Quote from: Mavchamp on January 14, 2026, 04:48:14 PM

Quote from: Ralph Turner on January 13, 2026, 01:23:58 PMPerhaps, "participation in intercollegiate athletics" is not the enrollment driver that it is for so many of the private colleges in the SCAC and the ASC.

That's a fair point.

I would think a small rural college would use any tool to recruit a student body....academic, athletics, campus vibe and excitement, school spirit.

But when all of your teams are getting skull-dragged week after week, season after season it sure makes it hard to build any sort of school spirit or campus social vibe.

Maybe the financials make all that losing worth it....but seems like some competitiveness would solve a multitude of other issues.

JMHO.

FWIW, when I visited Alpine for softball, the games were well attended by students. Better than most. Maybe because the recreation options are limited, but school spirit wasn't an issue. Still, that doesn't mean it's a recruiting talking point.

My only exposure to River Falls was when I traveled over there to see them pound Mary Hardin Baylor a couple years ago. Blaha is the real deal and UWRF was loaded in the trenches. I'm assuming they're even better now. This will be a really tough game for SJU. Hopefully they keep the game close enough for some late Johnny Magic or it could be a long day.

Quote from: Ralph Turner on November 23, 2025, 02:12:14 PMI doubt that Centenary would jump. Centenary is competitive in most of the other sports, especially baseball.

Louisiana (College) Christian University is having too much success and with an easier travel budget in the Red River AC.

Sul Ross State won't come back.

IMHO, the only chance the ASC might have is for Wayland Baptist and Nelson, the former SWAGU, to switch. You would make HPU and Wayland travel partners and Nelson is nicely located in Waxahachie (southern DFW area for non-Texans, and phonetically Wahk'-sah-HATCH-ee).

Ah, Waxahachie. To me, it's the home of Meat Church BBQ Supply. A short trip up I35 is in my near future.

Lol. That last phantom PI call against SJU that iced it for Bethel could be one of the worst calls I've ever seen. I pulled the game up on the TV app just too see that... I have no dog in this fight, either.

Lol. The ugly Cobber vs Ole Troll trophy made it onto ESPN Gameday!

Quote from: Reverendbiker on September 07, 2025, 08:22:27 AM

Quote from: Pat Coleman on September 05, 2025, 03:23:19 PMHere's a little more about Destin Chance from when he was in D-III last year.
https://www.d3football.com/columns/features/2024/illinois-college-chance-to-grow

I don't know if it was because of the DLine pressure (4 sacks) or good coverage in the secondary, but Chance looked pretty ordinary last night. And Michaux actually finished with a better QBR.

Agreed. Chance seemed to look impressive at the start but was seeing ghosts by game end. The Cru got good pressure on him even only rushing 4 or less most of the time.

Quote from: corn horn on September 07, 2025, 12:37:40 PMCobbers looked downright pathetic on offense out of the gates last night. In the past four years, they have stumbled similarly, resulting in come from behind squeaker victories against Valley City State and losses to what should have been a beatable WI-Eau Claire team. Defense is way ahead of the offense. Red zone stalls and a momentum killing turnover in the first half did make the score appear tighter than the game play did, but the first half was truly about as ugly as it gets offensively. For some of the passes, the term incomplete doesn't even capture it...they were throws to nowhere.

Grateful for a second half recovery, where the Cobbers had dominating drives and controlled the game.

I think the Cobbers will show up at St. Olaf in two weeks with those opening nerves settled and return to Moorhead with the troll trophy still safely in Horan's office. Quarterback play still a big question based on last night, so it is really hard to say at this point whether or not this team will be in the mix for top of conference. I would guess at this point they are probably shooting for #3.

Yeah, the double tight-end formation with endless runs up the middle was a throw back to Christopherson with the exception of doing straight zone blocking every play...booooring. That won't work against the better MIAC teams so here's hoping the Cobs get the passing game working. That said, the RB #3 for the Cobs started to show some great patience in the zone running game and kept the ball rolling in the second half. Nice showing for him.

Quote from: Reverendbiker on August 31, 2025, 09:57:32 PM

Quote from: Etchglow on August 31, 2025, 09:17:26 AMJealous you were able to find a roster! I figure we won't get the official roster until Thursday or Friday. As of last Friday only ~183 schools had posted rosters though. Not just a umhb thing haha.

Edit to add: do we only have two captains named so far? Noticed only two at the scrimmages...

2025 Roster has dropped. Check it out:
https://cruathletics.com/sports/football/roster/2025

Wow. 127 freshman on that roster. How many stick around through November?
37 Sophomores
28 Juniors
18 Seniors
2 Graduates

Quote from: UMHB03 on May 20, 2025, 11:14:46 AMWhile I'd prefer more D3 opponents, this is a very intriguing schedule all things considered. I'm not crazy about going 9 straight games without a bye week, but there are some pretty interesting matchups.

That schedule should hopefully sell more tickets than usual.

Quote from: UMHB03 on May 19, 2025, 11:16:24 AMThat's my guess as well, though I could also see it being OUAZ. They always struggle to put together a full schedule just as we do.

