FB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Ron Boerger]

You won't see either school affilliate with the ASC again (Trinity was part of the ASC's predecessor, the TIAA) and to be honest it would cause the ASC problems to have 11 teams ... 12 after Southwestern's program kicks off. 

[awadelewis]

Makes one wonder if discussions are occurring to try to poach a couple of teams out of the ASC into the SCAC.

[Warren Thompson]

Makes one wonder if discussions are occurring to try to poach a couple of teams out of the ASC into the SCAC.

And which two might that be?

[Bmo]

I don't think poaching schools from the ASC is a consideration.  The ASC schools are fairly similar in size and mission and are in a stable situation at current.  The SCAC schools don't seem to have any good options left for long term stability unless the previously mentioned Hail Mary pass at a SAA football affiliation comes through. 

I'm starting to wonder if Trinity will have to consider options outside of D3 in the long term.  Would Trinity even think about rejoining the Southland with a Pioneer affiliation for football?  The Southland seems to be shedding some weight with the subtraction of some of the larger public schools and addition of Oral Roberts, HBU, and now possibly UIW.  I don't think this a good fit, but certainly better than anything D2 can provide. 

It's quite unfortunate that the SCAC/SAA split could not have been done in such a manner as to assure everyone had a safe place to land.  It's not like these schools are that different in profile and mission.  Someone wanted to "win" i reckon.

[Ron Boerger]

The NCAA will not allow schools to 'uplevel' one sport.  Colleges with split division affilliations (like Colorado College with their D1 men's ice hockey team) were grandfathered in. 

Re poaching ASC schools - the only school that might fit would be Texas Lutheran, for the reasons Bmo mentions.   There's another outside possibility or two but those schools don't have football, which doesn't really help, does it?  In any case, there was an interview online where someone said the SCAC wasn't looking at the ASC for any (more) schools.

[Bmo]

In the long term scenario I mentioned, no up leveling would be required

[Ralph Turner]

This is what i would like to eventually see, a 14 team football league of

east: Centre, Rhodes, Sewanee, Berry, Birmingham Southern, Milsaps, Hendrix

West: Austin, SW, Trinity, Centenary, Colorado College, Washu, Uchicago
you would play 6 division games and 2 cross over with a championship game rotated between the east and west winners campus. How to get there, the new SAA is fine at 8, just needs hendrix and berry to bring on football. The scac needs to jump to 8 full members, since they are pro travel, go with westminster and ucsc, non football school's, to round it out at 8 members. Than CC and centenary need to start/restart programs as a pair. If those two aren't willing, the 14 team league could drop down to 12 or see if the other uaa football school's would shift over some day. Or they could even jump to 16 team league if the two UAA school's were willing to leave the pac someday and play a 7-1 format, shift centenary over to the east. Travel really isn't that bad and "educational". It would be a rare sight to see one of these school's win a D3 national football title but playing in a conference championship game would have a lot of meaning and be realistic.

I would love to see what you have written above. I think that would have worked out if everyone would have just had patience. Also, I could see Trinity (TX) and Austin moving to the American Southwest Conference (ASC), Austin were one of the founding members. Also, to go out on a big limb, maybe the Southern California Inter. Athletic Conference (SCIAC), this would push them to 10 teams for football.

I would love to see it happen, too.

That would take 14 schools into Pool A (and probably 6 out of Pool B) and would help to free up another Pool C bid.

I think that we may see 0 Pool B bids in the near future, and the Pool B teams be considered with the Pool C teams.

[jknezek]

My big problem with all of this is I don't see the point of having a 12 team conference. It makes perfect sense at the FBS level because the money from the championship game and the lack of a real playoff. Heck, 70 of 120 teams go to a bowl, so it almost doesn't matter how big your conference is if you are aiming to get that extra game. At the D3 level, having a 12 team conference is just... strange to put it nicely, stupid if you really think about it.

With 7 teams you get 1 bid to the playoffs. With 12 teams, you get 1 bid to the playoffs. The championship game provides you with... 0 dollars if you are lucky, a deficit if you are not. With a championship game one of your two undefeated or 1 loss teams have their chance to play themselves OUT of the playoffs.

I know if you are from a stronger conference you think having the weaker conferences for 12 or 14 team conferences would be great because it frees up Pool C bids, but honestly, I can think of nothing.... stranger... from a conference's point of view than to do so.

I get going from 7 teams to 8, or even 8 to 10 for scheduling purposes and cutting down on the need to find OOC opponents, but going to 12 or 14 is just incredibly detrimental from any rational point of view. The sole exception is if you have two 6 team conferences who can't find a 7th team. That is the only real justification I can find.

To be honest, I have no idea why the PAC just did what they did with the UAA teams. Seems like a ridiculous scheduling nightmare with no real upside. Unless, of course, they are hoping to jettison TMC...

[Ron Boerger]

Congrats to the following SCAC players named today to the D3football.com All-America team:

   Shawn Morris, Jr., Birmingham-Southern, RB, first team
   Ben Hume, Sr., Centre. T, third team
   Kyle Trella, Jr., Trinity (Texas), P, honorable mention

that is all.

[Shoreman]

Pretty surprised Jordan Gay from Centre didn't make it as a punter of licker, I think  he is NFL caliber.

[Ralph Turner]

Pretty surprised Jordan Gay from Centre didn't make it as a punter of licker, I think  he is NFL caliber.

The ASC guys on the team are that good, too.

[tigerguy]

Can someone explain to me who this Tyler Olsson kid is that got 1st team All-American for Punter out of TCNJ? Looking at his stats he only averaged 37.7 yards per punt and their net was only 34.06. Trella for Trinity averaged 42.56 with 36.03 net and Gay had 41.35 with 37.78. Gay certainly got shafted and Trella should have been 2nd or 3rd for sure. Unless this guy kicks it a mile high or something like that?

[Pat Coleman]

Yes, look at the number and percentage of his punts that were inside the 20.

[Ralph Turner]

Can someone explain to me who this Tyler Olsson kid is that got 1st team All-American for Punter out of TCNJ? Looking at his stats he only averaged 37.7 yards per punt and their net was only 34.06. Trella for Trinity averaged 42.56 with 36.03 net and Gay had 41.35 with 37.78. Gay certainly got shafted and Trella should have been 2nd or 3rd for sure. Unless this guy kicks it a mile high or something like that?

I went to TCNJ"s web site.

He had 61 punts, 26 were insdie the 20 and only 4 were touchbacks.  He had one punt blocked.

http://www.tcnjathletics.com/custompages/2011%20football/teamcume.htm

Trella had 63 punts with 21 inside the 20 and 6 touchbacks and no blocks.

http://www.trinitytigers.com/sports/fball/2011-12/stats/teamcume.htm

Both performances are worthy.

Yes, look at the number and percentage of his punts that were inside the 20.

What he said!   

[Shoreman]

Jordan Gay Centre College, punting & kicking stats, pretty impressive. 51 yard field goal v. Austin!
Punting
No.    Name            Yr    Pos    gp    punt    yds    avg    in20    fc    tb    blk
94    Jordan Gay       Jr    K    11    49    2026    41.3    14    5    3    0

Kicking
No.    Name            Yr    Pos    gp    fgm    fga    pct    xpm    xpa    pct    pts
94    Jordan Gay       Jr    K    11    11    16    69%    45    46    98%    78