Quote from: Ralph Turner on September 21, 2024, 09:49:18 PMMcM 31 TLU 10. Final

McMurry was dominate. Most important part of the game was the last 2:15 of the first half. McMurry was up 10-3 and had just missed a field goal. TLU had the ball at approximately their own 25 but proceeded to go 3 and out with only 17 seconds coming off the clock.  After a good punt, McMurry marched down the field in 4 or 5 plays to score a touchdown.  On the ensuing kickoff, McMurry had a short kick and TLU dropped it.  McMurry recovered and capitalized on the turnover to score another touchdown before the half. 24 - 3 at halftime.

McMurry was able to convert two TLU turnovers (the one mentioned above plus an interception in TLU's territory on the first drive of the game) into touchdowns.  Extremely difficult to overcome those types of mistakes.

Quote from: Riley Zayas on September 13, 2024, 07:39:25 PMI had the chance to talk with Coach LaHue earlier this week on the big win over Trinity for the D3 Texas Newsletter. He had some good insight and as you can imagine, for as much as he enjoyed the win, his focus had already shifted to Centenary by Monday. Seems like this could be a really big year for TLU with so many returners back, especially offensively. With the Trinity win, I think there's a decent chance TLU could take a Pool C bid in the case that they go 9-1 or 10-0. The Trinity win should help their NPI a fair amount, especially since I have a lot of confidence that Coach Urban will get his team back on track pretty quickly (which obviously helps TLU because it makes the Trinity win that much more valuable).

https://d3texas.substack.com/p/were-in-the-game-men-a-look-at-how

Great article.

TLU's 31-8 win over Centenary is a little misleading. TLU had the ball inside Centenary's red-zone with about 3 minutes left in the 1st quarter and already leading 17-0.  It looked like TLU would end the quarter up 24-0 and the route would be on.

But...two TLU penalties later, the Bulldogs would settle for a 45 yard field go try that was poorly kicked/blocked.  From that point until the end of the 3d quarter, I thought Centenary played better than TLU. Centenary moved the ball but was unable to score and TLU's offense was stuck in neutral.  TLU eventually put the game away in the fourth quarter but were fortunate this was not a much closer game. 

Overall, Centenary is not bad but they have a lot of weaknesses. Their special teams are bad.  They turned the ball over too much yesterday.  Between being unable to kick field goals, establish any sort of field position with their punting game and turning the ball over, they just couldn't put themselves in a position to succeed.

The first 11+ minutes of the game, TLU looked fantastic (offense, defense and special teams) and it looked like TLU would put up 50+ points on the board. The rest of the game, they looked ok and a lot like they have the past few years. Thus, the 31-8 ending score line.

Next week's game in Abilene against McMurry should be a close game and I am looking forward to watching.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on September 08, 2024, 02:59:00 PMWell, it was a surprising night in the SCAC.

Texas Lutheran 35, Trinity 20 - the second-place pick in the conference fared much better, dominating the formerly nationally ranked Tigers in San Antonio.  Bulldog QB Caden Bozanko was especially strong in the first half of this one, completing 16 of 18 as TLU built a 21-7 lead.  The new look Tigers, lacking most of last year's skill players on both sides of the ball, repeatedly self-destructed with penalties and turnovers despite a strong running game that the team couldn't fully take advantage of trailing the entire game.
 

This game was a surprise, even for me. TLU played well on all sides of the ball. Especially, on defense. Trinity certainly helped out with penalties and turnovers but I thought TLU, at least on Saturday night, was the better team. I hope the Bulldogs can build on this. If so, this could be a really good season for them.

Quote from: Ron Boerger on August 20, 2024, 01:00:12 PMBTW according to the SCAC press release, over 50% of Hendrix' ~1000 students are athletes.

I don't doubt that.  TLU is similar. I think the number of student-athletes at TLU is in the range of 40-50% of enrollment.  15% of the enrollment is the football team alone.

Quote from: Ralph Turner on August 20, 2024, 10:56:20 AMWe need Schreiner!