Whoever it is, they need to get a move on. It's less than a week until Memorial Day and we still don't have a schedule.

Yeah, as bad as the Texas D3 football island can be, OUAZ has it much worse. Arizona is a desert when it comes to small 4-year schools. I think AZ Christian is the only other non-D1 AZ school with football.

Quote from: Reverendbiker on May 19, 2025, 09:54:42 AM

Quote from: CruFrenzy on May 18, 2025, 04:17:03 PM

Quote from: Reverendbiker on May 18, 2025, 02:57:13 PM

Quote from: CruFrenzy on May 17, 2025, 02:16:08 PMI think our non con should be a great test, should tell us a lot about where our program is at right now.

Agree 100%. I don't want to hear any more talk about the Cru's weak non con schedule. One D2 opponent, One D3 national powerhouse,and two of the best NAIA teams in the country (one of whom beat us handily last year). Coach better have this team ready to play...

Who is the second NAIA team we are playing?

I must've missed that. Other than Bethel TN.

Announcement to drop soon.

I'll play and guess. Texas Wesleyan? They're the only NAIA Top 25 team within a two-state trip.

RANK   INSTITUTION [FIRST-PLACE VOTES]   RECORD   FINAL POINTS
1   Grand View (Iowa) [16]   14-0   350
2   Keiser (Fla.)   12-1   336
3   Morningside (Iowa)   12-2   315
3   Benedictine (Kan.)   11-3   315
5   Montana Western   10-2   287
6   Indiana Wesleyan   11-2   276
7   Northwestern   9-3   270
8   Georgetown (Ky.)   9-3   259
9   St. Thomas (Fla.)   9-2   224
10   Montana Tech   9-3   218
11   Texas Wesleyan   10-1   215
12   Friends (Kan.)   11-2   201
13   Southwestern (Kan.)   11-2   173
14   Dickinson State (N.D.)   10-2   160
15   MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.)   9-2   154
16   OUAZ (Ariz.)   8-2   115
17   Baker (Kan.)   9-2   109
18   Concordia (Neb.)   8-2   99
18   Southeastern (Fla.)   7-2   99
20   Dordt (Iowa)   8-2   92
21   Campbellsville (Ky.)   9-2   57
22   Pikeville (Ky.)   6-6   54
23   Saint Francis (Ind.)   8-4   47
24   Southern Oregon   8-3   44
25   Taylor (Ind.)   9-2   25

Quote from: UMHB03 on May 11, 2025, 12:29:07 AM

Quote from: Inkblot on May 10, 2025, 06:22:07 PMSaw a rumor on Twitter that UMHB will visit Mars Hill (D2) on September 27.

Very interesting. I've always been curious to see how UMHB stacks up against teams from higher divisions.

That could be an interesting game! I've always thought the best of D3 are as good or better than 90% of D2. It's not a huge jump for programs that value athletics. For example, D3 teams were 3-3 vs D2 last year. A handful of WIAC teams seem to play D2 games each year and they do OK.

Might as well do what D1 fans figured out a couple years ago. Don't even fret over a roster until it's set and the players show up in August.

Most D3 players at some point dreamed about playing D1 or getting a football scholarship, but odds of that happening were small prior to the portal. Hoards of G5 and FCS players moving up and/or out via the portal are leaving roster spots to fill. There's more opportunity now for the best players. 

"This agreement underscores the commitment of all member institutions to providing a faith-based collegiate environment that values a challenging academic and spiritual experience enriched by robust athletic competition, offering exceptional opportunities for student-athletes to grow, compete, and excel."

The above quote is a key sentence from the recent ASC 10-year agreement. "Faith-based" is the first descriptor. I'm skeptical that the ASC wants to go back to a private/public school mix. 

Quote from: Mavchamp on April 12, 2025, 03:17:04 PMI know there are growing pains moving from D3 to D2....especially when you are a small school moving into a conference full of schools significantly bigger than you.

The expectation that Sul Ross State would struggle in the Lone Star Conference was probably pretty obvious to everyone...including SRSU.

But looking at the standings in all the LSC sports..... Sul Ross is getting absolutely crushed in just about every sport...men's and women's.  They are either last....or next to last in every sport.  I think the highest I saw them finish in anything was third from the bottom.  That's pretty brutal.

Recruiting to Alpine is one thing....but recruiting to Alpine to get demolished in every sport might give an athlete pause.

It IS possible to get a quality education AND win a few games along the way too.

It begs the question of the possibility of them deciding to not remain in D2 and remains in D3.  It's not like we haven't seen that happen before.

Would SRSU consider returning to D3?
Would they want the ASC or the SCAC?

They would be a huge pick up for either conference.  Travel-wise one makes more sense than another.  But as we've seen..... the business of sports seems to be at the forefront of a lot of people's minds.

I have a feeling Sul Ross feels fine as long as the two New Mexico schools are in the conference. UT Permian Basin and Lubbock Christian in West Texas are remote but in good sized towns. On that note, from the outside looking in, I don't get how Angelo State isn't viewed as being remote, but they seem to do really well both in sports and attracting students.