FB: Southern Athletic Association

[Ralph Turner]

On Monday, Southwestern announced its schedule.  Non-conference opponents will be McMurry, TLU, and Schreiner.  The new on-campus stadium is not ready so the first two home games - McMurry (Sep 5) and Trinity (Oct 10) will be held at the high school stadium that has hosted the Pirates since they resumed playing football.  The grand opening of the new "multi-purpose" stadium is scheduled for October 24, construction progress permitting.  It's been raining a lot this spring so if that continues into the summer the date could be at risk.

"Multi-purpose" in quotes because the only other sport besides football to possibly play there is lacrosse, and they will (per the release above) use the new facility as a backup.  There's no track.

Southwestern returns ten offensive and five defensive starters this year, so should be more competitive than last season's 4-6/2-5 SAA.

Will the new venue not host soccer?

[Ron Boerger]

Will the new venue not host soccer?

Not according to the information in the annoucement.  When they announced the facility last year the only athletes shown were a footballer and one or two lacrossers.  Soccer players prefer grass to artificial turf in my experience.

A video associated with an on-going fundraiser shows only clips of football and lacrosse players, and also has players from those two teams, and only those two teams, encouraging donations.

[MCScots2013]

Forbes last week published a "Financial GPA" for nearly 1000 private colleges in the US.  I could not open this in Chrome but could in DuckDuckGo (might be me).  The maximum GPA is 4.5 and letter grades were assigned.  I'll list the components used in calculating the average below, and you can read this non-paywalled edit: a now paywalled article describes the overall methodology in detail.  SAA schools are almost all in more than decent shape, and the conference overall is doing better than most.  Organized in order of GPA, the grades are:

• Millsaps - 4.5/A+
• Sewanee - 4.5/A+
• Trinity - 4.5/A+
• Berry - 4.49/A+
• Southwestern - 4.49/A+
• Centre - 4.38/A+
• Rhodes - 4.06/A
• Maryville - 2.93/B-
• Oglethorpe - 1.6/D
• Overall:  3.94/A-

Components used in the calculation:

• Endowment Assets Per FTE (15%)
• Three Year Average UNAEP to Expenses (15%) [UNAEP=Unrestricted Net Assets Exclusive of Plant (Property, and Equipment)]
• Primary Reserve Ratio (10%)
• Viability Ratio (10%)
• Core Operating Margin (10%)
• 2-Year Enrollment Growth (10%)
• Tuition As A Percentage of Core Revenues (7.5%)
• Return On Assets (7.5%)
• Net Tuition Revenue Per Student (7.5%)
• Instruction Expenses Per FTE (7.5%)

I do admit to being surprised to see Millsaps up there with the other A+ schools; good for the Majors!  Unfortunately, the full article, which may allow you to dive in for further details, is behind a paywall and I'm not motivated enough to pay $12.99+tax to find out.  Despite Oglethorpe's low grade (endowment ~$50M, losing money annually), there are literally hundreds of colleges that graded lower. 

I think Millsaps' endowment per FTE is helping them...~575 students with 100M+ endowment. Likewise, Oglethorpe has 2.5x the enrollment and half the endowment.

[Patrick Coleman]

That's a tiny number of FTE, though.

[MCScots2013]

Agree. Doesn't seem like it got much scrutiny in the formula.

[awadelewis]

Sewanee's 2026 schedule now on our website:

9/5 Bethany College
9/12 @Brevard
9/19 NC Wesleyan
10/03 Southwestern
10/10 @Maryville
10/17 Millsaps
10/24 @Centre
10/31 @Trinity
11/07 Rhodes
11/14 @Berry

New coaching staff coming in after a bunch of drama, hoping for the best but expecting the unfortunate usual.

[Ron Boerger]

Millsaps, apparently hoping to double or triple their conference travel costs, will rejoin the SCAC in 2027.

[jknezek]

Check out this realignment now. We can actually make some real regional conferences in the south if people want to make it make sense.

Start with how weird the SAA looks now. You've got Berry, Maryville, Oglethorpe, and Sewanee holding down a pretty simple 200 mile line on the east side. And then it turns into a disaster. Centre, Rhodes, Southwestern, Trinity.

If I was the 4 on the east side, I might try and pick up Huntingdon, Brevard, Covenant, LaGrange, Piedmont and Agnes Scott and make a conference that makes geographic sense. All eastern TN (yeah Brevard is NC, but it's right there), GA and AL. Farthest trip would be Brevard to Huntingdon? Less than 6 hours for teams that have some monsters in their current conferences. That gives you 6 for football and more than that in most other common sports.

It would free up Trinity and Southwestern to go back to the SCAC. Belhaven as well with Millsaps as a travel partner. Rhodes maybe as well? Making the SCAC a cherry conference and ending all the issues with poaching between the two Texas conferences.

That ends the SAA, basically, and we deal with the rest of the USA South, which is now all in NC and VA. Pull in Christopher Newport, who needs a home and now fits the footprint and was once a member, and Gallaudet, who needs a home, and you have 6 for football and more for most common sports.

Centre and Asbury are really the only two left out from the SAA, CCS, USA South, and SCAC. Given they are both in Kentucky, they'd probably need to sniff around the midwest for new homes. But there are a lot more conferences that direction and since Asbury doesn't need a football home that makes it easier for them. Centre is a well known and generally strong school in many sports, you'd think someone would be happy to take them on.

All of a sudden, the southern conferences actually start to make sense for D3.

[MCScots2013]

For football, losing Millsaps isn't as much as a drag as losing Berry, Trinity or Centre. With that in mind, what's the chances a 9-1 or 8-2 SAA champ doesn't get an at-large bid?  Has to be low, right?

I think LaGrange would be an interesting addition for the simple fact the two football playing D3 schools in GA would be in the same conference.  If LaGrange (or Huntingdon for that matter) leave the USAC to join the SAA, Gallaudet can jump into their spot as you mention. This seems fairly plausible and the 'easiest' fix.

W&L joining the SAA would leave a hole in the ODAC and that would be tough to fill unless E&H or Ferrum come back to D3.  CNU is a no-go for that spot since they are a public university.

If what is being reported is true regarding over 400 schools in danger of closing in the next decade, we may see a world where the SAA is split in two with half joining remaining SCAC/ASC schools and the other half joining remaining ODAC/USAC schools.

[jknezek]

An SAA with a LaGrange or a Huntingdon ends the mission and values purpose of the SAA. That's my point. Why pay for the travel if you are losing the purpose of making an expensive conference? The UAA is willing to pay the expense because they are all similar, but when you dilute the SAA further, it just doesn't make sense to me. And it already didn't make sense to Hendrix and Milsaps. I suspect if the SAA gets in trouble of falling under 6 for football, and if they can't find a school at least as academically reputable as Maryville, the SAA will disband. Most of the members will easily find other homes. Rhodes and Centre would probably be the most challenged.