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Winter Football Begins in 2 weeks for NAIA Programs!!!


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If any of you are needing a football fix in the near future, the State's NAIA programs begin their season in a couple of weeks.  Look for St. Francis, Marian, Taylor and IWU on the Grid Iron soon. It's gonna be cold, but these athletes and coaches have been working hard to prepare!!  If you get a chance, go out and support them! If youhave never been to see these teams, I think you will be surprised at the High QUality of play.  St. Francis and Marian are pernnial national powers at this level and the rosters are full of Indiana kids!!   Put on your long underwear and head to one of these stadiums!  

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1 hour ago, Coach P said:

If any of you are needing a football fix in the near future, the State's NAIA programs begin their season in a couple of weeks.  Look for St. Francis, Marian, Taylor and IWU on the Grid Iron soon. It's gonna be cold, but these athletes and coaches have been working hard to prepare!!  If you get a chance, go out and support them! If youhave never been to see these teams, I think you will be surprised at the High QUality of play.  St. Francis and Marian are pernnial national powers at this level and the rosters are full of Indiana kids!!   Put on your long underwear and head to one of these stadiums!  

I would love to go watch some NAIA and D3 football around the state this spring.  

Any idea how ticketing will work? I am assuming it will be a school by school (county by county) situation for tickets.  I would hate for a parent or grandparent to not be able to see their athlete.  As long as there are extras available, I hope to see at least one game this spring. 

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I know for sure, Families will get in. But you are right about the county by county thing.  I would suggest calling the athletic departments at your chosend school and enquiring.  I am sure Marian will have tougher standards then others, because Marion County is more restricted then others right now. I think St. Francis will be more open then some of the others. 

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I almost couldn't believe it when the HCAC (confernce of my alma mater) announced a spring season with the first game being February 27th. I wanted to say "don't these yahoo's know how freaking cold Indiana and Ohio can be in February?" especially considering practices have to be starting soon if they have not already. Temperatures well below freezing especially in North Manchester, Defiance and Bluffton these next few weeks! BRRRRR 🥶

I'm glad the boys will get to play a season, but at the same time, it's too bad they could have pushed it back to a start in beginning of April and just run through mid-May. I know classes/finals are usually the first week of May and what not, but baseball and softball teams regularly stick around after classes end if they make it into national tournament play. I feel like they could have done a 7 week season doing this:

Week 1: 4/3
Week 2: 4/10
Week 3: 4/17
Week 4: 4/24
Week 5: 5/1
Week 6: BYE WEEK during finals*
Week 7: 5/15
Week 8: 5/22

Seems very strange to me that they are trying to start the season in February and be finished by April 10th when they could just keep kids on campus for an extra 2 weeks (and focusing just on football), but I digress.

*assuming everyone has finals the same week. If they don't... I guess I can understand the reason for starting the season so early.

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51 minutes ago, NLCTigerFan07 said:

I almost couldn't believe it when the HCAC (confernce of my alma mater) announced a spring season with the first game being February 27th. I wanted to say "don't these yahoo's know how freaking cold Indiana and Ohio can be in February?" especially considering practices have to be starting soon if they have not already. Temperatures well below freezing especially in North Manchester, Defiance and Bluffton these next few weeks! BRRRRR 🥶

I'm glad the boys will get to play a season, but at the same time, it's too bad they could have pushed it back to a start in beginning of April and just run through mid-May. I know classes/finals are usually the first week of May and what not, but baseball and softball teams regularly stick around after classes end if they make it into national tournament play. I feel like they could have done a 7 week season doing this:

Week 1: 4/3
Week 2: 4/10
Week 3: 4/17
Week 4: 4/24
Week 5: 5/1
Week 6: BYE WEEK during finals*
Week 7: 5/15
Week 8: 5/22

Seems very strange to me that they are trying to start the season in February and be finished by April 10th when they could just keep kids on campus for an extra 2 weeks (and focusing just on football), but I digress.

*assuming everyone has finals the same week. If they don't... I guess I can understand the reason for starting the season so early.

