SID Steve Marovich, this is the first time in 23 years that the Vikings have swept the Red Men. It was an occasion that was long overdue, I say.

Travis Boyer (5 ip), Merrick McGrady (3 ip), and Mike Coduto (1 ip) shut out the visitors on four hits in the opener. In the nightcap, Carthage finally got the bats rolling, taking early leads of 3-0 and 5-3 against Wes Mleziva (4-0), who had his first shaky outing of the year before finishing strong in the fourth and fifth innings. McGrady came in and did another great job in middle relief, handcuffing the Red Men after the NPU bats had come alive in the bottom of the fifth to stake Mleziva to a three-run lead before he left in favor of McGrady. Alex Silverthorne then came in and closed things out, as each team added a run in the late innings that didn't ultimately affect the game.

NPU looked very sharp today, particularly in the field. The keystone combo of Eric Sousanes and Mike Coduto turned five double plays, while Ryan Javech and Jeff Paulson took away a bunch of hits with sharp glovework at the corners. The bullpen only gave up one meaningless run in eight innings of work, and Boyer was by far the most effective starter out there today. I see by the Carthage press release that Augie Schmidt is still up to his old tricks in terms of spin-doctoring today's outcomes to be more a matter of Carthage not playing well than anything else, but nobody who was at Holmgren Athletic Complex today left the park with any doubt as to which team is better.

Carthage looks surprisingly ordinary. Because Schmidt has done so much for so long with so many different Carthage teams, I'll never count out the Red Men. It wouldn't shock me at all if he whips his team into shape and finds a way to get it into the CCIW tourney. But it just doesn't appear to me that his raw material on hand is anything special in any phase of the game, be it pitching, hitting, or defense.

This North Park team really has a chance to be something special. Today was an eye-opener for anyone who's doubted them up to now.

[Gregory Sager]

North Park was left out last year.

Yes they were left out, however, IWU shared that regular season championship and got an at large bid after Carthage won the AQ.

Nevertheless, that is an example of a CCIW champ that was left out of the D3 tourney.

Indeed, and it's probably even a better example of one of the many reasons why the NCAA doesn't give auto bids to regular season conference champs.

Actually, it's the conference that determines who its automatic bid goes to, not the NCAA. If a conference wanted to give its automatic bid to the regular-season champion, it could do so. And the CCIW did in men's basketball for years, while a few conferences still do so in baseball.

Conferences can hand out the AQ virtually any way they see fit. I know a league who once had a point system which combined regular season and tournament play for soccer. One time a team lost the tournament championship game, but still won the AQ.

The CCIW used that same points system in soccer for a few years in the early part of the last decade as well.

[Gregory Sager]

Congrats to NPU junior Nick Soldano upon being named CCIW Pitcher of the Week!

[Viking Blue]

Congrats to North Park on this DH sweep.  I know many, many alumni over the last 23 years will smile after seeing this result.  Great start for the Vikes...maybe this year we ought to go ahead and take the suspense out of it and wrap up a regional bid without having to worry about the CCIW tournament.

A man can dream, can't he?

I know....a LOT of baseball left to play.

[Gregory Sager]

Congrats to North Park on this DH sweep.  I know many, many alumni over the last 23 years will smile after seeing this result.  Great start for the Vikes...maybe this year we ought to go ahead and take the suspense out of it and wrap up a regional bid without having to worry about the CCIW tournament.

NPU's in-region record is now 15-1. It's a start.

[markerickson]

The hurdle NP could never clear when I was an undergrad during the very successful Bosko era was Marietta.  Two times, maybe three.  Marietta remains a power.  Go North Park!

[Gregory Sager]

To absolutely nobody's surprise, Wesleyan swept Millikin today, 11-1 and 8-2, in Decatur. I'll predict right now that MU goes 0-21 in the league, and I don't feel as though I'm crawling out on a limb in making that prediction.

