NPI updated thru 4/27:

6. La Verne (was 5)
12. Trinity (15)
21. CMS (16)
25. Concordia (32)
33. McMurry (42)
38. P-P (50)
50. CLU (45)
51. ETBU (34)
57. Redlands (56)
78. UMHB (113)
91. UPS (88)

[edit:  oops, I meant to post this in the West Region thread, fairly obviously.  Sorry!]

His twitter page now shows offers from Southwest Baptist, A&M-Kingsville, Navarro, Trinity Valley.

Quote from: ILVBB on April 26, 2025, 05:58:52 PMWas todays win over Southwestern Tim Scannell's 800th win?

No, the record shown on his bio is [edit: at least] two years old.  According to his NCAA stats page, he is now 870-327-0 (.727) in his 27th season at Trinity, and could reach 900 next season if they have a decent run the rest of the year and again next. 

Speaking of McM, Kylie Flippin also runs track for McMurry and in this weekend's SCAC championships won the women's high jump, the only athlete to clear 1.57m (on her first try).  She was also a respectable 9th in the SCAC women's long jump (.05m from scoring points in 8th) and 11th in the triple jump (.14m out of the points). 

McMurry is doing what McMurry does in the sport, leading the men's race by a decent margin and the women's by a narrow one, and looking at the entry list has a shot at pulling the double.   They almost assuredly will win the men's championship but will have to maximize their points on the distaff side.   Edit:  I forgot that Colorado brings basically a dozen women for each of the distance races from their XC team and rolls up the points basically in those events, so that will make matters much more difficult.

UMHB surprises ETBU, taking both halves of yesterday's DH, and is up 3-0 through 4 in the third game of four.

Former ETBU QB Kaden Brown is back in the portal after concluding spring practice at La Tech.  Good grief.

https://x.com/_KadenBrown_/status/1916182726207541273

It'll be interesting to see how he adapts to coaching D3 ball.  Big hire for the program.

Quote from: DickWhitman on April 21, 2025, 06:27:47 PMHow likely is it for McM to pull off the sweep? The Texas teams really came on strong in the second half. Makes for some exciting post-season tournaments!

Centenary is unusually average this year; run-ruled 2 of the 3 losses to Trinity, lost all three to both TLU and Concordia (who also also run ruled them twice) - their SCAC wins have come against bottom feeders for the most part.  McMurry gets them at home so it shouldn't be much of a stretch for them to get all three. 

It was a good week for many of the top teams in the region as NPI updates through games of 4/20 show improvement:

5. La Verne (26-5) 62.295 - no change
15. Trinity(TX) (30-7) 59.375 - up from 19
16. CMS (26-8) 59.252 - up from 20
32. Concordia(TX) (28-7) 57.606 - up from 39
34. ETBU (22-9) 57.491 - up from 37
42. McMurry (28-9) 57.071 - up from 47
45. Cal Lutheran (24-9) 56.973 - down from 36
50. Pomona-Pitzer (21-11) 56.702 - up from 54
56. Redlands (24-12) 56.197 - down from 55
88. Puget Sound (19-12) 54.171 - up from 109

After a 3-2 week, UMHB fell from 95 to 113.

The NPI has been updated through games of the 20th:

1. Johns Hopkins (32-3) 65.748
2. UW-Whitewater (25-2) 64.203
3. Denison (25-5) 62.739
4. Kean (30-5) 62.630
5. La Verne (26-5) 62.295
6. Endicott (25-3) 62.184
7. Lynchburg (31-5) 61.466
8. Salisbury (26-7) 61.317
9. UW-La Crosse (24-6) 60.611
10. Case Western (22-10-1) 60.160

After the penultumate regular series weekend:

1. Trinity 24-3 (defeated StT 3x)
2/3. Concordia 21-6 (defeated TLU 3x)
3/2. McMurry 19-8 (defeated Ozarks 3x)
4. StT 17-10 (lost to Trinity 3x)
elim TLU 14-13 (lost to Concordia 3x)

With tiebreakers, Trinity clinched the regular season championship, and StT has clinched the last spot in the championships with a 2-1 H2H against TLU, who are eliminated from championship qualification after their losses this week.

McMurry has the 2-1 H2H on CTX, so would need Concordia to lose two of three next weekend against St. Thomas while winning out against Centenary (or CTX losing all three while winning at least two) to clinch the second seed. 

Theoretically, StT could overcome McMurry, but the War Hawks are at home against Centenary while the Celts play three at Concordia so it seems highly unlikely with McM holding the 2-1 H2H advantage.

I wish someone would do a study of how many players end up in the portal and end their careers / return to their original team / actually find a home elsewhere and at what level.

The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved the experimental video review challenge for conference games only this fall.

QuoteUnder the rule, coaches will have one video review challenge. If the challenge is successful, the coach will retain the right to challenge one more time for the rest of the match.

If the challenge is unsuccessful, the coach loses the right to challenge for the rest of the match.

In overtime, if coaches have a challenge remaining, they can initiate a video review. Officials also can initiate video reviews in overtime to make sure a call is right, provided the affected team does not have a challenge remaining.

Coaches can initiate video review challenges in the following scenarios:

Fighting/violent behavior.
Violations on penalty kicks.
Straight red cards (not second yellows).
Denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity/stopping a promising attack.
Offside.
Potential mistaken identity.
Determining the location of a foul that was called on the field against the defending team near or in its penalty area.
Referees can initiate video reviews to determine whether the entire ball passed over the goal line for a goal, as well as to decide timing issues.

They also adopted two other rules put in place by the IFA Board:

QuoteOne will eliminate a red card being issued for nondeliberate handling of the ball in the penalty area that denies a goal or goal-scoring opportunity. Inside the penalty area, red cards should be reserved for deliberate, cynical handling that denies a goal or goal-scoring opportunity.

The other rules change amends encroachment by teammates of the kicker or goalkeeper during a penalty kick.

Referees should penalize the encroachment only if the player at fault prevents an opponent from playing the ball, challenges an opponent for the ball and then scores or prevents a goal, attempts to score or prevent a goal, or creates or stops a goal-scoring opportunity.

Millsaps hires former Southwestern coach Connor Kuykendall, 39-90 in five seasons there, as their new men's HC. 

Pat Coleman responded to someone asking a question similar to Caz':

We suspect deep down this is in part a play for NJCU to retain its own athletics independent of Kean in the merger talks.