Yes and no! Doesn't the Hendrix move shore up the numbers for an automatic bid? I guess it is delayed a little longer since Lyons is an affiliate, while Schreiner would give the league six full members with football programs and a quicker automatic bid. I could be wrong on that assumption though.   

Quote from: Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan) on July 19, 2024, 07:50:48 AMEach school is still responsible for all production of events to a very basic standard laid out in the contract.  When I did my piece for d3hoops, it was pretty clear to me this is an okay deal for schools who already meet the broadcast standards and probably not a very good one for schools who will have to use the money to invest in upgraded broadcast capabilities.

Thanks.  I had not caught that previously. So, Flo is only providing the platform through which events are broadcasts?  Each school is still responsible for providing cameras, announcers, graphics, mics and other on location equipment?

Quote from: wally_wabash on July 18, 2024, 03:33:40 PM

Quote from: IC798891 on July 12, 2024, 12:53:41 PMmost people outside of the philanthropy/development offices, have no idea how hard it is to establish genuine connections with the community the college depends on for support, be it students, alumni, family of students, etc. and how easy it is to alienate them.

Holy moly, bold and double underline this. 

FloSports is never ever going to sustain an athletics program or an institution.  But the people schools are holding up for FloSports subscriptions do.  Worth that risk for $27k?  Aren't there ways to raise $27k and make your donor base feel energized about it instead of making them feel like they need to pay a ransom to be one of dozens of people to watch a Wednesday night basketball game where the single swivel camera is going to miss 10-15% of the game?  I absolutely get the need for more resources for broadcast support, but I'm not sure this is the way. 

I agree with the sentiments raised in this thread and am glad that my alma mater opted out on this deal.  However, I do think there is a decent reason why schools/conferences are partnering with Flo Sports.

I strongly doubt that the approximately $27K of revenue is why schools/conferences are choosing to partner with Flo Sports. However, Flo Sports eliminates the costs and expenses the schools incur to video and broadcast their events.  A school could very easily reason that the costs and expenses to broadcast events that a few dozen will watch is not worth it but, if a third-party is paying those costs and expenses, at least the school will have its events broadcasts and their alumni/supporters/fans have access to the events without traveling to the event site.

The ability to watch DIII sporting events anywhere but in person is fairly new. When I was attending TLU (98-02), there was no internet broadcast of their games.  Maybe there was a radio broadcast but, if you wanted to watch the game, you had to go to the game.

We have been extremely fortunate that access to DIII sports through internet broadcasts have been, mostly, free of charge. What other professional/college teams could we watch for free in the history of sports, except for over-the-air television (and we all know that DIII sports will never be broadcasts over the air)?

I am not saying this is a compelling reason for a school/conference to partner with Flo Sports.  I agree that building good will with your alumni/supporters base likely outweighs the benefits a school receives from the Flo Sports deal.  All of that said, I can also see where a school weighs those pros and cons and determines that having a third party incur the costs and expenses to broadcasts its sports event is more or equally beneficial, especially if it means that the school will continue to have its events broadcasts where alumni/supporters will have access to it besides in person.  What if the alternative is no internet broadcast?  How does that continue to build goodwill?

TLU men's soccer schedule shows the same with TLU playing all 11 teams once.

Glad to hear that the double round robin for football is a one year thing. While double round robin is great for basketball, it is not for football, in my opinion.

That would make sense. I am not a fan of two divisions but understand its utility and necessity.  The double round robin for sports like basketball and volleyball and having a series against every conference member in baseball and softball is great but, with twelve members, that is too many games to realistically schedule for the small window for each season. 

The variable here is Colorado College though.  If you have divisions, then some schools are traveling to CC on a more regular basis than others.  Does that create an issue?  If you did the divisions like this, the schools that are already making those trips would continue to do so with the schools newer to the conference making it less often:

HX & UOz
Cent & LeTU
McM & Concordia

AC & UD
TLU & Schreiner
StThomas & ColoColl 

With Hendrix joining the SCAC, that likely changes the schedule for 2025 for the SCAC members.  2024 has a double round-robin format with the SCAC teams.  In 2025, the conference would have at a minimum, six schools. If Schreiner's program is up and running, 7 schools.  With six programs, do they continue with a double round robin and have no non-conference games? I doubt it but filling out a five non-conference game schedule seems tough.  With seven programs, they would have six conference games and filling out a four non-conference game schedule is still tough but more doable.

