FB: Midwest Conference

[MWC_ALUM_07]

Knox @ St. Norberts...no contest for Green Knights (40 +)
Lake Forest @ Beloit...The Foresters by 21
Carroll @ Ripon...Close battle, D prevails, Pios by 3
IC @ Lawrence...Blue Boys by 14
Grinnell @ Monmouth...Scots pound I-Pios by 30 +

CCALUM23...Gould is a very good player but it is easy to tell that you just recently graduated because you know the current team so well and tend to favor your former teammates. Trust me that is not a bad thing, in fact it is good to hear. Keep the info coming.

1morefan...Even I know the rivalry between Carroll and Ripon and to see a pioneer alum pick the red hawks is very shocking to be honest. Did someone wish they were a red hawk???

[CCAlum23]

MWC_Alum_07-  Thank you very much for backing me up on that!   I do still know the team very well and yeah I may be a little bias of Carroll but I will try to be fair on here.  As recents grads I think we both have a good understanding of what teams are going to compete.  And I agree with all of your pics for week 5! 

1more fan who are you??Wishing to be a RedHawk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[fmrredwarmer]

Without question, St. Norbert's is the team to beat.  Monmouth is second, and from there on the pot is mixed; I would think that Ripon, Carroll, and IC would be the next 3 who could compete.  Ripon has beaten 1 of those 2 soundly, but IC is a good team that I believe could still beat any of the other 4 teams mentioned.  Carroll at Ripon this week is the game to watch, is Ripon for real or is Carroll's defense that good?

I think Ripon will win a very close game
the other four games are not very interesting in my mind.
IC, Lake Forsest, Monmouth and St. Norbert's all win easily.

[1morefan]

Well, first off I want to say in no way shape or form have I ever wanted to be a red-hawk! I think Ripon is the team I despised the most in the conference, without the "classiest" program in the conference – loved having a Ripon coaches come on to the field and try to pick a fight with myself and another Carroll player at van male.

Secondly, I loved my experience playing at Carroll and had a great time with my teammates while there and wouldn't have wanted to go anywhere else. But I'm not a homer – I believe its going to be a great game and an extremely close game, I want Carroll to win this game and get revenge for last years loss on our HC! But here's the point; looking back at the Ripon Carroll games the home teams have done better (minus last season's loss on homecoming). The last time that Carroll beat Ripon at Ripon was back in 1992, the home teams have dominated this series. So that's why I decided to go with Ripon here.

[Scots4]

Norbs 56-0
Lake Forest 31-6
Ripon 21-10
IC 38-7
Monmouth 45-0

[Duck Duck Goose]

Alright, time to chime in with this week's picks, brought to all of us by the Waukesha County Department of Transportation, just get the road blocks out of the way so we can get to the stadium!!!

KC @ SNC - SNC rolls obviously, but remember they have not defended the Greatest Offensive System Ever^TM well, so I'll spot Knox a few.   SNC 49 KC 10.

LFC @ BC - Come on now Foresters, you're making my preseason statements look bad........      LFC 31 BC 7.

IC @ LU - While we have yet to obtain enough info about everyone in this league to make concrete statements, I know one we can feel pretty sure about.       IC 40 LU 13.

GC @ MC - I think MC will get into double digits in this one.  MC 45 GC 3.

CC @ RC - I've really gone back and forth on this one, not on who is going to win, but the score.  Carroll's D is a force, but so is Ripon's (Seriously, did you SEE that IC score?  Seriously??!?!?!?!! ), and the Greatest Offensive System^TM will likely be running at full throttle.  RC is on a mission this year, and its unlikely that Carroll is the one to stop it.     RC 27 CC 13.

[CCAlum23]

Here our my Week 5 pic's!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IC at Lawerance-  IC revenges on last weeks loss and beats Lawerance in the Banta Bowl!! IC Wins 35-7

Lake Forest at Beloit-  Battle of the unbeatens!!!  Beloit has no big play makers, LF pulls out there first win 24-7

Grinnell at Monmouth-  Alex Tanney earned some of my respect for a freshmen he is darn good, Monmouth rolls Grinnell 45-7!!!

Knox at St.Norberts-  Will Judd O'Connell make it 5 games with over 100 yards recieving?  Norberts rolls the Praire Fire 52-10!!!!

Game Of The Week!! Carroll at Ripon!!
2 years ago Carroll crushed RC, Last year Ripon edged the Pios, This year??
Last years game was pretty darn good besides a couple big plays Ripon had!  The key to Carroll beating RC is stopping Scott Perkins!  Last year he torn us up and this year they will key on him alot more!  Carroll defense is full of studs and they are talented and disciplined!  Carroll offense has many threats too!  Earlier this week I said Carroll wins 21-10!  Now that I have had time to think about it, I am still going with Carroll over Ripon but Im gonna say a higher scoring game!  CC WINS  31-27!!!

