Quote from: TheChucker on April 17, 2025, 01:28:50 PMMight as well do what D1 fans figured out a couple years ago. Don't even fret over a roster until it's set and the players show up in August.

Most D3 players at some point dreamed about playing D1 or getting a football scholarship, but odds of that happening were small prior to the portal. Hoards of G5 and FCS players moving up and/or out via the portal are leaving roster spots to fill. There's more opportunity now for the best players. 

I really agree with this on both points.

With the resources and history that UMHB has, we are positioned well to gain more then we lose in terms of talent. It will make it harder to know the team going into the season and we will lose high quality freshmen and sophomores after a good season to higher divisions but as pointed out there is a lot of talent that enters the transfer portal that needs someplace to land when summer comes.

And as much as I will hate to lose players I can't blame them if they take a chance on themselves to seek greener pastures. 

Quote from: Riley Zayas on April 15, 2025, 01:00:24 PMFair points! I wouldn't mind seeing SRSU return to D3.

What I will say is that, as we all know, recruiting to SRSU is ridiculously hard. Let's be honest, building a winner in Alpine takes some recruiting ingenuity and a coach who builds a culture that makes players want to buy in. Winning conference championships just isn't the expectation there. Not from fans, administration, or those in the community. Winning is great and celebrated there, but there's real financial implications involved here that go beyond W/L records.

Going D2 as a public institution opens up your recruiting pool significantly more than in D3, and combined with shorter travel, saves money in the process. Now you have more interest from prospective student-athletes (because of the scholarships), which helps with retention. You don't have to drive to ETBU or LETU any longer, which cheapens the cost of bus fees and hotel stays. Getting non-conference games becomes easier because the LSC is so large, the majority of your games in all sports come in conference play.

If it was a private school, that'd be a different story. But the scholarship money is coming from the state. And the state will continue to fund those scholarships, whether they're having success or not. It's 1 trip per year (for football only) to the Pacific Northwest. Which is doable when you're basically staying on the western side of the state for the rest of your schedule.

I know this was discussed when Sul Ross made their decision but the travel thing seems to be a non factor at least with the current and future members of the ASC. Right now the average trip from Sul Ross to the LSC members is 334 miles but that is not counting the 2 schools that require a plane ticket. The trips to ASC members would be 389 but that average is highly influenced by the trip to ETBU.

As you implied Sul Ross is just far away from basically everybody so travel and recruitment are always going to be hard, at the end of the day they just have to see which set up helps them the best.

Quote from: jknezek on April 09, 2025, 08:24:29 PMYou look at the NESCAC schools, the UAA, and the vast majority of the better academic D3s, and transfers in or out aren't really a problem. Even the vast majority of liberal arts schools that are the backbone of the northeast and midwest D3s, the athletes are there playing the sport because they love it, but they are going to the school for the education.

I assume that means NYU of the UAA counts as the real D3 then?

Their starting 5 in the national championship game
23    Freeney, Zay - Senior that played all 4 years at NYU    
30    How, Tristan - Grad Transfer in his first year with the team after going to the University of Virginia
34    Susko, Brock - Grad Transfer in his first year with the team after going to Cal Lutheran
45    Onuama, Emmanuel - Grad student playing in second year with NYU after 3 years at Columbia
22    Stone, Jack - Grad Transfer in his first year with the team after going to Carnegie Mellon

The other 3 players that touched the court
02    Sanders, Hampton - Sophomore that started at NYU
20    Oyigbo, Chuma - Grad Transfer in his first year with the team after going to St. Michael's College
24    Moussako, Bryan - Junior that played with NYU last year after transferring from Franklin and Marshall

I am not naive, going to another school after you graduated from another college is the best option but clearly schools at all levels are looking to add talent however they can get it.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on March 31, 2025, 07:07:38 PMAnother very interesting thing that he mentioned was that in between ASC commissioners there had been a scheduling agreement reached between the two conferences, which the ASC turned away from by the time Flores came onboard.  He also went out of his way not to blame Commissioner Flores for that decision.   

This is when I wish there was more media coverage of these situations to get more details. You are right that he did not blame Flores, he said that between Amy Carlton and Flores discussions happened but then by the time Flores took over the parameters of the relationship (between the SCAC and the ASC) had changed 180 and that that SCAC was no longer interested in the agreement.

