2003 Around the Midwest columns

December 28, 2003 What have we learned? It is difficult to believe but the 2003 Division III football season has already drawn to a close. It was a memorable year fraught with fantastic games, outstanding individual performances by some remarkably-talented players, great coaching efforts, controversy over debatable NCAA policies (from my perspective, anyway), and, finally, one amazing finish.

November 19, 2003 Wheaton completes CCIW run By the narrowest of margins, No. 5 Wheaton clinched its second consecutive CCIW championship and earned the league’s automatic berth to the postseason, defeating rival Augustana.

November 11, 2003 Hanover joins the playoff party Welcome to the race for second place, Hanover. On Saturday, the Panthers punched their ticket to the 2003 playoffs by earning their second consecutive and eighth overall Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship with a 26-24 victory against Mount St. Joseph. As the score indicates, though, it was anything but easy.

November 4, 2003 Midwest boasts playoffs' first entrants Not only were St. Norbert and Concordia (Wis.) the first teams in the Midwest Region to secure their respective league titles and earn their conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III playoffs, but the Green Knights and the Falcons were the first squads in the nation to accomplish those feats.

October 28, 2003 Only one offense lived up to its ranking What was billed as a potential shootout between HCAC rivals Hanover and Anderson, the nation’s two most potent offenses, turned out to be an old-fashioned blowout.

October 21, 2003 North Central bites one of CCIW's big four In what is already an intriguing CCIW championship race, North Central made a little more interesting on Saturday in thrilling fashion.

October 14, 2003 WIAC to D-III: Predict this! Once more, the WIAC is proving that one can never predict the unpredictable, that the unexpected should be expected, and that no week is an "off" week in the nation's most capricious and cutthroat conference.

October 7, 2003 Illini-Badger will have new representation MacMurray’s two-year reign as league champion appears to be at an end and the Muskies’ 46-point victory versus the Highlanders certainly qualifies them as a candidate to fill that void.

September 30, 2003 Collisions, concussions a serious matter With all the hype, fanfare, endless promotion, and heated rhetoric that surrounds the sport, it is easy to forget that football is still just a game. Now and then, an unfortunate and frightening chance event takes place that provides perspective and reminds us all of that fact.

September 23, 2003 CCIW takes over top honors for a week Last week I championed the cause of the WIAC as the nation’s overall top conference. While that still holds true, the CCIW can claim top honors for this week based on last weekend’s performance. The supporting numbers are indisputably impressive.

September 16, 2003 WIAC again shows it's the best With two weeks of the 2003 season complete, non-conference and early-season conference matchups across the Midwest region have unveiled some top contenders while other races are still greatly muddled.

September 9, 2003 High score nearly impossible to grasp Final score: 105-0. That’s right, no mistakes, no kidding…105-0. While it is nearly impossible to fathom for anyone who has played, coached, been a fan of, or even ever watched a quarter of football, that was indeed the actual score of a Division III contest from Week 1 of the 2003 season.

September 1, 2003 2003 regional preview To kick this column off and to preview the upcoming season in the Midwest region, each conference will be broken down into playoff favorites, contenders and a darkhorse.