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Region 3 football (South Atlantic-ish) / Re: FB: Southern Athletic Association
« on: Yesterday at 06:02:35 pm »
Hal Mummw coached at both McMurry and at Belhaven after several D1 stops.
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Region 3 football (South Atlantic-ish) / Re: FB: Southern Athletic Association
« on: February 03, 2023, 11:22:34 am »
Ok... so some thoughts on this. Birmingham Southern is in deep, deep trouble. I give them less than 50% odds of making it at this point, just from the little bit I can gather around here and a recent look at the campus. The SAA has a football problem, and it's turning to Trinity. A school that has had some... interesting... history with the SAA and it's former SCAC member schools. It seems whenever the SAA is in a spot of trouble, Trinity helps bail them out. But when the SAA is healthy, they seem quite happy to let those long trips to San Antonio be someone else's problem. I get the Mission and Values cache of the SAA versus the SCAC schools, but you've played this game before. Why do it again?
I liken this to W&L and the ODAC. It's a bit of an odd fit by academic reputation and endowment, but a great fit geographically and by school type (private, liberal arts, mostly on the smaller side). I know W&L has had a roving eye at times, but it seems like it's always come down to putting those student-athletes on the bus and planes less, and in the classrooms more. Though I have no doubt it's also come down an inability to get an invite to where they really want to be, mainly because they'd be the geographic outlier (and maybe an attitude issue as well).
While Trinity aligning with the more well-known SAA schools might tickle an administrator's fancy, does it really matter to the student-athletes? I'm not so sure it does. So who are those schools really serving by moving to the SAA? It would help the SAA, but I'm not sure Trinity's players, especially those with seasons that are more than 10 games, are getting the better end of the deal.
I liken this to W&L and the ODAC. It's a bit of an odd fit by academic reputation and endowment, but a great fit geographically and by school type (private, liberal arts, mostly on the smaller side). I know W&L has had a roving eye at times, but it seems like it's always come down to putting those student-athletes on the bus and planes less, and in the classrooms more. Though I have no doubt it's also come down an inability to get an invite to where they really want to be, mainly because they'd be the geographic outlier (and maybe an attitude issue as well).
While Trinity aligning with the more well-known SAA schools might tickle an administrator's fancy, does it really matter to the student-athletes? I'm not so sure it does. So who are those schools really serving by moving to the SAA? It would help the SAA, but I'm not sure Trinity's players, especially those with seasons that are more than 10 games, are getting the better end of the deal.
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Region 6 men's basketball / Re: MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference
« on: February 02, 2023, 10:04:28 am »Also of note, RMC is 61-2 in ODAC conference play over the last 5 years (undefeated in the last three seasons). Those two losses were to GC, at Guilford. (Just giving Hasa some ammo.) Other than GC, a lot of ODAC players never beat RMC in their careers. (Just waiting for some more smites.)
That's an incredible run. RMC has just been a basketball powerhouse and no one else has come close. Very impressive.
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Region 3 football (South Atlantic-ish) / Re: FB: American Southwest Conference
« on: February 01, 2023, 12:25:23 pm »And where does this leave ASC football in 2024, when Sul Ross leaves?It doesn't look like there are any realistic candidates to join the ASC unless we can convince a couple of NAIA schools to give up scholarships and move to D3. I wonder if the remaining ASC teams could form some sort of football-only alliance with the remaining SAA schools. If BS ends up closing, they will be teetering on the edge of automatic qualifier status too. If not, about the only option for UMHB might be D2. Like most on this board I prefer D3, but remaining in a 4-team "conference" doesn't appear to be a viable option for both scheduling and playoff qualification purposes.
Austin -> SCAC in 2024
1. ETBU
2. HPU
3. HSU
McMurry -> SCAC in 2024
Sul Ross -> D2 in 2024
4. TLU -> SCAC by 2026
5. UMHB
(Southwestern -> SAA in 2023, SCAC by 2026)
The two-year Pool A clock starts ticking in 2024 unless the conference adds another football team by then.
If UMHB decided to go the scholarship route, I’d skip DII and go straight FCS. No reason y’all couldn’t compete in whats left of the Southland. Already have a better stadium then most, even better then a couple schools that just moved to CUSA is FBS.
That's not as easy as St. Thomas made it look. There were some special circumstances and exemptions that were done for that to happen. Generally speaking, you cannot "skip" DII. Though I agree. I don't get the point of DII except as a marketing gimmick.
