BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

Started by Ralph Turner, January 04, 2006, 11:16:50 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Ron Boerger

#3630
Quote from: ILVBB on March 09, 2023, 06:41:41 PM
Interesting announcement today; Trinity and Southwestern will be joining the SAA in 2015. Effectively, this is the "old SCAC" with Berry and without Austin. It was a little over 10-years ago that the SAA schools broke off from the Texas schools to form the SAA. My recall was the SAA schools did not like all the travel to Texas. I wonder what changed?

There were more western schools, for one thing, and the conference kept adding them:  besides the three you list, Colorado College (2006) and University of Dallas (2011).  Besides the travel there were rumblings (confirmed only by a statement from Hendrix's then-president) that at least some the schools the SCAC kept adding didn't meet the standards of the eastern schools.  And Pat and Dave have asserted that Trinity's dominance of the President's Trophy (after DePauw left) was a factor.  Trinity has won the all-sports award every year since the split and 11 of the other 18 years since '93-94 with only DePauw interrupting that string.

With two schools 100 miles apart, any given sport will only have to fly to TX once every year - except football, the most expensive, every other year.  Trinity and Southwestern's academics are well within SAA ranges and both are now classified as "National" liberal arts colleges as are most of the SAA.  And the dominance?  I guess we'll see.

108 Stitches

Ron, etal:
This is interesting and may be OK for Trinity and SWern, but what happens to all of the other SCAC schools? Do they join up with the ASC or ?
This will be a big blow from a competitive point of view for TLU and Centenary.

Travel to SW and Trinity may not be an burden on the SAA schools for 1x per year, but for Trinity and SWrn they will have to travel to the SAA schools at least 3-4 times per year. All of those trips will be at least 10 hour bus rides each way  unless sports financing has changed they will not be flying the baseball team.

Overall it should be positive for competition for Trinity and SWern and likely more interesting for the student-athletes and if BSC stays solvent (and even if not) the conference championship will be much more difficult, which will be a positive thing.

Will the conference championship move back to Memphis or ?



Ralph Turner

Quote from: 108 Stitches on March 11, 2023, 10:44:33 AM
Ron, etal:
This is interesting and may be OK for Trinity and SWern, but what happens to all of the other SCAC schools? Do they join up with the ASC or ?
This will be a big blow from a competitive point of view for TLU and Centenary.

Travel to SW and Trinity may not be an burden on the SAA schools for 1x per year, but for Trinity and SWrn they will have to travel to the SAA schools at least 3-4 times per year. All of those trips will be at least 10 hour bus rides each way  unless sports financing has changed they will not be flying the baseball team.

Overall it should be positive for competition for Trinity and SWern and likely more interesting for the student-athletes and if BSC stays solvent (and even if not) the conference championship will be much more difficult, which will be a positive thing.

Will the conference championship move back to Memphis or ?
I see no reason for the SCAC to align with the ASC, unless Colorado College now views the SCAC as not meeting the "Mission and Vision" criteria. But, that does not affect baseball. McMurry keeps them at 7 teams.

But where do they go? Colorado College has scholarship Men's Hockey and Women's Soccer. They may find it easier to go D-2 than to travel to Texas.

Ron Boerger

Quote from: 108 Stitches on March 11, 2023, 10:44:33 AM
Ron, etal:
This is interesting and may be OK for Trinity and SWern, but what happens to all of the other SCAC schools? Do they join up with the ASC or ?
This will be a big blow from a competitive point of view for TLU and Centenary.

Travel to SW and Trinity may not be an burden on the SAA schools for 1x per year, but for Trinity and SWrn they will have to travel to the SAA schools at least 3-4 times per year. All of those trips will be at least 10 hour bus rides each way  unless sports financing has changed they will not be flying the baseball team.

Overall it should be positive for competition for Trinity and SWern and likely more interesting for the student-athletes and if BSC stays solvent (and even if not) the conference championship will be much more difficult, which will be a positive thing.

Will the conference championship move back to Memphis or ?

My belief (and this are only my thoughts, not based on any kind of inside information, not that I ever have any) is that Trinity's new President Beasley, and Bob King, the AD, don't sign off if the teams have to get on a bus consistently for SAA play.  My God, the school still has over $1.7 billion in the endowment even after what the stock market did in the 12 months ending last June, they can afford flights.  Now, Southwestern, with less than a quarter of that endowment, is another story but it still would be a surprise if they subjected their SA's to a bunch of 12-16 hour bus trips.  But I said this on another board, both schools used to do the travel thing before the SAA split off so I imagine there's still some institutional knowledge that will help both make it work in 2025. 

The current SAA model for championships seems to be that they are held at the site of the regular season champion (with first rounds at the better of the two schools), and I have a hard time believing all the SAA presidents want to end up going to San Antonio all the time (if Trinity continues to be as successful in the SAA as they are the SCAC) so it would not surprise me to see them go to a model like the SCAC where locations are picked out in advance each year so that travel plans can be made sooner.  They won't centralize all of them which would be incredibly unfair to everyone not in easy distance of a centralized site. 

As far as the ASC and SCAC there are enough schools left in both to limp along without the other even after all of this comes to pass, assuming all the schools survive in a very challenging socioeconomic environment.  Where they really need each other is in football - since there are many schools not playing that sport - where the SCAC's statement on Twitter a couple days ago was along the lines of "we hope Schreiner comes on line in 2025 and TLU returns by 2026."  If I'm Lyon (one of the four that are supposed to start SCAC competition in 2024) I'm keeping my options open.  Maybe the ASC talks McMurry into coming back (after all, they did a U-turn on going D-2, this would be *much* easier) and now it's the ASC with six and the SCAC with four if Lyon changes their destination around 2025 or 2026. 

