FB: Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[scandihoovian]

Just wanted to drop in with a belated thanks to Pat for making the trip out west, and for giving the SCIAC/NWC quite a bit of front page love over the last few days.

Sounds like the Oxy-Linfield game was a good one.  I'm looking forward to CLU's matchup with the Wildcats next year.

I caught the last three quarters of the CLU-PLU game.  Nice to see the Kingsmen clean up some of the first game miscues that hurt them against Willamette.  They looked good in every aspect of the game on Saturday.  The one dramatic period of the game came in the second quarter when PLU spent, what felt like, an eternity in the red zone.  The Lutes, as is often their way, kept forgoing easy field goals to go for it on fourth down.  Ultimately, they left empty handed, still down 14-0.  Not sure if that was a game defining moment, but it couldn't have helped the PLU cause.

[D O.C.]

About time you showed up here....   8)

We (me) would like your insight on

a) jumping on the winning bandwagon with new purple uniforms

b) the 2 day, 16 hour bus trip to Willamette and the effect it possibly had on the outcome of that game

[OxyBob]

From StructureHub.com:

America's ten "most beautiful" college campuses

Our fellow "structurists" over at Infrastructurist recently harnessed the supreme power of the all-seeing eye to subjectively rank the world's 10 greatest urban parks.  This provocative little inquiry could be replicated and re-oriented in many ways - even at eye level - and inspired me to compile the following ranking of the ten most beautiful college/university campuses (in the United States).
...

As subjective as aesthetics are, I should note that they were not my sole consideration - among other things (e.g., size and geography), I think the way campuses relate to (or are set apart from) their surroundings has an oblique relevance to their perceived "beauty."  In no particular order (but numbered, nonetheless):
...



4.  Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA - (1) Intimate campus, (2) California climate, (3) urban location, etc.  There are plenty other colleges in/near Los Angeles that benefit from these things; but Occidental didn't assume these alone are enough to ensure beauty (see Pepperdine, below).  The small campus also has plenty of impossibly picturesque red tile-roofed buildings similar to those found at Stanford.  But really, Occidental's repeated selection as a film location is the best evidence of its beauty (e.g., Orange County, Pat and Mike, Clueless).  Apparently the campus in the movies that looks too-good-to-be-true really does exist.
...

OxyBob

[D O.C.]

Go on....Pepperdine was #1, right?

[Gray Fox]

Go on....Pepperdine was #1, right?

Stanford #1, Lewis and Clark #2

Pepperdine was Honorable Mention.

[Nihon Tiger]

They forgot to mention the most beautiful part of the Occidental campus: the view from Mt. Fiji at 4am.  Or at least the view of the entire city at night from the Norris dorms.

As for Lewis and Clark at #2, the authors must not care much about football, because that old-school turf field is about as hideous as it gets.  Frosh year I had my first ever start there, and wore Jordans because we couldn't find enough turf shoes at Goodwill or wherever you find shoes for fields from the 1870's.  It was like trying to play on a slip-n-slide. 

I guess the rest of the campus is okay if you can avoid the drum circles and pagan maypole dancing going on in the woods.  And if you weren't 12 when the Blair Witch Project came out like me. 

[D O.C.]

Good take on Lewis & Clark. It's all about that mansion down through the rose garden out to Mt. Hood.

Pepperdine could be revival tents and porta-potties. That view of the Pacific....

[OxyBob]

Go on....Pepperdine was #1, right?

Stanford #1, Lewis and Clark #2

According to the author:

In no particular order (but numbered, nonetheless)

OxyBob

[SJSUPhil]

Thank's Gig Harbor Cat. I've been up your way and was impressed by the natural beauty. Great football weather!

[Gig Harbor Cat]

Phil,
  Wish I could say the same about where you are at.( kidding of course)  My oldest son trained there while he was in the Marines.  Called it 29 stumps !!  He came out of there with a true appreciation of home, that is for sure.

Peace Out

GHC

[Kingsmen4]

CLU is going to surprise a lot of people this year.

[D O.C.]

...with their ghastly new uniforms.

[coco]

They forgot to mention the most beautiful part of the Occidental campus: the view from Mt. Fiji at 4am.  Or at least the view of the entire city at night from the Norris dorms.

As for Lewis and Clark at #2, the authors must not care much about football, because that old-school turf field is about as hideous as it gets.  Frosh year I had my first ever start there, and wore Jordans because we couldn't find enough turf shoes at Goodwill or wherever you find shoes for fields from the 1870's.  It was like trying to play on a slip-n-slide. 

I guess the rest of the campus is okay if you can avoid the drum circles and pagan maypole dancing going on in the woods.  And if you weren't 12 when the Blair Witch Project came out like me. 

That stinkin' L&C astroturf has caused some season-ending injuries to our players over the years. I hate their field. It's a pretty setting, but the parking is horrible and the field is the worst in the conference.
That said, I still wish them well this season. I'm just glad we don't have to play there.

[Gig Harbor Cat]

Hey Oxy Bob are you sporting your new Catdome shirt today ??  You did say that you wanted us to send you a medium shirt so you can show off your pecs, right ??  Drives the chicks crazy huh ?

Feel free to cut the sleeves off so you can show off your tats like I do

Peace Out

Gig Harbor Cat

[reality check]

I just wanted to chime in on the predicted record thing.  As the writer of the SCIAC preview in Kickoff for the last two years, I have based my forecasts on a number of factors beyond "who was picked last year?".  I think this year picking Redlands over Oxy in the pre-season was based on the fact that after countless hours of research and interviews, learning that Selway looked better in camp than he did before his injury last year, the return of a favorite receiving target from Selway's 2007 campaign and the possible questions regarding new personnel in OXY's offense coupled with the fact that road teams have been winning the OXY/RED machups a lot lately all made sense to give Redlands a slight edge.  If I'm wrong, I'm wrong and I guess that makes me human.  As long as the criteria I look at in my research leans one way, I have no problem picking (and even being wrong) the same team multiple years in a row.  Of course, there's something to be said for a team constantly winning in spite of looking like the deck is stacked against them.  We will all see in a couple weeks I suppose.

I follow the SCIAC closely because of my writing obligation and as a football coach myself in the southwest, I use this as an avenue to introduce my high school kids to consider the division III route.  I am hopeful to be sending some kids soon enough to southern California for college degrees and pursuit of intercollegiate football.

As far as this year goes though, I have picked 10 of 12 games correctly involving the SCIAC schools and the two I have missed are by a combined 8 points.  (I had Sul Ross over Whittier because the game was in Texas and I picked Redlands to lose a close one at Whitworth).  I can definitely live with the predictions so far this season.

Best of luck to all the SCIAC schools as we march through the 2009 season.  Thanks guys!