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Region 3 football (South Atlantic-ish) / Re: FB: Southern Athletic Association
« on: February 01, 2023, 12:24:07 pm »I wonder if Highlands College a bible school in Birmingham run by the church of the highlands would be interested in taking over the BSC Campus. They took over the former health south headquarters and spent a lot of money to transform it into a 2 year bible college with plans to became a 4 year school. If they took over the BSC campus through a buyout or merger they could create a more traditional liberal arts campus for their followers, think mini Liberty University. Obviously, BSC is a different type of school so it really wouldn’t be a merger but highlands could take BSC accreditation in a merger and have a phase out or transition period. I got to believe the State and City don’t want the BSC campus to became vacant so something needs to be considered for the campus if BSC closes.
Highlands College just opened their campus. I highly doubt they are looking for more. Nor do I think they could hold on to any type of higher education accreditation with their curriculum. The place essentially exists to train workers for the Association of Related Churches, which was co-founded by the same person who runs Highlands College and the various Church of the Highlands congregations.
But who knows? Because not far from where I live, 20 miles south of Birmingham, a local Bible College campus has stood completely empty for almost a decade, and I'm pretty sure Birmingham doesn't want that.
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Region 3 football (South Atlantic-ish) / Re: FB: Southern Athletic Association
« on: February 01, 2023, 10:18:04 am »Any idea what would happen to the Birmingham Southern campus if the school closed ?
I hope it doesn’t come to that, but I was wondering the same thing....I wonder if a larger (state) school would purchase it for a satellite campus??
Given the proximity to UAB I suspect that's the only option. The state is not going to pay to have another state school have a satellite campus within 5 miles of UAB. I think UAB could use it as an honors college maybe. But... and I can't emphasize this enough... it's in a really crappy part of Birmingham. The campus is really nice, and it's fenced in, and you don't hear much about problems on campus, but that is not somewhere you want to be wandering around. There is no town-gown in that area. You have to drive, or maybe they run buses, to anywhere you want to be off campus.
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Region 3 football (South Atlantic-ish) / Re: FB: Southern Athletic Association
« on: January 30, 2023, 11:28:48 am »I’m trying to stay positive with it, but it is getting harder to stay that way. Students, not just athlete, need to be preparing for the “what if” scenario. Go ahead and apply at other schools and get those transfer paperwork done, if you don’t need it, it just goes away, but if you do need it, you need to know where you are going.
As this rolls along with no answer, the harder it is for them to come through it. Enrollment will for sure be down next fall, even if there is a next fall, and the rebuild will be long and difficult. I always wonder why these schools wait until the last minute to really ask for help? Why wait until you can’t make it another semester, this should have been seen 2 years ago and that’s when the endowment rebuild should have started.
Because asking the government for money isn't going to get any response unless you are flat out, last chance, desperate. It's painful to do, but pointless to do early. They won't care if you say you are going to run out of money in 2 years. That's 2 years for you to fix your problem without them. And by the time you hit the point where they might care, it's already too late.
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Region 6 men's basketball / Re: MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference
« on: January 27, 2023, 01:05:58 pm »
Not disputing the tiering since W&L has lost to everyone in the top tier, but the Generals could easily win 4 of their last 5 and finish 11-5 in the conference. They had a rough start to conference play facing H-SC, R-MC, and RC all before the New Year. Then the ugly loss at Guilford shortly after was a bad look. I think the last regular season game hosting H-SC will be interesting to see if they can make a splash in the ODAC Tournament. My sense is they could get an upset or two if they can carry some momentum on the way in. We will see if they can win the games they should win before the Tournament.
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Men's soccer / Re: Coaching Carousel
« on: January 27, 2023, 12:19:02 pm »
Just for kicks, can we add the entire structure of the USMNT to this list? What a sh!t show. Proving once again, that youth sports parents are some of the most psychotic people in the world, and some of them never grow up.
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Region 3 football (South Atlantic-ish) / Re: FB: Southern Athletic Association
« on: January 26, 2023, 07:08:27 pm »
I was over at Birmingham-Southern today for an event with my middle school daughter. The deferred maintenance is starting to be pretty obvious. I know students aren't in session right now, but we were over in the Norton Campus Center and it was just dirty. Dirty floors, dirty windows, dirty, dusty everything. A bad look for 300+ bright Alabama middle schoolers participating in an academic oriented event.
The parking lot was cratered and the shrubs look like they missed their last scheduled trim. The buildings and sidewalks look dingy. I don't know if it was because I was looking for it, or if it just hit me, but there are definitely some things that show just how distressed the place is right now.
Probably doesn't help that this column came out the day before:
https://www.al.com/news/2023/01/whitmire-looking-for-a-way-forward-bscs-time-is-running-out.html
I have to admit, if it was my kid, I'd be exploring options and applying away right now. The place has all the indications of a death spiral. What incoming first year is going to want to jump on that limb right now? And if you can't get them to come, you don't have anything left.