And I agree with Ralph, CC has always been this weird hybrid with their D1/D3 split and now their peers are leaving the conference they've been a part of for nearly 20 years.  I don't know if the NCAA would let them keep their grandfathered split if they wanted to go D2, tho (which may be why they've stayed where they are).  It would be just as easy for them to move to the SCIAC or NWC as to remain in the SCAC.  They will have the largest endowment in the SCAC (by far, somewhere around $800-$850M) once Trinity and Southwestern leave.

Ralph Turner

Dallas Baptist U has D-1 baseball in Conference USA. I do not recognize a D-1 Women's sport for DBU.

https://dbupatriots.com/sports/womens-soccer/schedule/2022  That link will let you "walk around" the Sports web site at DBU.

Ralph Turner

My thought about Lyon is that they would be more competitive in the UMAC, which lost Finlandia. Westminster and Greenville (SLIAC) are already affiliates in the UMAC.

ILVBB

I remember my son's senior year playing baseball at Trinity (before the founding of the SAA). During the last four weeks of their season, they made three trips right before finals. They traveled to Conway (Hendrix) and Jackson (Millsaps) on back-to-back weekends, both 15-hour bus rides. Then two weeks later they flew to Memphis (Millington) for the conference championship. My son shared with me that it had an adverse impact on his schoolwork and grades.

When the SAA was created and the SCAC "scrambled" to reconstitute itself; I thought it was great for the kid's education and likely meant more financial resources for the baseball program (less travel).

Joining the SAA for Trinity and Southwestern is going to be very expensive. The closest schools for the two Texas teams are Millsaps and Hendrix, both of which are 15+ hour bus trips. To get to any of the other SAA schools you have to commit to flying. This will require a huge increase in budget. It will also likely force the programs to limit "participation" to a travel squad of say 25 players for baseball. This is a fundamental change from how these programs have operated for the past 10 years.

Now take this increased cost and apply it across all the sports that these schools sponsor. You could be looking at an increased travel budget for each school that could approach $300K-$500K per year.

I really liked the competition in the "old SCAC", however, will the kids get a better experience, and will the Texas schools benefit from committing to compete against schools that really can not be reached via weekend bus trips?

I really don't see this being good for the students and the universities; someone please explain it to me.


Ron Boerger

After getting a seven inning 10-0 run-rule win against Austin yesterday which featured a complete game 11 strikeout, one-hit effort from Joseph Chavana, Trinity gets another seven inning 10-0 run-rule win today which featured a complete-game no hitter with nine Ks from Jackson Teer.  A two-out walk in the second inning by Asher Thompson was the only thing preventing Teer from recording a perfect game, as Thompson was the Roos' only baserunner.

Ralph Turner

The Trinity loss to McMurry in mid-week looked like a "pitch-by-committee" affair with the McMurry committee better than the "non-Harrison Durow" TU committee.

However, losing the series at TLU is more significant.

I think that Centenary is my dark horse, but the conference tourney should be a great one.

108 Stitches

Trinity drops out of the top 25 for the first time that I can remember in the past 10 years.

Ron Boerger

Quote from: 108 Stitches on April 05, 2023, 12:49:28 PM
Trinity drops out of the top 25 for the first time that I can remember in the past 10 years.

Too much of last year's talent playing D1 ball this season.   :(

Bmo

MJ Metz has homered in 5 straight games for Duke.  Somehow, he was only 2nd team all-conference in the SCAC last year.

Ron Boerger

Quote from: Bmo on April 28, 2023, 10:05:18 PM
MJ Metz has homered in 5 straight games for Duke.  Somehow, he was only 2nd team all-conference in the SCAC last year.

Not only that but most have been to deep center field. 

Ron Boerger

#3643
#2 seeded Trinity gets a 5-2 win yesterday over #3 Centenary on the back of SCAC Pitcher of the Year Jackson Teer (6 IP, 5 hits, 1 ER, 6Ks to move to 9-1 on the season) and followed that up with a near run-rule 10-1 demolition of top seeded TLU behind a similar performance (5.2 IP, 5H, 1 ER, 4K to move to 6-1) from their #2 starter Cade McGahan and will await the winner of TLU and Southwestern/Centenary winner (4-4 after three) in the championship tomorrow.   Jack Peterson, batting out of the 9-hole, put the icing on the cake in today's game with a three-run shot, only his second of the season, with two out in the eighth to make it 8-1. 

Trinity, absent from the latest regional rankings, must win the SCAC championship to qualify for the NCAAs.

Ron Boerger

TLU got out to a quick start yesterday against Centenary leading 4-0 early in the second inning, but the game was suspended due to rain, forcing the Bulldogs to return this morning and burn another pitcher.  TLU eventually defeated Centenary 12-6 behind six and a third innings from Brendan Beard, who held the Gents to two earned runs after entering the game today.

In the championship against Trinity, TLU got out to quick 2-0 and 3-2 leads, and were tied 4-4 after three before the Tigers broke through the depleted TLU pitching staff in a 13-6 victory.  Harrison Durow got the start and the win, allowing four runs (two earned) in six innings.