With football hopefully being played in the fall, I think some of these schools wanted to get the season done a little earlier so that they’ve got a bigger gap in between seasons. Playing in April and May then playing again in fall would be a tall task. 

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9 hours ago, Coach P said:

If any of you are needing a football fix in the near future, the State's NAIA programs begin their season in a couple of weeks.  Look for St. Francis, Marian, Taylor and IWU on the Grid Iron soon. It's gonna be cold, but these athletes and coaches have been working hard to prepare!!  If you get a chance, go out and support them! If youhave never been to see these teams, I think you will be surprised at the High QUality of play.  St. Francis and Marian are pernnial national powers at this level and the rosters are full of Indiana kids!!   Put on your long underwear and head to one of these stadiums!  

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks for sharing Coach P.

LET'S GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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1 hour ago, Coach P said:

I would bet you, that Marian and St. Francis in most years would beat UIndy and Butler and compete with ISU.  SO Yes in your thinking of their classification, you are right, but in terms of talent.... I disagree.

St. Francis hammered Butler on multiple occasions And in one meeting with ISU St. Francis won 41-10.

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21 minutes ago, Whiting89 said:

Yeah back in my 2000 valpo hammered St Francis 

Come again? St. Francis beat Valpo that year 34-30. The Cougars beat Butler 56-37 the week before. 

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7 hours ago, Coach P said:

I would bet you, that Marian and St. Francis in most years would beat UIndy and Butler and compete with ISU.  SO Yes in your thinking of their classification, you are right, but in terms of talent.... I disagree.

St. Francis is 5-0 vs Division I (FCS)..............all blowouts. 

I'm not sure how Marian has done against higher level programs, but they are 8-7 vs St. Francis. Two solid football programs. 

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1 minute ago, Whiting89 said:

Oops mixed up at Francis and tri state my bad

To be fair, Valpo did hand it to the Cougars in 1999.............34-6. Also to be fair, that was only the second year of the young St. Francis football program. By year three, coach Kevin Donley had them competing on a national level. 

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Looking forward to it!!!

And at least on the NCAA D3 level these young men won’t lose a year of eligibility. So 7 games are essentially spring football. 
 

These athletes and coaches and their staffs have worked hard to prepare and have the opportunity to play this season. 

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3 hours ago, psaboy said:

Is it just NAIA or is D3 playing as well? I know it is probably, would be nice to have so TV coverage as well.

The Heartland Conference has a seven week schedule beginning 2/27.  Indiana D3 schools in the HCAC are Anderson, Franklin, Hanover, Manchester, and Rose.  

http://www.heartlandconf.org/calendar.aspx?path=football

 

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On 2/4/2021 at 12:48 PM, Whiting89 said:

fbs > fcs > d2 > naia > d3

however top d3 and naia can certainly compete with lower end fcs

Correct but schools like Valpo and Butler don't offer athletic scholarships so they are closer to D3 schools. It would not be an upset if a decent NAIA team beat Butler or Valpo. NAIA football is Indiana is some of the best in the country. St. Francis and Marian have both won national championships in the last 10 years. Indiana Wesleyan is catching up. Taylor is generally competitive with those teams but hasn't become a consistent winner yet. St. Xavier, Sienna Heights, and Concordia have all been highly ranked out of that conference as well.

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On 2/4/2021 at 12:48 PM, Whiting89 said:

fbs > fcs > d2 > naia > d3

however top d3 and naia can certainly compete with lower end fcs

I always thought it was D3 above NAIA?? I know Trine (was Tri State at the time I think) went from NAIA to D3 years ago, so thought they would take step u, not down?? Guess I'm wrong?

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1 hour ago, psaboy said:

I always thought it was D3 above NAIA?? I know Trine (was Tri State at the time I think) went from NAIA to D3 years ago, so thought they would take step u, not down?? Guess I'm wrong?

In terms of athletic scholarship money naia is higher. But I believe there are some d3 with large academic scholarships that pay more then naia.

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