I was really sad. From 100ft going 20mph, it's still a very beautiful campus. So much potential. But it doesn't look like it's going to survive. And I have no idea what you do with that place if it doesn't.
The parking lot was cratered and the shrubs look like they missed their last scheduled trim. The buildings and sidewalks look dingy. I don't know if it was because I was looking for it, or if it just hit me, but there are definitely some things that show just how distressed the place is right now.
Probably doesn't help that this column came out the day before:
https://www.al.com/news/2023/01/whitmire-looking-for-a-way-forward-bscs-time-is-running-out.html
I have to admit, if it was my kid, I'd be exploring options and applying away right now. The place has all the indications of a death spiral. What incoming first year is going to want to jump on that limb right now? And if you can't get them to come, you don't have anything left.
I was really sad. From 100ft going 20mph, it's still a very beautiful campus. So much potential. But it doesn't look like it's going to survive. And I have no idea what you do with that place if it doesn't.
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Region 4 football (Great Lakes-ish) / Re: FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association
« on: January 26, 2023, 09:00:35 am »Finlandia is probably not the best comparison given the schools are nowhere near the same but their D3 football startup has been brutal.
In almost any bell curve you can think of, Finlandia is an outlier. I suspect your comment about nowhere near the same is an understatement!
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Men's soccer / Re: SimpleCoach D3 Soccer YouTube Channel
« on: January 20, 2023, 03:35:37 pm »
SC is gonna keep doing his thing regardless. The bigger issue to me is what happens to D3soccer.com and this board. I would hope that the parties involved could arrive at some resolution before the season begins. Imo an ideal resolution would involve an integration of D3soccer.com, the soccer board, and the SC channel. One person might be able to conduct the symphony, but one person cannot (or at least should not have to) do all the content and behind the scenes work.
Now is the time.
Managing an active website like d3soccer.com is a big chore. It requires some specialized knowledge, a lot of time, and a lot of effort. The current crew has asked for years for volunteers and has gotten relatively little help. I threw in some time to help with the poll, but it was pretty limited. Someone with a real passion, and real technical expertise, and real time, to devote to a hobby that is going to cost money is the answer. But that someone is few and far between.
I suspect most of us look around and say what I say... it certainly isn't going to be me.
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Region 4 football (Great Lakes-ish) / Re: FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association
« on: January 17, 2023, 03:44:31 pm »Yeah. I mean, Sewanee has been a dead end long before Coach Rundle got there, and there was some suspicion he was on his way out soon anyway, one way or the other. So this was... quite a fortuitous opening.
I wish him well. Maybe getting out of Sewanee will shine a different light.
For sure. It's difficult to wax poetic about a coach who went 11-50 over six seasons. My comments were more in the creative way the article painted the proverbial turd. A lack of success at Sewanee in no way, shape, or form means a lack of success at Albion, and like you, I wish him some success. Some, not in Holland or when Hope travels to Sprankle-Sprandel, but otherwise...
If you read the Sewanee release it is just as creative.
https://sewaneetigers.com/news/2023/1/17/staff-changes-announced-for-the-university-of-the-south-football-program.aspx
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Region 4 football (Great Lakes-ish) / Re: FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association
« on: January 17, 2023, 01:35:47 pm »That Albion release dug deep to find something nice to say about his Sewanee tenure...
"While at Sewanee, Rundle tied the school record for Southern Athletic Association wins in a season and helped develop six COSIDA Academic All-District players..."
More specifically, tied the school record of four. And for reference, the MIAA had 29 players on the COSIDA Academic All-District team this season. Kalamazoo (8), Albion (7), Hope (6), and Alma (6) all had as many this past season as Rundle did in his six seasons at the University of the South.
Yeah. I mean, Sewanee has been a dead end long before Coach Rundle got there, and there was some suspicion he was on his way out soon anyway, one way or the other. So this was... quite a fortuitous opening.
I wish him well. Maybe getting out of Sewanee will shine a different light.
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Region 4 football (Great Lakes-ish) / Re: FB: Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association
« on: January 17, 2023, 12:42:50 pm »Albion has hired Travis Rundle, son of former head coach Craig Rundle.
https://gobrits.com/news/2023/1/17/football-travis-rundle-tabbed-head-football-coach.aspx
I envision Sprinkle-Sprandel-Rundle Stadium in the future.
I saw this on the SAA board and scratched my head until I saw the Albion release that explained he's a coaching legacy and alum. That Albion release dug deep to find something nice to say about his Sewanee tenure.