2012 NWC Pick 'em Contest: Week 1

'Catdome 24/7/365

Alright back in the saddle again!  If you're new to the blog every Thursday Wildcat11 shares with you his deep and profound thoughts on the upcoming weekend of games around the Northwest Conference and a few National Games.  Actually, the D3football.com posting board community has a number of conference pick 'em contests each season where posting members compete for the title of that board's picking champion.  Winning a pick 'em contest is an honor that won't get you a cup of coffee at the local mini-mart but you do have bragging rights over a group of people with nicknames like "sflzman", "bluenote", "(509)Rat", "Wildcat11", etc, etc.

Not to brag but you're reading the thoughts of the 2010 NWC pick 'em contest champion.  That's right.  But what I don't want to tell you is that I followed up that defense with a pedestrian 76% correct picking ratio last season (55 out of 72) in 2011.    It was ugly.  So this is a big year for old Wildcat11.  Can I get back to the top or will once again my early season faith in the Rats cripple my chances?  Let's get to week 1!

Northwest Conference:

Simon Fraser over Pacific (at Pacific):  THURSDAY NIGHT LIGHTS!!!!  The Boxers finally have players on their roster that will be in their 3rd year in the program.  That’s a big deal and they have some nice players dotting their roster.  They host for the 2nd consecutive year Division II member, Simon Fraser (Burnaby, Canada).  SFU is in their 1st official year as an NCAA Division II member as last season was a transition year for the Clan who put up a 3-7 mark on the season.  Pacific actually led this game last season before SFU rallied late to take the 36-28.  I expect the Boxers to be game once again this year against the Clan but SFU should be the favorite.

Sewanee over Puget Sound (at Sewanee (Sewanne, Tn.)):  Last year Sewanee flew up from Tennessee and pulled out a 34-23 win.  UPS will be better at QB this game with their now Sophomore QB showing some signs of being a solid player and a majority of their starters returning from last season.  Sewanee was a .500 last season and are gunning for another even record this season.  If UPS can stop the rushing attack of Sewanee then this is a game the Loggers can have but I’ll take the Tigers to edge out UPS.

Whitworth over College of St. Scholastica (at St. Scholastica (Duluth, Minn.)):  Out of the Whitworth camp you keep hearing that they’re opening up the season against a 2011 playoff team.  That would be impressive if St. Scholastic and their auto-bid conference (UMAC) didn’t stink worse than the Riverbend landfill.  Yeah, St. Scholastica was 10-0 last season and for that prefect season they were rewarded the 8 seed out in the West and were slapped 48-2 by St. Thomas in the 1st round.  Just for reference, MIAC laughing stock Hamline lost to UST 49-0 last season.  The Rats should plaster this CSS team.

Hardin-Simmons over Willamette (at HSU (Abilene, Tx.)):  Abilene, Texas has not been kind to the Northwest Conference over the years.  Linfield, Whitworth, and Willamette are a combined 0-4 in the middle of West Texas.  Both Willamette and HSU are in transition.  Glen Fowles is in his first year at the helm of the Bearcats and are playing with the offense and defense schemes while HSU is year two into a new coaching regime.  HSU lost a number of seniors off of last season’s 6-4 squad but should have plenty of decent players to fill the gaps as expectations are the Cowboys are going to have a ASC contending season.  Willamette has talent and still a good roster but many have no idea where this team is going to go after a disappointing 4-6 2011 season.  I think this will be a competitive game but I’m giving HSU and Abilene the slight edge.

West Region Game of the Week:

Coe over Monmouth (at Coe):  Monmouth lost their all-everything quarterback last season and should have a considerable backslide.  Coe football’s twitter handle has ripped off our “Expect To Win” mantra (see the ETW hash tag) so as much as I’d like to see them get slapped I’m still expecting the Kohawks to win.

National Game of the Week that’s not played in the United States:

St. Norbert over John Carroll (Dublin, Ireland):  I don’t know what’s cooler?  Playing a football game in Ireland or playing a football game in Ireland, in a stadium with the name of “Donnybrook Stadium”.  That just sounds like a place American Football should be played at where fans get free pints of dark beer.  Should be a close one between two slightly above average D3 schools but I’ll take the Green Knights.