FB: Southern Athletic Association

[MCScots2013]

Who would be a unanimous pick for current SAA members (taking academics and travel into consideration)? Is there an obvious one at the moment?

[jknezek]

Who would be a unanimous pick for current SAA members (taking academics and travel into consideration)? Is there an obvious one at the moment?

Don't think so. That's the problem. No one is the USA South or CCS have attractive academic profiles, and all the football playing CCS schools are in the USA South anyway.

The schools that do have academic profiles, W&L or another upper tier ODAC, or one of the NCAC schools, like Depauw a former SCAC team, don't seem likely to give up their low travel conferences and are not geographically helpful anyway. The Centennial schools are not going anywhere and are a geographic disaster.

That leaves Austin College or Colorado College. Adding another Texas school has its own challenges, adding Colorado College doesn't help for football, or their D1 sports, and sucks massively for travel.

I don't think poaching a SCIAC school would make anyone happy, so that rules out CMS who would fit academically.

So no. That's why I still think my original idea scrapping the mission and values SAA for better geographic fits is the right idea. Especially as schools start facing even more revenue challenges. Paying a fortune for athletic travel is a highlighter line item if you can find a cheaper home.