Sept. 20, 2005
Big Ten Schedule
After finishing the nonconference portion of the schedule with a 2-1 record, our football team opens Big Ten play this weekend against Penn State at home. Penn State comes in with a 3-0 record and a lot of optimism in light of a number of highly regarded freshmen in their most recent recruiting class. We've beaten Penn State two years in a row, and this will be a very important game to both teams. Our Big Ten home schedule is very attractive this year -- with games against Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa following the Penn State game. With classes starting this week, we should have a good student turnout for the game this week, which should make for a great atmosphere. With our first two conference games at home this year, we have a chance to get off to a quick start in league play -- our team has played with great confidence at home recently and has won seven consecutive home games.
Fast Starts
A number of our fall teams are off to great starts this fall. The volleyball team deserves special mention for their performance this year. They are 9-1 now, with their only loss coming to nationally ranked Arizona. They have won tournaments the past two weekends and beat No. 20 Georgia Tech the previous weekend. The team was very young last year and took their lumps as they adjusted to the collegiate level, but head coach Keylor Chan has done a good job of bringing the team along last spring and this fall. They also open up Big Ten play this weekend. Our men's soccer team opened the season as our only nationally ranked fall team -- they were ranked 17th in the preseason poll. They are 4-2 now with losses to two nationally ranked teams and have had to overcome injuries to key players. The team is a veteran squad, and I look for them to play well in league play. Our women's soccer team has been a pleasant surprise so far. We have an excellent freshmen class and they have helped propel us to a 6-1 start.
Tragedy
During halftime of our football game against Northern Illinois, Northern Illinois' donor George Wilkins suffered a massive heart attack and passed away. Wilkins was watching the game with Northern Illinois' athletic director Jim Phillips in our press box. Our medical and administrative personnel acted quickly in trying to revive Wilkins. Phillips deserves special acknowledgement for his effort in administering CPR to Wilkins. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Wilkins' family.
Quarter System
Unlike most schools in the NCAA, Northwestern is on the quarter system. Schools on the semester system typically start classes in the fall in late August and finish in mid-December, and then start again in late January and finish in early May. In the quarter system, the three quarters in the sports year are late September to mid December (Fall), early January to early March (Winter), and late March to early June (Spring). Many of our fans may not realize this, but the fact that we are on a quarter system does have an impact on our athletic program. We probably see the biggest impact in the fall. Since our classes start so late, we typically will not have any students at our athletic contests in the first three weeks of the season. I especially notice this during our nonconference football home games. Our fall sport student athletes typically start preseason practice in early August. So, they will be on campus for nearly six weeks before classes begin. This is a help for our coaches in terms of being able to prepare their teams, but it can be challenging for the student athletes, especially first years, to make the transition to school work. Once games start, the NCAA limits the amount of time that can be required of student athletes (even if classes haven't started) so our student-athletes find they have a lot of free time -- which isn't always a good thing! With the quarter system, our student athletes have three sets of midterms and finals (as opposed to two), and this can create conflicts for them. Under the semester system, spring sport student athletes will typically have finals right when their seasons are ending, and it is an advantage for us to be on a different system.