[mwcfbdad]

Great to see some chatter on this site.Everyone with one loss or less is still alive in the
conference race.Everyone else is already playing for pride or at least a chance to knock someone  out of the race.I picked IC last week against Ripoon and boy was I wrong.I liked the hawks before the season but thought their D was a little suspect after the Lfc game.It looks like they have solved some problems on d with their showing at IC.I have not seen Carroll or Monmouth but it looks like both need some work on the O side of the ball.They will have to prove me wrong before I can count them as contenders.It's still early so some great game are still to be played. 

[rome]

Beloit Fans:

Was forcing DeGeorge out really the right move?

Any signs of life at Bel Wah?

Certainly there is no sign of scoring or moving the ball.

[mwcSNC]

No. 23 Midwest Conference (MWC)
2006 non-conference record: 4-6 (One team went 0-1 in the playoffs)
Reasoning at the time of Kickoff ranking: Rarely competitive with good teams from other conferences.
2007 non-conference record so far: 2-7
What's been established so far in '07: The size of the MWC (10 teams) leaves little time (1 game each) for non-conference play, and it hasn't been good for the conference of late anyway.


Was wondering what everyones thoughts were on this??  What changes do you think we could make to help the MWC move up in the rankings?

I think the whole idea of not being able to make off campus recruit visits is a joke and never understood why that rule is in place to begin with.  I think it would only help the caliber of play with in the MWC.  The other rule I never got was not being able to have Spring Ball, like so many other conferences do.  What does everyone else think?

[Maverick]

mwcSNC - I think, in general around here at least, you'll find most posters are with you on both of your points.  I know for me when I was in high school and had schools come visit me, despite not going there, I was still impressed by someone actually being able to come talk to me off campus.  However, I don't think that's as big a reason as not being able to have official and organized spring practices.  I think having the ability to do that would help out tremendously.  I know we've been round and round on this in season's past, but anyone else have some thoughts?

[CCAlum23]

mwcSNC- This is an issue that gets me fired up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I think its a horrible rule for our MWC coaches not being able to step into highschools and meet the recruits! It makes it much harder to get ur name out there!!!!  Also No spring ball is not right at all?  What is the problem with letting our teams go out there for a few weeks to get kinks out and prepare for the upcoming season!!!! 

Also, only playing 1 non-conference game is weak, it would be nice to get a couple games under your belt and get the kinks out before starting the conference season!!!! Look at Lawerance this year, I dont think they even started off with a non-conference game!!

Perfect example of how it should be is Carthage College who Carroll has opened up against the past 4 years!  Carthage has spring ball!!!!!!!!!  Carthage has 3 non-conference games! and Im sure Carthage can recruit in highschools!  It is frustrating because its almost unfair!  Were on 40 miles away yet they get to do all those things that we cant but need!  If we can get recruiting on campus, spring ball, and more non-conference games the MWC could be a power house!! But until then theres only a few teams who can compete with the better teams out there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does any one agree with me??

[fmrredwarmer]

Agreeing with you is obvious...but it won't happen anytime soon and the reasons suck.  The MWC presidents want to hold this conference out as a educationally elite conference like the Ivy league.  And even bigger than that is the additional manpower (COSTS) it would take to have off campus recruiting.  I believe Ripon only has 2 full time coaches.  When are they going to go off campus?  You would have to hire someone to teach there classes and hire someone to make the phone calls necessary to set up the off campus visits; not to mention the travel expenses.
Believe me I think off campus recruiting would be awesome in the MWC but it isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Spring ball is a different story.  Baseball has fall ball, Basketball goes year round because it isn't that difficult to get together and work the skills.  Football could use the practice in the spring just to see who has worked hard over the winter and to experiment with new schemes without taking fall practice time when time is an issue.   

The costs involved are minimal if there are costs, the only issue is possibly taking away from academics; and as I mentioned earlier, the presidents see the MWC as an educationally elite conference and they will do nothing to dispel that view.

[fightintitan2006]

Can't argue with the previous posts completely, especially the spring football, but off campus recruiting isn't going to turn the MWC into a powerhouse.

Maybe you get a handful of guys you wouldn't have each year, but aside from Grinnell, these are regional institutions for the most part and they are known as well as any other D3 schools in their region. The UW schools have a dragnet over most of the talent in the state (for a lot less $) and many likely have All-MWC players on their second and third strings.

I would like to see more non-conference games as well, but how do you draw up the schedule fairly? The team who misses St. Norbert enters with a huge advantage...do you add a title game?

[wc2viking]

Good discussion.

Re: recruiting off campus
Honestly, I don't see the reasoning behind not allowing coaches to recruit off-campus.  It seems like any additional visibility for the school would be a good thing.  I do wonder how much it would help improve the strength of MWC football, though.  Especially in Wisconsin, the UW-system schools are always going to be cheaper and more attractive to players who want to experience the "big time" such as it is in D3.  UW-Whitewater's recent run of national success has made the WIAC even stronger.

Re: spring football
Don't hold your breath.  The conference recently allowed spring sports to have some optional practices in the fall.  Still, there was a lot of concern that these practices would not be considered "optional" by the coaches.  Would players really feel free to skip a practice to attend a tutoring session or some other academic activity?
The reasoning for allowing spring sports to have fall practices was that it would help new students get involved with their team when they first got to school.  Since spring football would not even have this advantage, I don't see the MWC ever allowing it.