Now what happened from Jan 2023 and July 2023, well the SCAC welcomed 2 more members from the ASC and UT Dallas announced they were going D2...and perhaps they were leaning on TLU to come back to the family earlier then initially reported which they did announce in November 2023.

All is fair in love and war but perhaps what changed was the SCAC got confident that if we don't go forward with this agreement the ASC is gone.

Maybe I am crazy but I wouldn't hold it against the SCAC if this is what happened since it seemed to almost work.

Also yes as a Texas D3 fan this was a great podcast and the new coach from Schreiner sounds like a fun guy to have around.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on March 28, 2025, 11:59:23 AM

Quote from: crufootball on March 28, 2025, 11:51:18 AMI didn't catch at first that AC and Centenary are playing each other twice as well. Since the SCAC has a championship game its going to be interesting if they manage to play each other 3 times in one regular season.

I really wish we knew if either of them or the ASC members even discussed the possibility of playing each other instead of doing this stuff.

Hard to say with the SCAC schedule switching to bring in Hendrix this year but not much to be gained by playing twice (or playing Worstgate once) - Austin wouldn't want to play HSU or UMHB but HPU and/or ETBU would have been better choices.

I think it's safe to say with TLU in the conference that the chance of a Centenary-AC (th)rematch in the championship is pretty darned slim.

I misspoke I wasn't thinking the actual championship but aren't they doing a 1v2, 3v4 style weekend on the last weekend of the season?

Quote from: Ron Boerger on March 28, 2025, 11:43:06 AMWorstgate might actually give the Roos (5-34 last four seasons) a game.  Sad that AC scheduled them to get a tenth.

The Worstgate 2025 schedule also includes Centenary and Schreiner, so this year it's the SCAC doing what the ASC had to do last year.  Obviously the Schreiner game is JV. 

I didn't catch at first that AC and Centenary are playing each other twice as well. Since the SCAC has a championship game its going to be interesting if they manage to play each other 3 times in one regular season.

I really wish we knew if either of them or the ASC members even discussed the possibility of playing each other instead of doing this stuff.

Westgate Christian apparently not done with D3 but this time is in the SCAC.

https://x.com/RoosFootball/status/1905342785454309436

Quote from: AAFES on March 27, 2025, 11:36:19 AMDallas had their Pool B basketball bid in 03-04.  The football discussion was prior to that.  The idea was to start a club team and if successful make it a varsity sport but it never got that far although a couple of potential players did enroll and did graduate playing rugby.

Different circumstances but I can't stop thinking about a real life version of the movie Necessary Roughness.

Quote from: Mavchamp on March 26, 2025, 05:12:12 PMCorey Hogue mentioned that the SCAC might turn to Belhaven or Huntingdon for football.

What are the odds?

Geographically they are a stretch with Jackson, MS and Montgomery, AL.

But are they willing to leave a stable USA South conference for the SCAC?

Have to wonder if now the football part of the SCAC will be acting like the ASC had for a while. We have no reason to doubt that they have or will call every school that is willing to pick up the phone, however until one of them has a reason to say yes the SCAC won't have good news to announce so they just won't announce anything. While I believe the ASC could have periodically reaffirmed their intentions I never blamed them for not holding a press conference to announce we are still not in a great position.

Quote from: Gray Fox on March 26, 2025, 01:17:57 PM

Quote from: AAFES on March 26, 2025, 11:54:48 AMYou can take Dallas out of the consideration for a football startup.  It was considered around 2000 and roundly dismissed.  Nothing has changed to reverse that thought.

They made a good effort. Got guys to sign up, but those same guys didn't show when things got serious.  Maybe they start with all guys not already in school.

So they attempted to field a team with students already at Univ of Dallas?

Quote from: Ron Boerger on March 24, 2025, 11:45:09 AMThe SCAC had an unsuccessful experiment in the '10s with a four-team conference, doing the double round-robin thing the ASC was forced into.  They dissolved it after four years.   Could they talk the five remaining members (including Hendrix next season) into trying that out again, which would mean they'd only need to find two out-of-conference games?  I guess it's possible.  It's going to be TLU and the four dwarves for a while (though Centenary has potential to improve of the other schools) so TLU might be in the driver's seat. 

