FB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Patrick Coleman]

Seems like there are some games to be played before then so I wouldn't worry too much in March.

[crufootball]

Seems like there are some games to be played before then so I wouldn't worry too much in March.

But if Gallaudet doesn't play any SCAC teams in the regular season then those games won't do much to determine the seeds.

As far as I know Austin College is the only SCAC team to post their 2026 schedule which features a double round robin against everyone except Lyon so they aren't planning to play Gallaudet.

[Ron Boerger]

Gaulladet will no doubt get the sixth seed, the other five will be based on SCAC play.

[Patrick Coleman]

Seems like there are some games to be played before then so I wouldn't worry too much in March.

But if Gallaudet doesn't play any SCAC teams in the regular season then those games won't do much to determine the seeds.

As far as I know Austin College is the only SCAC team to post their 2026 schedule which features a double round robin against everyone except Lyon so they aren't planning to play Gallaudet.

We have the full Gallaudet schedule posted on D3football.com. Here are all the D-III schools planning to play Gallaudet.

https://www.d3football.com/teams/Gallaudet/2026/index

[Gray Fox]

Six games.  All away.

[Patrick Coleman]

They also play games against club teams, which are not reflected here because they don't count.

[Ron Boerger]

Dwayne Hanberry pulls one out of his hat and manages (apparently) to secure a bid for the SCAC in '26 by making Gallaudet an affiliate that doesn't have to play any regular-season SCAC matches.  Wild.

https://scacsports.com/sports/fball/2025-26/releases/scac_adds_gallaudet

[The Third Division]

Simply calling a team that's only participating in your championship weekend an affiliate member of your conference for the sole purpose of securing an automatic bid is kind of unfair honestly.

[Patrick Coleman]

Perhaps, but it's not significantly different than what the Coast-to-Coast Conference already does in Division III.

[Ron Boerger]

Simply calling a team that's only participating in your championship weekend an affiliate member of your conference for the sole purpose of securing an automatic bid is kind of unfair honestly.

If it's permitted by the NCAA, then it's perfectly fair.  Highly unusual, yes.  And if not for the C2C doing something similar (as Pat mentioned), there would be a number of schools without access to auto bids - such as the recently crowned MBB national champions - in many sports. 

And at least millions of dollars were not involved to make this happen.

[crufootball]

Simply calling a team that's only participating in your championship weekend an affiliate member of your conference for the sole purpose of securing an automatic bid is kind of unfair honestly.

If it's permitted by the NCAA, then it's perfectly fair.  Highly unusual, yes.  And if not for the C2C doing something similar (as Pat mentioned), there would be a number of schools without access to auto bids - such as the recently crowned MBB national champions - in many sports. 

And at least millions of dollars were not involved to make this happen.

It does make me question what are the requirements to call a school an affiliate member. I watched the Datacast episode where they talked about the C2C and mentioned that Finlandia never played a single C2C member in the regular season or post season. Before they left the ASC could Concordia or LeTourneau have been declared football members that will only play members every 5th year?

[Patrick Coleman]

Simply calling a team that's only participating in your championship weekend an affiliate member of your conference for the sole purpose of securing an automatic bid is kind of unfair honestly.

If it's permitted by the NCAA, then it's perfectly fair.  Highly unusual, yes.  And if not for the C2C doing something similar (as Pat mentioned), there would be a number of schools without access to auto bids - such as the recently crowned MBB national champions - in many sports. 

And at least millions of dollars were not involved to make this happen.

It does make me question what are the requirements to call a school an affiliate member. I watched the Datacast episode where they talked about the C2C and mentioned that Finlandia never played a single C2C member in the regular season or post season. Before they left the ASC could Concordia or LeTourneau have been declared football members that will only play members every 5th year?

You have to sponsor football to be an affiliate in the sport of football.

[crufootball]

Simply calling a team that's only participating in your championship weekend an affiliate member of your conference for the sole purpose of securing an automatic bid is kind of unfair honestly.

If it's permitted by the NCAA, then it's perfectly fair.  Highly unusual, yes.  And if not for the C2C doing something similar (as Pat mentioned), there would be a number of schools without access to auto bids - such as the recently crowned MBB national champions - in many sports. 

And at least millions of dollars were not involved to make this happen.

It does make me question what are the requirements to call a school an affiliate member. I watched the Datacast episode where they talked about the C2C and mentioned that Finlandia never played a single C2C member in the regular season or post season. Before they left the ASC could Concordia or LeTourneau have been declared football members that will only play members every 5th year?

You have to sponsor football to be an affiliate in the sport of football.

In this mythical situation, they would sponsor the sport just not play any games.