Austin College with a big win in a competitive series at #25 TLU this weekend, right after TLU knocked off #1 Trinity. If AC can get more consistent pitching, their offense is good enough to potentially be disruptive in the new 6-team tournament format that's taking place this season.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on March 01, 2026, 11:36:05 AMThe SCAC will be represented by a surprising squad as Austin (15-11) and Hendrix (17-10) defeated Texas Lutheran (53-43) and top seed Colorado College (52-42), respectively, to advance to today's championship match.  For the 'Roos, this represents the team's first championship appearance since capturing the 2020 title; for Hendrix in their first year back in the SCAC since the SAA split 13 years ago, since 2011.  Only today's winner will advance to the NCAAs - no at-large bid for either of these two.

After yesterday's loss, Colorado College (20-6) is 26th among at-large candidates, and with only 21 at-large teams will remain at home regardless of today's other results.  They *might* have been a candidate had they defeated Hendrix and then lost in the final. 

I'm very happy to see the 'Roos back on track after several years in the wilderness.  It's a shame that Coach of the Year was announced before yesterday, because with all due respect to coach Auguste, all they did in the Springs was continue a tradition of excellence they've had for years.  It's much, much harder to do what coach Hunt has done in less than a year in Sherman - not to mention AC's only had two third-team all-conference selections.  CC had a first-team and a second-team recipient (and the second-teamer was also newcomer of the year). 

Regarding your last point with All-SCAC picks, that's where Austin College is really hurt because they're a very balanced squad without any dominant presences, so no one stands out statistically. Doesn't lend itself well to All-Conference voting, of course. AC only had one person average double figures this season, Lexi Martin, and I would wager even she would say this season was not her best overall, as well as the best defense (in terms of PPG allowed, at least) in the conference. It's honestly not dissimilar from one of Tony Bennett's classic Virginia squads in those ways.

Pretty solid first season for Olivia Hunt at Austin College. The 'Roos just clinched the SCAC Blue Division with one game to play after an 11-point road win at Hendrix, giving them the sweep over the Warriors this year.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on December 16, 2025, 12:25:25 PMAustin College named Dr. Rebecca Cantor, currently Provost and Chief Academic Officer at Spring Hill [AL] College, as their 17th president.  She will begin her term in July 2026; current president Steven O'Day will continue in the role until his retirement in May 2026.  Prior to her arrival at Spring Hill, Dr. Cantor was at Savannah School of Arts and Design, where she served as department chair, professor of English and Assistant Provost.  Dr. Cantor will also serve as Professor of English at Austin.

As she has never served at a school with a football program, it remains to be seen how her arrival will impact the 'Roo program, and 'Roo athletics in general. 

Dr. Cantor was a D1 volleyball player at Fairfield University, so she's definitely got an athletics background (she's apparently in their athletics Hall of Fame, at least as a member of one of their teams when she was there). That's two straight presidents for AC with an athletics background (O'Day was the women's soccer coach at Franklin & Marshall back in the day).

Quote from: WUPHF on December 08, 2025, 10:11:36 AMI assume that all Flo Sports writers are freelancers, but hard to say.

Flo has 18 conferences along with multiple team events among other things.

The margins must be too small to properly staff the content teams.

I'm guessing they use local college student interns (UT is only a stone's throw from their offices in downtown Austin) for a lot of that content.

Quote from: WUPHF on November 16, 2025, 09:54:31 PM

Quote from: jekelish on November 16, 2025, 05:08:38 PMI don't think people understand that ESPN+ streaming stuff isn't done by ESPN. It's handled by the schools, just like how Flo works. So it'll still be fully reliant on what the schools have at their disposal.

People understand how ESPN+ works.

I feel certain that ESPN would be upgrade for no other reason than the software.

I personally disagree, based on comments I've seen with people complaining about ESPN+ broadcasts over the years. Lots and lots of people have no idea that colleges are responsible for those, not ESPN. That's not really debatable, it's absolutely what happens. The ESPN+ broadcasts are only as good as what the colleges have, just like Flo is only as good as what the colleges have. (And that's not up for debate, that's a hard fact.)

Quote from: Gray Fox on November 16, 2025, 03:15:35 PM

Quote from: WUPHF on November 16, 2025, 03:11:52 PM

Quote from: y_jack_lok on November 16, 2025, 03:06:33 PM^^^ What convinces you?

The part about the decreased quality over the short run.

After ESPN or Disney take over it will look better then now but maybe not better than before.

