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.

[MCScots2013]

DePauw is an interesting idea since there is some history there. Hanover from the HCAC is another with some SAA ties having played both Maryville and Centre often over the last decade, including this upcoming season. Hanover, IN isn't too far from Centre (like 100 miles); ~275 mi from Maryville, ~300 from Sewanee, ~425 from Berry and Rhodes. The longest trip they have now is just 210 miles, so they won't want to double most trips then 5x it all the way to Texas.

The Fightin' Pences might challenge the "Southern" part of the conference name, but fun to throw out there since it's July 3rd and we have 64 days until kickoff. NPI will be the SAA saving grace if the top teams continue to be #8 (Berry) and #11 (Trinity) at season-end.

[TexPat]

...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.

I deeply valued my personal experience as an SAA football player -- there was a genuine respect for your opponent when you knew they were immersed in a challenging environment on top of their preparation for the game that week; however, I think jknezek's point is right: the health of the institution, league, and (to a lesser degree) D3 athletics in the South are going to require some difficult decisions on conference affiliation. if the UAA presidents are willing to put their football programs in less-academically "prestigious" regional conferences then some of the SAA presidents may have to face that music, too.

If you remove the Big $$$, television networks, and private equity from the equation, the troubles facing the Frankensteined conferences of Division 1 start to look the same. Losing the regional identities/rivalries and health of realistically-sized conferences has been a net loss for college athletics at every level.

[Mavchamp]

I hear you on the academics, but let's go back to the geography question. Wouldn't an all-Texas league with Centenary, Millsaps, Lyon and Hendrix in the SAA (or pick another name) makes sense?  What's the bad blood between the Texas schools that seem to make this impossible?

There are a lot of us that wonder about the bad blood between some of the Texas Schools.  We get very vague and non-specific reasons....nothing concrete. 

Instead of having a single solid football conference.....we have 2 football conferences both teetering near disaster with only 6 schools a piece.  Which means no wiggle room for anyone moving around.

Anyone that trusts this 10 year deal the ASC has is short-sighted IMHO.

Anyone that thinks the SCAC is stable long-term with Millsaps and Gallaudet is foolish.

Be it academics....or politics....or sourness about the domination by the purple schools (HSU and UMHB).... it's astounding to me we can't make things work in order for all to benefit from the stability.

They seem to play nice in all other sports.

Looking at a map.....there IS a core of D3 schools in the Ark-La-Tex/Ark-La-Miss that simply makes TOO MUCH geographical sense:

Millsaps
Lyon
Hendrix
Centenary
ETBU
Belhaven
Rhodes

7 schools all within a 200-250 mile radius of one another.

What would really help things....would be for some schools to return to D3 to solidify some of these gaps.

Louisiana Christian (NAIA)
Sul Ross (D2)
Wayland Baptist (NAIA)
Mississippi (D2)

Who knows what the future holds.  Lots of things in motion.

But the SAA, SCAC, and the ASC perhaps need to learn to work together better in order to survive.  Survival may need to trump the differences in which we are using to separate ourselves.