I agree regarding diploma culture. It's outrageous.

I don't disagree with your first point, but, again, there are different realities. For every W&L there are 25 other not-so-academic schools. W&L has blessings others don't.

We can have a lengthy discussion on the evils of college financing.

Multiple things can be true at the same time.

It's a money grab, but it's still up to the student and the family to make the decision to enroll.  No one is forced into it. Huntington does it, Maryville did it under Rader (a Turk understudy), UMHB does it, St John's too. Point is: the schools that do it run the spectrum of talent of team and the size of institution (>1000 to nearly 4000).

The term "Necessary evil" comes to mind, though not to insinuate it is actually an evil practice.

I found a hudl link with his highlights. Big loss for Sewanee. Kid isn't afraid to stop the run.

Interesting that the small bio on the webpage said he was born in Knoxville (although graduated from Topsail HS in NC). Makes me wonder if he's somehow related to Dylan Wolfenbarger, one of Maryville's best LBs from the early/mid '10s. He was from Knoxville and the Wolfenbarger surname isn't too common.

Quote from: awadelewis on August 11, 2026, 08:36:41 PMJust a hair over three weeks from opening weekend. Is everyone feeling the optimism of a new season?

Here's the slate of games:
Belhaven @ Millsaps (on 9/3)
Maryville @ Heidelberg
Bethany @ Sewanee
Centre @ Hanover
McMurry @ Southwestern
TLU @ Trinity
Washington(MO) @ Rhodes
Berry @ Huntingdon

Thoughts?  Games you think will be interesting?  TLU@Trinity looks like one to watch.

Maryville has a defensive back transfer from Sewanee. John Wolfenbarger. What caliber player is he?

The roster has been updated little by little over the last few days. It's official. The Coby Walton I suspected to be the Tennessee Tech transfer is on the roster. This will be his Junior year. No stats from Georgia Southern or TTU, but a 6'1, 205 former 3 star prospect looks to be a good way to replace Bryson Rollins on paper. Hope he connects with Jalen McCullough a few times to make the preseason AA turn into the end of year list.

Yeah, we'll just disagree on the definition of the word "problematic" on this one.

Quote from: scottiedoug on August 04, 2026, 04:04:34 PMDropping "Fighting" from "Fighting Scots" may have "ticked a lot of guys off." There are quite a few athletes at Maryville who are not "guys." May not have ticked them off. (I know, this is a football section).

That's why they were "Lady Scots". And not a single one of the 100+ women athletes complained about being denoted Fighting or Lady the entire time I was enrolled.

Don't worry—most schools find an away to tick off alums and spend a lot of money doing it. A decade ago Maryville spent over $10,000 on an architect's "Master Plan" that to my knowledge only resulted in the track. They planned moving the baseball field down to the softball and soccer area, building a natatorium and turning Honaker Field (football) 90 degrees. Come to find out, Scotland Yard (baseball, beside Honaker) has been the home of Reckless Base Ball Club/Highlander/Fighting Scots/Scots baseball forever and they just celebrated the 150th year. Quite possibly one of the oldest baseball fields in use.  Would have been terrible if they relocated baseball.


Another thing the ticked a lot of guys off. Dropping "Fighting" from Fighting Scots. Tragic.

Good point on the church relationships.  I recently read "Tenth Watch", the memoir of the 10th Maryville President, Gerald Gibson, and he made it very clear the church relationship was not what he had hoped for when he assumed the presidency in 1993.  It took several years to rebuild the relationship.  MC is a Presbyterian affiliated college and it seems like it was "in name only" for a long time.  The large local session has long supported MC, but the Synod and Presbytery were lacking in support.

Maryville used a local firm called Visual Voice.

https://www.maryvillecollege.edu/news/2021/maryville-college-reveals-new-logo/

Huntingdon Hawks license plate frame in Short Pump (Richmond) VA

The choice of maroon and pink on the website is a little weird.  I've always been a supporter of academic and athletics colors matching, and no more than 4-5 colors if counting white, black or grey.  The new Trinity color palette has 12.  Yikes.

As an aside, Maryville updated its academic branding 5 years ago and left the athletics untouched.  I think the athletics logos came to be the year before I enrolled, so less than 20 years.

I've always known there were a lot of D3 schools in the Northeast, but the number in some states is eye-popping.  I thought growing up in Virginia we had a lot (20), but NY and PA both have 60 and MA has 39. That's 37% of all D3 schools.

Those 3 states have more schools than the following 12 states, combined: VA, WV, KY, OH, IN, MI, IL, MO, MD, IA, WI, and MN (150 total).

The comment about being in the 3rd inning and going into extras hits a little different after looking at the numbers...


EDIT to add context to D2:  NY, PA and MA have 37 total schools.  22 of those are in PA alone.
302 D2 schools and the Southeast has over a third of those at 123 (if your definition of Southeast mirrors the SEC plus VA and NC...)

Reminds me of the old Arizona State logo and the hat my grandfather got in El Paso at the Sun Bowl back in the day.