I believe APU and Cal Lutheran are the only Colleges/University in the SCIAC that require students to take to take religion and philosophy courses.

APU has a very unique opportunity with what was D2 sports and facilities now moving to D3. I would imagine due to the decline in enrollment (similar to Whittier) they are going to be letting just about anyone in to build the football program back up. 2.5+ GPA's should do the trick.

Also, any word on how APU and Whittier are doing in terms of overall numbers? I would hope each team will have 60+ on the roster for the 2026 season? Who knows.

Coach Shine officially the head coach at Chapman. He will do a tremendous job!

https://athletics.chapman.edu/news/2026/3/2/casey-shine-named-head-coach-of-chapman-university-football.aspx

That CMS field should be a huge asset once it's all finished.Excited to see the finished product.

On the second point, I agree that Chapman is dropping the ball here. From the outside, it really feels like the transition to a new president has left a lot of key roles in limbo across the entire University, from important academic and board positions to everything going on in athletics with both the AD and the head football coach.

There doesn't appear to be any real urgency to get things finalized, which is surprising given how much momentum the school has right now. Maybe they don't know exactly what direction they want to go, or they're trying to line up some sort of big, uniform "national search" process for every major position and are insisting on running the same timeline and hiring model for all of them? Who knows.

The frustrating part is that Coach Shine is a slam dunk, no-brainer hire. He wins the SCIAC in his first year, then goes on the road and wins a playoff game! Something that hasn't been done by a conference team in over 40 years. Not to mention the staff racks up Coaching Staff of the Year in the conference, Offensive Player of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, and sets the highest team GPA in the history of the program. With that resume, it's hard to understand what more you could possibly be waiting for. At this point nobody seems to have a clear answer, and from the outside it just looks like unnecessary delay that risks wasting a huge opportunity to build on a fantastic 2025 season.

Congrats to Chapman for a great win on the road. From the what it looks like this is the first SCIAC road playoff win in 40 years. I believe the last time was Oxy in 1985.

Chapman D has been playing well this season. They have speed all over the field and did a great job containing the Whitworth QB.

Should be a good one at River Falls!

 

Congrats to Chapman on a great season and scoring 20 unanswered to beat Cal Lu. 8-0 in conference play which I believe is the first time in the history of the league. Should be a fun one at Whitworth on Saturday.

Going to be some unusual weather for these games tomorrow in Socal.

CMS and Redlands both play on grass fields and with heavy rainfall today and tomorrow, it is going to be a mud bowl. Redlands clearly spray paints their field green so hopefully pomona has a good laundry crew for those white jerseys! 

Winner of the SCIAC will go and play Whitworth unless Whitworth somehow loses this weekend. In that case, Whitworth would travel to Chapman or play a home game versus Cal Lu.

Interesting weekend in the SCIAC.

Pomona completed 50/50 jump balls, won the field position battle and had a pick six that led them to a strong win on senior night versus Cal Lu. Cal Lu was unable to run the ball and Pomona forced the QB to scramble. The poor announcers of Pomona did a great job on the broadcast but was constantly saying with a Pomona win tonight, Cal Lutheran would not be in the SCIAC championship game, which they already had clinched before the game kicked off due to tiebreakers.

CMS has been a completely different team since they found #11 at running back. A running game mixed with strong defense is what led them to a win at Redlands. Redlands offense struggled all throughout SCIAC play only scoring a high of 17 points in regulation outside the La Verne game.  What a waste of an opportunity for Redlands to make the SCIAC championship game with Cal Lutheran getting handled by Pomona.

Chapman and LaVerne looked to be a sloppy game. Turnovers on both sides of the ball which led to touchdowns. Chapman gets the win and improves to 7-0 in conference play.

 

A lot of eyes on the 7PM game at PP this weekend. CLU wins and is in the SCIAC Championship game. I don't see them losing this one. Pomona's offense is the worst in the league. If everything plays out like it should it will look like this for the Championship Week.

CLU @ Chapman
Pomona @ Redlands
La Verne @ CMS

Predictions for tomorrow.

Redlands takes it to La Verne. 28 point win and Redlands offense looks the best it has all year.

CMS and Cal Lu play a close game. Cal Lu wins by 3 on the road and still maintains the top spot in the sun division.

Chapman wins by 17 and Pomona's offense will struggle to move the ball.

 

I'm with you, Olddog. I've lost all respect for OXY. I always heard chatter regarding how dim their lights were and how they would use that an as advantage. Teams that weren't used to playing at night had trouble seeing the field. 
 
It's astonishing how a single misguided leadership decision can dismantle more than a century of tradition. And to make matters worse, OXY took the million dollars raised to bring back football and spent it on everything except football. 


 

I personally like the POD system... It keeps teams in the hunt longer. I hope they keep it once Whittier and APU get introduced into the league next year.  If the league decides to go back to the old structure, Chapman would have already won the conference based off of this season with the games played/remaining schedule.

Based off the info PickSixNick provided it seems like Cal Lu still holds a clear path the championship game if they win out on the road against CMS and Pomona.  Chapman seems to have clinched their pod and will host the championship game?  Does anyone see anything differently?

La Verne picked up its first win since 2023. Hats off to the coaching staff at La Verne for improving throughout the season.

This week is going to tell a lot about the conference. The current leaders for both the sun and surf play this weekend based off current standings. 1's being Cal Lu and Chapman. 2's being Redlands and PP. The 3's being La Verne and CMS.


All three home teams looks to be playing homecoming games this weekend. Not sure of the homecoming atmosphere over at CMS but Cal Lu and Redlands will bring better crowds and uplifted energy, which will keep the games close.

(Home) Cal Lu - 17 / Chapman 27
(Home) Redlands - 20 / PP -21 (If Russo plays this goes to 31)
(Home) CMS - 29 / La Verne - 7

CLU starting off 4-0 was something I did not see happening preseason. They have done a great job stopping the run and had a huge second half against CMS this past weekend.

PP ended up taking it to La Verne even when they went down 12-2 early. Without Russo at QB it is going to be hard for them to win another conference championship. Hopefully he will come back from injury and get back on the field soon.

La Verne is horrible and will be interesting to see how they compete next year even against Whittier and APU when they bring back their programs.

I have no explanation for the current state of the Redlands program. Going on the road and beating Whitworth and then dropping two straight games with HORRIBLE offense performances is something I did not see coming. They are currently averaging 94 yards per game and 5 points per game in conference play.