It’s a busy week ahead for Monmouth College athletics, with the Fighting Scots football team preparing for the Turkey Bowl, volleyball heading into postseason play, and the winter sports season getting underway.
The Monmouth College football team improved to 7-2 overall and 7-0 in the Midwest Conference following a 34-7 Senior Day win over Grinnell on Saturday. The Scots will travel to Knox this weekend looking to finish conference play unbeaten, but Lake Forest also enters the final week at 7-0. If both teams win, they’ll share the conference championship, with the league’s automatic NCAA playoff bid decided by a tiebreaker.
Monmouth College Sports Information Director Nathan Baliva explains how that situation could play out.
“It’s the NPI, which comes out from the NCAA and what the rankings are. So it’ll be whatever team is the better ranked than that after play on Saturday. I’m sure they’ll send us a bunch of contingencies and all that stuff going through on the week. Last week they were in the mid-20s. We were right around 50, so a lot of gap to make up there. They’re playing Chicago on Saturday in their game. So it’s a very, very good team. If Lake Forest wins, then you see where the NPI goes, and then there’s a bowl opportunity out there for us.”
Monmouth and Knox will kick off the Turkey Bowl at noon Saturday in Galesburg.
Meanwhile, the Monmouth volleyball team will travel to Illinois College Tuesday night for the Midwest Conference Tournament. The Scots enter as the fifth seed and will take on fourth-seeded Illinois College, with the winner advancing to Friday’s semifinals against top-seeded Cornell.
Also on the hardwood, the Monmouth women’s team opened their season with a loss to Dominican on Saturday and will face Westminster and Greenville this weekend. The men’s team will open their season Friday at Blackburn.
Both Monmouth swimming teams finished third at Saturday’s Monmouth Invitational and will compete at Illinois College this weekend. The Scots cross country teams will also be in action Saturday at the NCAA Midwest Regional in Rock Island.