Ralph asked about space at St. Thomas - they can't hold soccer matches on-campus so I would think adding football could be a problem.  The only athletic facilities they house at the school are basketball/volleyball.  They can't even host tennis matches.

But even in that time period TLU did make the playoffs in 2014 and produced one of the most memorable 24 hour football games ever.

I realize it probably is a long shot and something the SCAC wouldn't do as option A but with 12 bids your chances are a lot better, especially if the SCAC and ASC could work something out to all get 2-4 games out of each other.

Is it crazy to think the SCAC teams just let it ride and see what happens?

By that I mean in football while an automatic bid is great TLU and UMHB proved that even with untraditional schedules you can get into the playoffs. In the same way that I wanted the SCAC teams to schedule ASC teams, I truly hope the reverse is true because all of us still need a lot of games. The unfortunate truth is if we both have our own conference in most cases I can all but guarantee I can predict one playoff game early in the tournament.

Found some quotes from SCAC commission in Texas Football in March of 2024 before Hendrix joined. (https://www.texasfootball.com/article/2024/03/04/the-scac-is-in-a-position-of-strength-heading-in-2024?ref=related_title)

Dwayne Hanberry: We're very excited. There was a time when I wasn't sure we'd have football in the SCAC again. 2016 was the last year we tried to make a go of football and finally decided it was in the best interest of our programs to seek affiliate opportunities. The tipping point for us bringing football back was when Centenary announced they would add football. You couple that with the NCAA's decision to lessen the number of members needed for an automatic bid from seven to six, and suddenly, we had a pathway again. We wanted 10 core members, and it made sense to bring McMurry on board to get that number. We expect to be at six football schools in 2026 if everything goes according to our plan. Then, we start a two-year waiting period to get the AQ, so it'll be the 2028 season before our champion earns an automatic bid.

Q: It is interesting that roles between the SCAC and the American Southwest Conference are reversed this time. Considering you won't have an AQ until 2028, is there a chance your members are interested in forming an alliance with the ASC for football to give your schools a chance at an AQ until then?

Dwayne Hanberry: That's a fair question, and we have thought about that. I've had conversations with David Flores, the Commissioner at the ASC, because they're exploring many different options on things they need to do with football and membership. I've had very candid conversations with our football members. The only way we can have AQ status before 2028 is to become affiliate members with the ASC. The overall sentiment right now is that our members feel that if we're going to have SCAC football, we need to take away the ambiguity that a transition would entail. Our group wants to reestablish the SCAC connection, and playing an SCAC schedule is more important than trying to find a temporary fix. Access to an AQ is important, but we're committed to reestablishing SCAC football, and all of our decisions will move in that direction.

Since Hendrix joined for 2025-2026 school year I would assume that moved everything up a year but still means their 2 year waiting period would start so they wouldn't get the AQ until 2027-2028.

Prehaps something has changed but this statement was in the story that D3sports.com put out when Hendrix joined the SCAC.

"Austin, Centenary, McMurry, Texas Lutheran, Lyon and Hendrix will sponsor football in 2025, with the start date of Schreiner's promised football program not yet clear. The SCAC should be eligible for an automatic bid in 2026, based on Lyon's affiliate membership triggering a two-year waiting period to receive an automatic bid in football." https://www.d3sports.com/notables/2024/06/hendrix-goes-back-to-scac

Again I could be wrong but everything that was coming out pointed to the SCAC having a bid in 2026 when Schreiner came on board. My understanding was since Lyon is an affiliate member that don't get the same automatic treatment that Schreiner will get when they fully join the ASC in 2026.

Quote from: Etchglow on March 21, 2025, 07:03:55 PM

Quote from: The Third Division on March 21, 2025, 06:33:59 PMSo will the scac have an auto bid with 6 teams this upcoming season?

Iirc, they're only at 5 still because Schreiner is only playing JV in 2025 with 2026 the first official year of DIII competition.

I could very well be wrong but I think the struggle is actually Lyon in 2025 as I don't believe they count yet. I think for 2025 they will have Austin College, Centenary, TLU, McMurry and Hendrix.