Quote from: Kuiper on June 11, 2024, 02:55:17 PM

Quote from: river2 on June 11, 2024, 02:24:42 PM

Quote from: river2 on May 22, 2024, 04:58:44 PMIt would be a meaningful budget increase for any SCAC football school to leave for SAA, not happening.

On this front... Hendrix to SCAC will be announced shortly. Won't go into effect until 2025 to my understanding but haven't seen the official announcement anywhere.

The official announcement is now up

https://www.hendrix.edu/warriors-return-to-SCAC-2025/

Stole this off the SAA board but this is surprising.

Quote from: Kuiper on May 29, 2024, 08:17:43 PM

Quote from: Ron Boerger on May 29, 2024, 07:37:34 PMNCAA Bylaw 31.3.3.1.3 states any conference in the ASC's position - fewer than six participants in a sport, but retaining at least four core members - has two years to regain enough teams to qualify, during which they retain AQ status - so the ASC will have Pool A's until 2026-27 even if they continue on the current glide path (does a paper airplane carrying a brick have a glide path?).  That in itself may be enough reason not to do anything drastic for two years, then everyone goes their own way. 

If they dip below four core members during the grace period, all bets (AQs) are off.  If they don't regain six members before the end of the grace period, a two year waiting period would be imposed (assuming there is still a conference).

I guess that gives the four core members an incentive to hang on, even though some have speculated that Howard Payne or East Texas Baptist might be differently situated than UMHB or H-S in terms of being able to find a home.

Could this be a selling point to recruits? A 1/4 chance of making the playoffs for the next two years while we build a program able to compete in {new conference/DII/somewhere}?

The continued AQs, in and of itself, explains why the ASC and the four schools have remained publicly silent on all this.

Quote from: Pat Coleman on May 17, 2024, 12:08:11 PM

Quote from: UMHB03 on May 15, 2024, 08:04:47 PM

Quote from: Pat Coleman on May 15, 2024, 04:16:20 PMCrubacker, I let one post that was basically entirely personal insult go through, but drawing the line at the second one.

A good way to preempt people from making personal insults would be to take out the trash and remove trolls from boards to which they contribute nothing, and only post flame material to bait people into said insults. It was my impression that the purpose of these boards was to discuss football, yet individuals whose sole intent is to derail conversations about this topic seem to be allowed to do so with impunity.

Another way one can deal with trolls is by ignoring them.

You also don't have to read a post by someone you don't care for.

Quote from: crufootball on May 15, 2024, 10:12:03 AM

Quote from: TLU02SA on May 14, 2024, 05:57:00 PMTLU releases its 2024 schedule: https://tlubulldogs.com/sports/fball/2024-25/releases/20240509kntvv4.

I find it interesting that the two non-conference games are Trinity and Southwestern and none of the Baptist four are included.  Here is the complete schedule:

Sep. 7 - at Trinity
Sep. 14 - Centenary
Sep. 21 - at McMurry
Sep. 28 - at Lyon
Oct. 5 - Austin College
Oct. 19 - at Austin College
Oct. 26 - McMurry
Nov. 2 - Lyon
Nov. 9 - at Centenary
Nov. 16 - Southwestern

I am not a fan of the double round robin schedule but until Schreiner (or someone else) joins the conference in football, I guess we have to live with it. Even then, the schedule may consist of 10 conference games on a double round robin given the lack of regional opponents.

Is there any way for the Baptist 4 to not take it personal that the SCAC made the decision to do the round robin schedule as opposed to scheduling them?

They could just get over it and do something/anything instead of insisting that the ASC's current position is the SCAC's and its members' fault.