FB: American Southwest Conference

[Etchglow]

Starting to see a few kids commit to UMHB already.  4 through the portal (1 NAIA, 1 D3, 1 D2, and 1 D1) and two from HS.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IC2_OyngCpyyrQ3pjQd0-_SPzQQY_ga1Z5znH-Q4Rg8/edit?usp=sharing

[Ralph Turner]

McMurry announced Homecoming for November 5-8. My guess is that Schreiner comes to McMurry for that game. Second guess would be HPU.

[CruFrenzy]

Starting to see a few kids commit to UMHB already.  4 through the portal (1 NAIA, 1 D3, 1 D2, and 1 D1) and two from HS.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IC2_OyngCpyyrQ3pjQd0-_SPzQQY_ga1Z5znH-Q4Rg8/edit?usp=sharing

Thank you for doing this again, I check it regularly.

[TheChucker]

Perhaps, "participation in intercollegiate athletics" is not the enrollment driver that it is for so many of the private colleges in the SCAC and the ASC.

That's a fair point.

I would think a small rural college would use any tool to recruit a student body....academic, athletics, campus vibe and excitement, school spirit.

But when all of your teams are getting skull-dragged week after week, season after season it sure makes it hard to build any sort of school spirit or campus social vibe.

Maybe the financials make all that losing worth it....but seems like some competitiveness would solve a multitude of other issues.

JMHO.

FWIW, when I visited Alpine for softball, the games were well attended by students. Better than most. Maybe because the recreation options are limited, but school spirit wasn't an issue. Still, that doesn't mean it's a recruiting talking point.

[Etchglow]

Huge update to the commits:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IC2_OyngCpyyrQ3pjQd0-_SPzQQY_ga1Z5znH-Q4Rg8/edit?usp=sharing

[Ron Boerger]

ASC supporters are the latest to be forced to pay to watch their teams online as the conference will join the Flo$port$ mafia in 2026-27:  https://www.flosports.tv/2026/02/10/flosports-and-ncaa-division-iii-american-southwest-conference-asc-announce-exclusive-media-rights-partnership/

[Etchglow]

ASC supporters are the latest to be forced to pay to watch their teams online as the conference will join the Flo$port$ mafia in 2026-27:  https://www.flosports.tv/2026/02/10/flosports-and-ncaa-division-iii-american-southwest-conference-asc-announce-exclusive-media-rights-partnership/

I have to guess viewership already sucked last year when they ditched the apps for most streaming devices. But yeah it sucks. Maybe we will get vod one day?

[crufootball]

I've always said I'd take whatever the ASC and UMHB offered since it didn't cost anything. The feeds are generally okay — nothing special, but fine for free. If I'm going to be paying for it now (which I will), I'll expect more, and  from everything we have heard from other schools/conferences I won't get more.

With that said, yes, please to on-demand; that would make it worth it right there, especially if we could go back in time and see some of the bigger games of the past.

[CruFrenzy]

The issue with Flo is that they don't do any of the production or streaming themselves, they just overlay Flo onto the already existing streams. Some of the schools that need the money do it right away but they just pocket the extra cash and spend it on other things they need - not the broadcast. So you end up with the exact same broadcasts, some of which are bad, just through the Flo Paywall. Not great.