The other doubleheaders today were pretty surprising. Elmhurst took a pair from a reeling Wheaton squad by 4-2 and 6-4 scores in Elmhurst. What's even more surprising is that the 'jays are still without star hitter Zach Hofer; since he went down in the first Augie game last weekend, the 'jays have gone 4-0 in his absence. Two questions: Where the heck did Elmhurst suddenly get all this pitching, and what the heck has happened to Wheaton's formidable hitting all of a sudden?

No less surprising is the fact that North Central went out to the Quad Cities today and took a pair from Augustana, 9-8 and 5-4. Thus far, the Augustana m.o. that Big Poppa has pointed out -- Augie tears through the non-con portion of the schedule and then stumbles once it hits conference play -- has borne out according to form. But, as Viking Blue said, there's still a lot of baseball left to play.

The hurdle NP could never clear when I was an undergrad during the very successful Bosko era was Marietta.  Two times, maybe three.  Marietta remains a power.  Go North Park!

Let's not worry about Marietta right now. That's too far off in a future that is by no means guaranteed for the Park. Take 'em as they come. NPU needs to stick to the task at hand, and right now that task is beating Wheaton on Friday afternoon at Holmgren.

[warrior35]

Where the heck did Elmhurst suddenly get all this pitching, and what the heck has happened to Wheaton's formidable hitting all of a sudden?

My thoughts exactly. Wheaton had better turn it around quick, the CCIW schedule can get away from you in hurry if you want a chance to play in the tourney.

[NCF]

North Central was able to take two from Augie yesterday. Game one took 11 innings for the Cards to pull out a 9-8 victory. Game two was another battle, but the Cardinals won 5-4. North Central is now 13-5, 4-1(CCIW).

[BigPoppa]

My weekend predictions:


Carthage sweeps Augustana (and gets back on the winning track)
North Park takes two of three vs Wheaton (though I can easily see a NPU sweep)
Elmhurst sweeps Millikin (Jays quickly move to 7-1)
IWU takes two of three from North Central (NCC has not convinced me yet)


Predicted Standings after Saturday's games:
North Park 7-1
Elmhurst 7-1
IWU 6-2
North Central 5-4
Carthage 4-4
Wheaton 2-6
Augustana 1-7
Millikin 0-8

[D3Vike11]

My weekend predictions:


Carthage sweeps Augustana (and gets back on the winning track)
North Park takes two of three vs Wheaton (though I can easily see a NPU sweep)
Elmhurst sweeps Millikin (Jays quickly move to 7-1)
IWU takes two of three from North Central (NCC has not convinced me yet)


Predicted Standings after Saturday's games:
North Park 7-1
Elmhurst 7-1
IWU 6-2
North Central 5-4
Carthage 4-4
Wheaton 2-6
Augustana 1-7
Millikin 0-8

I agree with most of it except a couple:

I think North Park sweeps Wheaton
Carthage only takes 2 of 3 from Augustana.

Does anyone know what happened to Hofer?

[BigPoppa]

I was looking over NPU's stats this morning trying to find out what, in addition to their pitching, has led to their 19-3 start. The answer was easy... the have 41 HBPs and 55 stolen bases in 22 games. That is 96 extra bases that they did not have to swing to get.

CCIW free bases:

NPU- 96
Augustana- 52
Wheaton- 46
IWU- 42
Elmhurst- 41
North Central- 35
Carthage- 35
Millikin- 27

*Just sayin'... draw your own conclusions. NPU has more than doubled most of the CCIW conference. I know they have played a few more games, but they are still averaging aroun 4 free bases per game... in some way that HAS to lead to a few extra runs hear and there.

[D3Vike11]

North Park has led the league the last 2 years in stolen bases and HBP, something that Luke Johnson stresses.

Going off of what you said BigPoppa, there are a few more reasons why North Park is having success. They have twice thus far scored 5 or more runs in an inning with 2 outs. Their 63 2-out RBIs leads the conference, and they are hitting an astounding .354 with 2-outs. Extending innings and not leaving guys on base has been key for the Vikings.

**They are also 18-0 when leading after the 6th inning, which speaks to how well their bullpen has done so far.