Change seems to be the order of the day for Northern Iowa as the WIIL Conference season kicks off.

UNI switched from the Northern Lights to the WIIL in 2015 in order to get tougher competition, and also, certainly, to challenge for a conference title. But UNI ran into newly-formed varsity program Lindenwood-Belleville in the regular season, losing an ever-so-close game 35-33 in which they could have won it with a late penalty.

That loss eventually meant that Northern Iowa would finish 3rd in the WIIL. They made the national playoffs but were dumped by Grand Valley State in the opening round.

Things are different again this year, mostly because Lindenwood-Belleville is now playing an independent DI schedule. So it’s reasonable to figure that UNI and 2015 national runners-up Wisconsin-Whitewater will battle for the conference title.

UNI opens up at home against Loyola this weekend and will do so having graduated about half the starting 15 from last year, but they do return about 11 players who had significant front-line playing time, including both props from last season, and their two flankers.

With some exciting backs also coming back, they look solid.

“The backline is looking to be strong,” said John Schwarte, who is shifting from fullback to flyhalf. “We’ve incorporated a new style of offense and I would say we are going to make a deep run again.”

UNI has a good group of new players, as well.

“It's going to be a really exciting year,” enthused Schwarte. “The new guys are really coming along quick and are wanting to get low and play hard. The Panther way!”

Defending conference champs Whitewater will be at Marquette on Sunday in their opener.  

Marquette was winless in conference player in 2015; Whitewater was 6-0 in the regular-season and in fact went undefeated through the conference and national playoffs before losing to Minnesota-Duluth in the national final. Northern Michigan, which has a bye until next weekend, was second in the WIIL North with a 5-1 record, followed by UW-Lacrosse. Lacrosse visits Stout, a team that is usually among the conference contenders but struggled last year. They should be improved. 

In the South, Northern Iowa is now favored to win, and should be pushed by a big, physical Illinois State team (they have a bye this week). The team to watch out for could well be DePaul, whch was a competitive 3-3 last season.

This weekend's games: