Could be a big weekend in the Gateway...

[dometop]

Southern Ill at Ill St. go Ill St.
Youngstown at W. Ill go W. Ill

I think W. Ill has the potential to beat Youngstown at home. I would love to see the other teams beat up on eachother before we have to play them.

[Matt Trump]

no "could", but this IS a big weekend in the Best I-AA football conference in the country

[Panthers to the Bone]

Do we really want Illinois State to beat SIU? I'm not saying we don't, but I'm just thinking out loud here. SIU has beaten both Indiana State and Western Illinois, while ILSU has beaten WKU. It's hard to tell this early on if this is what we want, but what does everyone else think?

[JayJ79]

UNI is going to have to play awesome games against both IlSU and SIU.
The Panthers play IlSU in the Dome, whilst having to play at SIU,
so by that logic, I'd like to see SIU get the L in this one.

[Newsbreaker]

The Gateway could be a real mess this year. I think there's a chance the teams in this conference are going to beat the hell out of each other.

[TravelingPanther]

I think the Il St -Siu game is a toss up. Both in who will win and who we want to win. Good thing is: One comes out with a loss.

[Cap'n Cat]

The Gateway could be a real mess this year. I think there's a chance the teams in this conference are going to beat the hell out of each other.

No change from any other of the last 5 years.

[Panthers to the Bone]

I almost think that we might want SIU to win. Why? Because they don't have a loss. They can still lose to Youngstown, WKU, and UNI and still make the playoffs. ILSU can only lose two more games before they are done. If they lose to SIU, and since UNI will play them in the Dome, and they still have to play against Youngstown, then, they have more of a chance at not making the playoffs. Just my opinion. Any thoughts?

[Matt Trump]

I'm predicting an SIU win. Ill St hasn't proven yet that they can live up to expectations under Denver Johnson. SIU has proven that they can win anyway possible (except in the Dome of course)

[unigriff]

check out my article in the Northern Iowan yesterday...has my prediction

http://fp.uni.edu/northia/article2.a...5205&SECTION=4

[Matt Trump]

check out my article in the Northern Iowan yesterday...has my prediction

http://fp.uni.edu/northia/article2.a...5205&SECTION=4

Finally, a writer for the NI worth reading!!!

[Marc Wigim]

Yeah, that was a well-written article. I didn't know how to handle it... decent writing in the NI?

[pantherclaw]

grr.....those dang editorialists are giving all the rest of us, especially those of us in the sports department bad reps. Look at the NI sports department and you'll find a couple of PNers who are good writers, and don't just blow smoke out of their behinds.

[ColoradoPanther]

I almost think that we might want SIU to win. Why? Because they don't have a loss. They can still lose to Youngstown, WKU, and UNI and still make the playoffs. ILSU can only lose two more games before they are done. If they lose to SIU, and since UNI will play them in the Dome, and they still have to play against Youngstown, then, they have more of a chance at not making the playoffs. Just my opinion. Any thoughts?

I'm definitely on board with this logic. I'd rather see only 2-3 teams rise to the top (among us) than a 4-5 way smackdown, and the scenario above would help create a spread from the top to the bottom. I'm not sure how attractive UNI looks if WIU or ILS find their way above SIU and/or YSU in the tiebreakers and playoff grabs are dependent on non-con quality wins.

Can't believe I let myself get sucked in, it's too early in the season for this conversation. We should just win out to clear up the confusion.

[Kaboom]

We should just win out to clear up the confusion.

We take care of our business and we'll be just fine. I think whoever runs the tables in the Gateway will be rewarded with homefield advantage up to the semi's.