FB: American Southwest Conference

[UMHB03]

Hardin-Simmons schedule drops:
https://www.d3football.com/teams/Hardin-Simmons/2026/index

We had done some speculation about it in the mailbag segment on the pod which dropped today:
https://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/2026/06/23/atn-podcast-410-polar-bears-in-ireland-new-coach-in-dc-preseason-thoughts/

Wow, looks like they never were able to find a 10th opponent.

[AndrewB]

Hardin-Simmons schedule drops:
https://www.d3football.com/teams/Hardin-Simmons/2026/index

We had done some speculation about it in the mailbag segment on the pod which dropped today:
https://www.d3blogs.com/d3football/2026/06/23/atn-podcast-410-polar-bears-in-ireland-new-coach-in-dc-preseason-thoughts/

I realize that everything comes down to money.  But them against Linfield would be the perfect fit for both teams.  If HS could have traveled to Linfield this year and done a home-home. To bad.

[Mavchamp]

Interesting seeing Nelson on the HS schedule.

I sure wish we could convince them to make the jump from the SAC/NAIA to the ASC.

Same with Wayland.

The travel budgets for the SAC must be brutal.

[Ralph Turner]

Interesting seeing Nelson on the HS schedule.

I sure wish we could convince them to make the jump from the SAC/NAIA to the ASC.

Same with Wayland.

The travel budgets for the SAC must be brutal.

I suspect that they (Nelson and Wayland) like the incentive of an "athletic scholarship" as the panache for recruiting/enrollment, if even it is only half-price for books.

[jknezek]

I suspect that they (Nelson and Wayland) like the incentive of an "athletic scholarship" as the panache for recruiting/enrollment, if even it is only half-price for books.

I've got a close friend whose daughter got a soccer scholarship to Wofford. She was recruited by a coach they fired before she stepped on to campus, she played sparingly as a freshman, and was told the coach was not renewing any scholarships for girls under senior year as he wanted to recruit a whole different set of players to play his style.

Her soccer scholarship was 10% of tuition, and then she had other scholarships that covered the rest of tuition. So all he was paying was room and board. But she wasn't going to play or be on the team anymore, so even though 90% of her tuition was still covered, she decided to transfer.

She transferred to a well respected D3 school where non-athletic scholarships covered 70% of her tuition. It was also significantly more expensive, but my buddy is well off so he didn't care. What he did care about was not being able to say she was on an athletic scholarship anymore. So he just continues to tell people she's on a soccer scholarship.

Those of us that know D3 just smile and nod and don't bother correcting him because he knows, but he doesn't care. He likes the idea that his kid is good enough to have an athletic scholarship. Whether it was a puny one at Wofford, or just something else at a D3, it doesn't matter to him. That's what he wants to tell people.

So there is this huge cache, especially here in the South, of having an "athletic scholarship." I grew up in the northeast, so I don't really care or get it. My kids aren't athletes, so I'll be happy if they are on academic/leadership scholarships. But for other people it matters.

Lots of parents paid a fortune for travel sports, private coaching, camps, etc. Believing their kid is on an "athletic scholarship" makes those massive expenses feel justified, whether it's true or not. So I get these schools that cling to D2 even though the whole thing makes no sense to me.

[MCScots2013]

Is there some sort of federal aid/grant advantage or a difference to the discount rate for schools to go the D2 or NAIA route and give small athletic scholarships?  Seems like they are robbing Peter to pay Paul and, as you allude to, would rather have the prestige of being a scholarship school.  (Sadly, I think that is not working for a lot of D2's in the Southeast.  Several seem to be running into trouble.)

[jknezek]

Is there some sort of federal aid/grant advantage or a difference to the discount rate for schools to go the D2 or NAIA route and give small athletic scholarships?  Seems like they are robbing Peter to pay Paul and, as you allude to, would rather have the prestige of being a scholarship school.  (Sadly, I think that is not working for a lot of D2's in the Southeast.  Several seem to be running into trouble.)

Don't think so. I think it's just a recruiting advantage. I know E&H was pretty clear when they left the ODAC for D2. They looked around, saw tons of D3 schools that were... outcompeting them across the board, and said there is less competition in D2. Off they went. Honestly, they seem to be doing fine in D2, better than they were in the ODAC anyway, where they were pretty much the bottom of the barrel in every sport but football.

But E&H had an absurd reliance on athletes. It was one of those schools with a ridiculous percentage of students played NCAA sports. So they had to do something because that was pretty much all they had going for them. Not much endowment, not much alumni support, not much academic credentials... pretty campus though!