GRR: Great Midwest
Coming into this weekend Northwestern University had a huge mountain to climb.
With Loyola and Illinois State on the inside track to be the top two in the Great Midwest South, the Wildcats entered this weekend having to beat both of them to make the conference semifinals.
On Friday they took the first step, beating Illinois State in impressive fashion 44-17.
Scores are coming in this Men's DII College weekend and some major ramifications are underway.
Maine defeated Vermont 27-20 in the NEWCRC. Led by 22 points from Shea Wagner, who scored three tries and added two conversions and a penalty, the Black Bears put themselves in excellent position to win the conference.
In a way, the team that came out of this weekend in Great Midwest rugby action was a team that didn't play.
It's weird times in the NEWCRC.
After being touted quite heavily in these pages for its competitiveness top to bottom, the league has in fact split rather dramatically. The bottom half of the standings is now struggling and it's really a case of some teams going through some rebuilding at the same time that others are returning the majority of really good units.
The BIG GAME of the Great Midwest might not be quite as big as anticipated, but still carries some caché.