FB: Midwest Conference

[SNCOLDAD]

For those of you interested, Lake Forest did have a player taken off the field on a stretcher as stated earlier. He was on his feet after the play and then he went down. They immediately held his helmet steady until the paramedics woke up at the other end of the field. He was immobilized for precautionary. I was told after the game by a trainer that he had some numbness on one side. Prayers to the player.

And Roop. I do look forward to the Beloit game. Let's see. LFC on the very first play from scrimmage ran for a TD. They did not score again until late in the 4th quarter if I remember correctly. Not that it matters, as all teams can have issues, but SNC had 12 guys out with the flu. They were moving guys out of their normal residences to quarantine them as precautionary measures. But those things happen.

GO GREEN KNIGHTS

[The Roop]

I know it's tempting to look past Monmouth to the Beloit game, but look what happened to Beloit when they looked past Monmouth. Scots could be for real this year so I'd keep an eye on them.

[Redmen09]

MC- 55  CU - 10
BC- 28  KC- 7
LU- 10  GC- 35
SNC-38  LFC- 14

....not bad predictions. too bad vegas doesnt handle mwc football

[The Roop]

The "good ole boys club" has voted. Monmouth is stuck at 11, AGAIN, while 1-2 Ohio Northern remains in the poll at 16. Not sure losing to Mt. Union by 20 justifies that much respect; especially when you drop two straight.

[Mr. Ypsi]

The "good ole boys club" has voted. Monmouth is stuck at 11, AGAIN, while 1-2 Ohio Northern remains in the poll at 16. Not sure losing to Mt. Union by 20 justifies that much respect; especially when you drop two straight.

Bear in mind that ONU was tied with MUC at halftime - I'd guess you could count the number of teams who have pulled that off in the last decade without taking off your shoes!   Their other loss was by two points AT (now) #13 Otterbein. 

And that 2-point loss on the road to a very good team DID cost them 156 points and 7 slots!  You want 'em drawn-and-quartered too?

[Pat Coleman]

And they've still beaten North Central, which is a better team than anyone in the MWC is playing this year. They opened the season with three ranked teams.

What has Monmouth done in 2009 to deserve a No. 11 ranking, let alone something higher?

[SNCOLDAD]

You tell 'em Pat. 

At least SNC beat a ranked team the first week of the season.    Come On Wartburg. Keep Winning. 

[tm343407]

I agree that Ohio Northern is worth a Top 25 spot, but why did Central vault ahead of Monmouth? They haven't really beaten anyone other than Stevens Point, who was only ranked so high because of last year's upset of Whitewater. That one is a head scratcher to me. Tough to rank all these teams though so I'm not being critical, just wondering.

[scottie]

Here we go.....   

The reality of it all, I guess, is that MC is lucky even to be in the top 25, or receiving votes, right?  Never mind that they could probably be averaging  close to 100 ppg in the MWC so far if they kept the 1st stringers for much longer than a half per game - 3 of whom this very source, somehow, named preseason All-Americans.  What were they thinking???   No team in the MWC should ever be nationally ranked in any sport.....ever.  Our unbiased webmaster might not publicly agree, but my guess is that he's nodding approvingly while filling out next weeks ballot already and mucking with my karma points.   

Please note:  I did not start this conversation.     

[MWCfan787]

I'd say Ohio Northern definitely the 16th best team in the nation or better....but I think you should be punished in the poll for being 1-2, unless you played 3 quality Division 1 or Division 2 teams with scholarships.  It's the poll for week 4...not what you think the final poll is gonna be.  Comparison: If say preseason unranked Tennessee (Ohio Northern) opens with a win against Penn State (North Central), then drops two straight to Florida (Mount Union), and Georgia (Otterbein).......are they still ranked 16th in the polls?

What I don't get is how a win over Coe allows Central to jump Monmouth.  Yes, Central's win over Stevens Point was impressive but why wouldn't they have been ahead of the Scots last week? Why the jump this week?

It just seems weird for Monmouth to keep winning (and winning big like they should against some weaker teams on their schedule) but to keep getting jumped by teams.  Feels like voters are finding ways to keep the Scots out of the top 10 until they win playoff games.

I guess the Scots regular season schedule is so weak that voters feel 10 teams would put up even better numbers against who Monmouth plays.  Really a diss to the whole conference and the whole conference should look at that, feel disrepected, and step their game up.  I mean Pat thinks they shouldn't even be #11.  Dunno its hard to improve your overall conference perception when everyone only plays 1 non-conference game a year.

Lawrence: you lost to Monmouth 56-3 and the first string played one series in the second half, but against 10 or more teams it would've been worse

Beloit: you lost to Monmouth 58-0, but against the best team or someone good from the Roop's aforementioned "good ole boy" conferences (OAC, WIAC, MIAC, CCIW, ASC, E8, NJAC, ACFC) it prolly would've been 98-0

Carroll: you lost to Monmouth 41-3, but well you lost to Beloit (sorry Roop), that means a "GOB" team would simply take the field and trip into a hundred point victory

Loras: your 19 point loss to Monmouth means you should prolly just give it up and drop the football program

St. Norbert/Ripon: If you beat Monmouth this year....don't even get excited unless you blow them out.

Nationally noone believes in Monmouth yet, and I've realized as an MC fan that I actually prefer that.  In fact I'm rooting for SNC to go 9-1, get in, and for 2 MWC teams to make playoff runs.

Down with GOBs!

[The Roop]

How does the saying go "You shouldn't punish a team in the rankings for their conference schedule because they have no control over it " ?? Well if that's true then you shouldn't over-reward (beyond their record) other teams for their conference schedule either. MWCfan787 sums that up perfectly in his first sentence.

I think Monmouth is a top 5 team but it's hard to prove that with only 1 non-conference game to work with each year. Given the way the west bracket is likely to shake out they may have a top 10 opponent in the 2nd round. Then if they lose everybody will say "Yup, same old MWC again."

[The Roop]

Here's kind of what I have in mind for the west bracket. And yes I deliberately created a nightmare scenario for the NCAA with 3 west coast teams as there is an undefeated Pool B candidate out there at the moment. The rest involves some imaginary crystal ball work and how economics effect seedings.

Linfield A
@UW-Whitewater A

Redlands B
@Occidental A

Wheaton C
@St. Johns A

Monmouth A
@Central A

[janesvilleflash]

Simple solution. WIAC is begging for games. Use the one game you have and schedule them.

[The Roop]

Easier said than done as the two conferences have a different number of teams. Besides, I haven't heard of the WIAC begging for games from MWC teams recently. Instead the idea is to schedule non-conference games against conference opponents to save on travel.

[BoBo]

Easier said than done as the two conferences have a different number of teams. Besides, I haven't heard of the WIAC begging for games from MWC teams recently. Instead the idea is to schedule non-conference games against conference opponents to save on travel.

That's kind of the last gasp alternative, sort of like, if hell freezes over tomorrow . Playing a conference foe twice is one of those, been there, done that scenarios - no one really wants for that to happen again.  What I think the conference prefers are games vs schools within the state or within a certain radius of bordering states, rather than having to travel to Texas, California, North Dakota, Washington, Tennessee, Florida, Oregon, Ohio, and the beat goes on, etc. for games. I don't know Roop, it seems a lot easier than you think!! The MWC needs notoriety, the WIAC needs games close to home. The unbalanced leagues shouldn't be a show-stopper. Sounds to me like a match made in heaven!! The perception I get is when push comes to shove, you're willing to back down. It's a two-way street - you can't have it both ways.  Someone has to put their money where their mouth is, or it's just blowing hot air.