Well, that's definitely not gonna be the case if it ever happens. I don't think people understand that ESPN+ streaming stuff isn't done by ESPN. It's handled by the schools, just like how Flo works. So it'll still be fully reliant on what the schools have at their disposal.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on September 08, 2025, 09:15:25 AMSince all Flo is doing is rebroadcasting the school's streams, contracts are most likely on a school-by-school basis. I noticed them pre-Flo.

I can say that I know part of the contract is that the schools are obligated to run, minimally, ads for Flo. Any additional ads are up to the school, but they are required to run a certain number of Flo ads during each broadcast.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on August 23, 2025, 10:43:22 AMThis is supposedly Lindsey Plotkin:  https://www.si.com/college/texas/author/lindsey-plotkin

A UT journalism major who writes for their student paper and occasionally for SI.com. 

That would make sense, since Flo is based in Austin.

Quote from: Kuiper on August 19, 2025, 06:25:08 PM

Quote from: y_jack_lok on August 19, 2025, 05:12:05 PMThe past couple of days I've been thinking about what it takes for FloSports to make a profit for providing the streaming platform for schools and conferences given that Flo is paying to have them on the platform. I guess the two revenue streams are subscriptions and advertising. (Are there others?) And I'm also guessing that the number of subscriptions affects the ad revenue. Perhaps, also, the number of viewers of each event has an effect. Anyway, if $30,000 per school is, in fact, what Flo pays, then (thinking only about annual, not monthly, subscriptions) at $108 for a 12 month subscription, each school would need to generate 277 such subscriptions for Flo to break even. Does that seem likely to happen?

Flo's business model is going after things where demand is very inelastic.  So, niche sports where no one else is broadcasting them and the fans are passionate and can't go without it.  Or, in this case, colleges where parents want to watch their children play when they can't be there and there is no ability to substitute another event where their children are not on one of the teams.  Considering how many schools have a high percentage of their students playing sports, 277 is a pretty low floor for parent subscriptions on average.  Alumni and other fans probably supply the profit.

That's a great point that I had never really considered. Like, how many other services are streaming at a high quality, things like jiujitsu and various forms of racing? I'm sure there are others, but especially in the US, there can't be too many.

Quote from: HansenRatings on August 13, 2025, 10:08:51 AMJust posted on Twitter: 2025 Conference Preview

(right click and open in new tab for better resolution)

Well that's interesting, I didn't realize that Jess Hoel had pulled himself out of the portal so that's certainly gonna make McMurry dangerous this year in their final season in the SCAC.

Quote from: Gray Fox on August 17, 2025, 03:24:03 PM

Quote from: jekelish on August 17, 2025, 03:15:44 PM

Quote from: Pat Coleman on August 17, 2025, 02:03:19 PMFlo isn't producing the games, even for these D-I games. It's just a streaming service when it comes to game day broadcasts.

Yep. And on the same note: it's important to realize that ESPN+ streams are not produced by ESPN, either. They're produced by those schools and made to look uniform within the ESPN ecosystem, but the responsibility is on the schools.

Then why do they need Flo? Not even an incremental gain?

I mean, you could say the same about schools/conferences that are on ESPN+. Obviously not like, the ACC Network or anything like that, but for example America East. You get the branding without actually having Vermont and UMass Lowell on Big Monday, and Flo is trying to create a similar brand for schools outside of that ESPN/ESPN+/Power 4 dynamic, is what it feels like to me. I've long been skeptical about Flo but, upon learning more, I'm starting to get why schools/conferences are making the switch. I'm still not 100% sold but I'm getting it more, the more I learn.

Quote from: Pat Coleman on August 17, 2025, 02:03:19 PMFlo isn't producing the games, even for these D-I games. It's just a streaming service when it comes to game day broadcasts.

Yep. And on the same note: it's important to realize that ESPN+ streams are not produced by ESPN, either. They're produced by those schools and made to look uniform within the ESPN ecosystem, but the responsibility is on the schools.

Quote from: y_jack_lok on August 13, 2025, 06:04:59 PMDo I understand this correctly? FloSports is not who will be archiving game broadcasts. That is up to individual schools? If so, how would you access the archived broadcast -- via the school's website?

No, it's an easy thing to get confused by, of course. But the old broadcasts will apparently be archived on Flo, but behind the paywall. Schools will have the option to take the old broadcasts and put them on their own free platforms after 24 hours.

Quote from: WUPHF on August 13, 2025, 04:09:11 PMThanks Ryan for the clarification, I thought that was universally part of the agreement.  My understanding is that all UAA broadcasts on Flo will be free 24 hours after the game has ended.

My understanding is that it is now the policy that the 24-hour thing is, in fact, universal. It's just a matter of whether or not schools actually follow through with it.