Dec. 6, 2004
Football Wrapup
Despite finishing alone in fourth place in the Big Ten, the football team ended up one win short of being bowl eligible. The loss at Hawaii was a difficult one for the team, since the players and coaches knew we would have gone to the Music City Bowl with a victory over Hawaii. As it worked out, the Hawaii game only hurt us (we would have been 6-5 and bowl eligible if we hadn't played Hawaii). Interestingly, prior to the Hawaii game we had petitioned the NCAA for a ruling that we should be bowl eligible even if we lost to Hawaii because we were not using the 12th game to be bowl eligible, but the NCAA denied our petition. Despite this, the trip provided a great opportunity for our players to see another part of the country and to learn about the culture of the Hawaiian Islands. A highlight of the trip was a special tour of the Pearl Harbor memorial. We also had a great alumni turnout for the trip and had approximately 1,000 fans at the game. There were many highlights of the season, including wins over Ohio State and Purdue, an NCAA-record four overtime games (with a 3-1 record in these games) and All-Big Ten honors for Tim McGargle, Noah Herron, Zach Strief and Luis Castillo. Luis and Jeff Backes deserve special mention for both earning first-team Academic All-America honors. In January, Randy Walker will accept the AFCA's Academic Achievement Award for having the highest graduation rate of all football teams in Division IA.
Men's Soccer
The men's soccer team ended its record-breaking season with a hard-fought 3-2 loss to 16th-ranked Creighton in the second round of the NCAA tournament. We hosted a first-round NCAA game against Western Illinois, and won 4-1 before an exuberant crowd. With all of our starters returning, the future of the men's soccer program is very bright.
New Recruiting Policy
In the wake of last year's recruiting investigation at the University of Colorado, the NCAA required all schools to have written policies this year regarding the recruitment of prospective students athletes. The policies must specifically prohibit the use of charter planes, visits to strip cubs and other items that led to abuses in the past. The new policies had to be approved by each school's president by December 1. There was a consensus among athletic administrators that recruiting practices had become excessive and too often gave recruits a sense of entitlement. We had begun working on a new policy prior to the NCAA's requirement. The work was done by a special committee that involved student athletes, coaches and administrators. We wanted to ensure that recruits would get a true sense of what it is like to be a student-athlete at Northwestern, while also ensuring that we comply with all NCAA rules. We decided to focus on the student-athlete hosts - we now require all hosts to go through a training session and insist that they do not drink any alcohol when hosting a recruit, even if they are older than 21.
Happy Holidays
With finals coming up soon, our winter teams will be out of action for the next week. We will have a number of home athletic contests over the holiday season, though, including home men's basketball games against DePaul, Seton Hall, Robert Morris and the women's basketball field trip game on December 14 against UIC (if you're never been to our field trip game - I encourage you to attend. The game is at noon and we will have approximately 3,000 local elementary and middle school students at the game. Needless to say, it is a frenzied atmosphere). We are also hosting the annual Midlands wrestling tournament after Christmas.
Happy Holidays to all of our fans and supporters!