16 Years of Northwest Conference Dominance

They keep coming and Linfield keeps sending 'em back.

On December 31st 2009, we review the first full decade of the realignment of the Northwest Conference (The NWC regrouped in 1996 as the Northwest Conference of Independent Colleges (NCIC) and then officially named back to the Northwest Conference in 1998). Each season we take a look at the numbers but one thing has remained the same, Linfield on top.
 

It’s still staggering how Linfield has absolutely dominated what is an very good conference on the division III level. There is nothing any other team in the NWC that can dispute what Linfield has continued to accomplish year after year.

 
154 victories since the 2000 season.  Whitworth actually just overtook PLU this past season in overall number of victories with 101 and 57 NWC wins but that's still nearly 30 less conference victories that the 'Cats during that time.  Along with that, only 6 NWC losses over a 16 year period? That's truly remarkable.

There are others stats that leap out at you in terms of where Linfield has made their mark.  24 playoff victories (next closest is PLU with 3), 13 NWC titles (nearest team is Whitworth with 3), 189 1st team conference honors (that’s more than the next two teams combined (Willamette/PLU = 162)), and has Linfield's won 89.9% of their home games (Whitworth is next at 67.5%).

Another area to look at is the D3football.com All-American totals since 2000.  Linfield has 21 1st-Team All-Americans since 2000, the rest of the Northwest Conference has 6 combined.  Wow.

The data is staggering to me when you considered that the Northwest Conference is a darn good conference.  There's no secret why this has happened. It's been consistence that's the program reaches on a yearly basis on the back of hard work.  No shortcuts, no gimmicks.  Linfield will continue to be the team to beat year after year because of the commitment of this staff, players, administration, and support community that do things the right way....the Linfield way. 

Decade Records (2000-15) (I've now included Pacific’s data from the past 6 seasons into the mix.  Their percentages are big enough now to include and slot them accordingly.)

 
Overall Record (Winning Percentage)
Linfield.............154-24  (86.5%) 
Whitworth.........101-56   (64.3%)
PLU.................92-58    (61.3%)
Willamette........90-67    (57.3%)

Pacific……….23-33   (41.7%)
UPS................42-103    (29%)
L&C................32-107     (23%)

NWC Record
Linfield............85-6     (93.4%) 
Whitworth.........57-34   (62.6%)  
PLU.................56-35   (61.5%)
Willamette.......52-39  (57.1%)

Pacific……….16-22  (42.1%)
UPS..............19-72   (20.9%)
L&C...............13-73   (14.3%)

Home Record
Linfield............86-10   (89.9%)
Whitworth......54-26  (67.5%)
Willamette......50-32  (61%)
PLU................43-28  (60.5%)

Pacific……….11-15   (42.3%)
L&C................19-50  (27.5%)
UPS................22-52  (29.7%)

Road Record
Linfield..........68-15  (83%)
PLU...............49-25  (66.2%)
Whitworth.......50-30  (62.5%)
Willamette.....40-36  (52.6%)

Pacific………12-18 (28.1)
UPS..............20-51 (28.1%)
L&C...............13-57  (18.6%)

Playoff Record
Linfield.........24-11
PLU.............3-3
Whitworth......1-3
Willamette.....1-2

NWC 1st Place Finishes
Linfield............13 (2-tie)
Whitworth.......3 (1-tie)
Willamette......1
PLU..............1 (1-tie)

Pacific………1 (1-tie)

Conference Honors (2000-15)

Coach Of The Year
Linfield..........13
Whitworth......3
Willamette......1

Offense Player of the Year
Linfield.........9
Whitworth.....4
Willamette....3
PLU..............2
Lewis & Clark...1

Defensive Player of the Year
Linfield........12
Whitworth....4
Willamette....4
PLU............ 2

NWC 1st Team Players
Linfield.......189  (11.8 per year)
Willamette....89  (5.6 per year) 
Whitworth....73 (4.6 per year)
PLU.............69 (4.3 per year)

Pacific…….13  (2.2 per year)
UPS.............22 (1.5 per year)
L&C..............15 (.09 per year)

D3football.com All-American Players
Linfield.......42
PLU....11
Willamette....11
Whitworth.............9
L&C.............1
UPS..............0

Pacific……..0

D3football.com All-American 1st Team Players
Linfield.......21
Whitworth....2
PLU....2
L&C.............1
Willamette..............1

UPS.............0

Pacific……..0

Team Statistics (Averages) (2000-15)

(I excluded the 2005 stats from L&C since they only played 4 non-conference games and canceled their NWC games.  Their total numbers were divided against 14 season (rest of the teams total numbers are divided against the 14 previous seasons.  Also, I've now included Pacific's first 5 seasons (2010-14) into the avg totals.  Comparing 15 seasons worth of data against 5 may not be very fair but they had to join the party at some point.) We’ll add GFU once they have a larger sample size (at 3 seasons)

Points Per Game
Linfield..........40.0 PPG
Willamette...............30.1 PPG
PLU......29.4 PPG
Whitworth......29.2 PPG
Pacific...........26.9 PPG
UPS...............21.9 PPG

L&C...............20.5 PPG

Points Allowed Per Game
Linfield..........16.8 PPG
PLU...............22.9 PPG

Whitworth....23.1 PPG
Willamette....24.2 PPG
Pacific............33.0 PPG
UPS...............34.8 PPG
L&C..............41 PPG

Pass Offense Per Game
Linfield.........275.1 YPG
Pacific........... 254.1 YPG
PLU..............238.5YPG
Whitworth.....222.9 YPG

L&C..............219.5 YPG
UPS..............190.1 YPG
Willamette....152.9 YPG

Pass Defense Per Game
Linfield........186.9 YPG
PLU..............197.9 YPG
Whitworth.....206.6 YPG
Willamette....212.7 YPG
L&C..............221.6 YPG
UPS..............226.8 YPG
Pacific..........247.6 YPG

Rushing Offense Per Game
Willamette....238.3 YPG
Linfield.......167.6 YPG
Whitworth.............155.7 YPG
PLU.............149.6 YPG

UPS........144.8 YPG
L&C.............122.0 YPG
Pacific............106.3 YPG

Rushing Defense Per Game
Linfield........106.4 YPG
Willamette....137.8 YPG
PLU.............144.7 YPG
Whitworth....154.6 YPG
Pacific.........161.0 YPG
UPS.............182.9 YPG
L&C.............222.1 YPG

Total Offense Per Game
Linfield........442.7 YPG
Willamette...391.2 YPG
PLU............388.0 YPG
Whitworth..378.6 YPG
Pacific.............360.3 YPG 
L&C.........341.4 YPG
UPS.........335.0 YPG

Total Defense Per Game
Linfield........293.0 YPG
PLU.............340.4 YPG  
Willamette....355.5 YPG 
Whitworth....356.7 YPG
Pacific.........403.7 YPG
UPS.............408.5 YPG
L&C.............442.7 YPG

Avg. Sacks Per Season
Linfield........37.0
PLU.............24.2
Willamette....22.4
Pacific...........20.8
Whitworth......18.4
UPS.............12.9

L&C.............12.8


Avg. Turnover Margin Per Season
Linfield........+10.9
Whitworth...+9.9
Willamette...+4.8
PLU............0.1
Pacific...........-0.2  
UPS............-4.8
L&C..... -6.1