FB: American Southwest Conference

[Etchglow]

Updated the commitment tracker.  Getting to be a good number of kids coming in:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IC2_OyngCpyyrQ3pjQd0-_SPzQQY_ga1Z5znH-Q4Rg8/edit?usp=sharing

[D3fanboy]

UMHB will open at Rowan this season.  Hopefully that will quiet the critics for a minute (ha!).

two former D3FB powers going at it, who could possibly hate that?

[TheChucker]

Looks like TX Wesleyan is off the board for any future ASC membership. Going D2.

https://x.com/ramsports/status/2026437467163808221?s=46

[Mavchamp]

Looks like TX Wesleyan is off the board for any future ASC membership. Going D2.

https://x.com/ramsports/status/2026437467163808221?s=46

That's pretty interesting.... that leaves Wayland, Texas College, and Nelson as the only Texas teams in the Sooner Conference for football.

Travel costs have to be stacking up for all of them when you consider several trips to Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and even Arizona....and that's just for football.

Schools like Wayland, Nelson, and Louisiana Christian are islands all alone with no one near them.

You get into the other sports and you not only have the road trips to Oklahoma ....but you add in trips to Kansas and Missouri as well.

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I would suspect that Texas College and Arkansas Baptist would either stick with the SAC since they have multiple HBCU's in the conference.  If not....there are several other conferences they could easily slide into seamlessly and remain in NAIA.

But you have to wonder if MAYBE Wayland and Nelson would at least lend an ear to the ASC.  You would think having all your conference opponents in Texas would be appealing.

I think they both offer the right number of sports to transition to D3.

The bigger question might be.....IF they were to decide to make the plunge to D3.....would they chose the ASC or the SCAC? 

[Ralph Turner]

IMHO, Wayland and Nelson are closer to the ASC in mission and vision. Texas Wesleyan was D2 in the 1990's. They spent 1 year in the ASC about 2000-2021, but needed to add sports at that time. They moved to NAIA shortly from there, about 2001. (I think that my comments on the old message board.)

[Mavchamp]

IMHO, Wayland and Nelson are closer to the ASC in mission and vision. Texas Wesleyan was D2 in the 1990's. They spent 1 year in the ASC about 2000-2021, but needed to add sports at that time. They moved to NAIA shortly from there, about 2001. (I think that my comments on the old message board.)

If they were to make the jump....it sure would solidify the ASC at least for a little while.

And after pursuing the D2 boards....there are some Lone Star Conference fans that are not sold on Sul Ross sticking around.  I wonder if the addition of Texarkana is part of the reason other than the obvious fact that they are struggling in almost every sport.

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I'm genuinely curious.... how is the mission and vision different for the ASC Vs. the SCAC?

It's a shame they can't work in a more synergistic way instead of being so antagonistic to one another.

[Ron Boerger]

The only place they are "antagonistic" is football.  The two conferences play each other freely in basically all other sports.

The SCAC has pitched itself as a more academic conference - certainly Colorado College, which only accepts 20% of applicants, is one that is - but the distinction is not what it once was, first with the SAA schools splitting off 13 years ago and then Southwestern and Trinity leaving last fall.  McMurry was on the more exclusive side (58% acceptance rate), Schreiner the less (88%) so not much changes with their departure to the ASC.  Other schools in the SCAC range all the way from 47% (Austin) to 95% (TLU).  The ASC "core 4" accept from 60-68% (ETBU, HPU) to 95-97% (UMHB, HSU) of applicants.

Schools choose conferences for any number of reasons.  When the SCAC was in danger of disbanding it made a pitch that obviously appealed to the schools that left the ASC.  When the ASC was in danger of losing its auto bids it made a financial pitch that appealed to Schreiner and McMurry.  What will be interesting is what happens with the five schools left playing football in the SCAC now that their path to an autobid is, for the foreseeable future, a fantasy.  None of the five could compete for one in the ASC anyway (absent structural and expensive program changes) so maybe they'll just be happy to play each other and hope to pull what TLU did a couple of seasons ago.  And I've heard that Gallaudet, of all schools, will be participating in the SCAC season-ending tournament to allow all five schools that are left to have that tenth game.   

It would not surprise me to see more movement by non-football playing schools from the SCAC back to the ASC now that the conference's future seems secure. 

[Ralph Turner]

Thanking outside the box and having questions to which I do not know the answer.

Can a conference get an AQ with 4 full-time members and two associates (Lyon and Gallaudet) in a sport?

How many games might Gallaudet need to play against conference members to qualify as an associate member?
As few as only appearing as the 6th seed in the conference end-of-season festival?

[Ron Boerger]

Yes.  You would have to wait two years with that exact alignment but after that you would get a bid.

Conferences decide what the qualifications are for their champion/bid winner as well as the design of in-conference and/or championship play.  I don't know if plugging a school in automatically 6th without playing any real conference games would fly - the C2C of course does something similar with non-football sports as they rarely play "in conference" games - but there's an actual end-of-season tournament where winners play winners until only one remains.  However ...

SCAC Post-Season Championship

This event will be held at a common location selected by the SCAC on the final weekend of regular-season play.

• Teams will be seeded in order of regular-season SCAC competition.
• Tie-breakers are ....
• If a team does not participate in regular-season SCAC competition it will be seeded sixth.
• If more than one team does not participate ... teams will be seeded in NPI order below those that did.
• The top-seeded team will play the second seed.  The winner of that game will be designated SCAC Champion and  receive the SCAC's bid to the NCAA playoff once the conference has qualified for a bid.
• The third-seeded team will play the fourth-, and the fifth- the sixth-.

[Ralph Turner]

SCAC makes Gallaudet an associate for 2026.
For 2027 and 2028, the other 5 go home and away with the Bison.

How many kids from Texas have been to the Washington Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial or the Smithsonian? Take a History professor or 2 and spend one more day in DC!

Make it a 4 year deal. The SCAC has a bid by 2028. Gallaudet commits to 4 years. A 2nd place finish in 2028 by Gallaudet and they play for the Pool A in week 11.

Allow Gallaudet to re-assess the contract after 2026.