2014 Around the Midwest columns

November 18, 2014 Big hills to climb Benedictine and Macalester each face tall orders on Saturday, as they travel to Wheaton and UW-Whitewater for first-round playoff games.

November 11, 2014 IC's seniors get one more shot Michael Bates and the Illinois College Blueboys went to the playoffs as freshmen. On Saturday they'll try to bookend their careers by clinching another trip.

November 4, 2014 Benedictine makes mess of NACC You can thank the Benedictine Eaglesand their 33-6 thrashing of defending NACC champion Concordia (Wis.) last Saturday, which turned the conference race upside down.

October 28, 2014 After dust settles, Franklin still the team to beat in HCAC Franklin looked to be on the ropes a few weeks into the season, but the Grizzlies have rebounded and now are firmly in control of the HCAC. Again.

October 21, 2014 Little Brass Bell is simply never just another game Wheaton and North Central have played for years with the Little Brass Bell on the line. And for most of the past decade with the CCIW title in the balance as well.

October 14, 2014 Consistent Carroll looks to climb Carroll has won 70 percent of its games the past five seasons, but that hasn't been enough to bring back a Midwest Conference title. This year could be different.

October 8, 2014 So far, Chicago not singing the blues For the second season in a row, the University of Chicago is off to a 4-0 start. The Maroons are hoping to avoid the slide that ended the 2013 season, however.

October 1, 2014 For Thornes, it's all in the family John Thorne announced this week he would be stepping aside at the end of the season to hand the reins to his son, but it's the rest of his family he's thinking of, too. More on the Thornes and the North Central family, too, in Around the Midwest.

September 23, 2014 Looking for a reboot Garrett Wenzelburger and the Concordia (Wis.) Falcons aren't off to a great start, but they have a bye week to put it all together.

September 17, 2014 Monmouth finds it takes two to fill Trey's shoes Trey Yocum is the standard-bearer for the Monmouth run game. But since his graduation, the Scots have doubled down on the ground with senior Michael Buehne and freshman Trent Rains.

September 10, 2014 Elation and deflation Austin Swenson looked a lot more like an exclamation point than a question mark for Rose-Hulman, while the Franklin community is dealing with the death of one of its own.

September 3, 2014 10 games to watch for 2014 Around the Midwest returns for another year, with a look at the top games involving teams from the region, which includes the CCIW, HCAC, MWC and NACC.