It's frustrating to see a lot of people upset at the school for moving down to D3 when really they should be upset at the system D1 athletics has created has made it apparently impossible for small D1 schools like St. Francis to operate under.

Frank Rossi asked the PAC and says they're keeping their football program and they cannot be eligible for championships in football until the reclassification to d3 is complete in 2029.

St. Francis moving to d3. They will become the PAC's 12th member in 2026.

Students on Athletic Scholarship will still be on scholarhsip through 2027-2028 academic year.

St. Francis will not be eligible for PAC championships or playoffs until 2029.

Per a source who knows a kicker at St. Francis "Almost the entire team is gonna transfer."

Right now these are the options the SCAC has left in the future. Remember that all options below involve no current or future asc schools leaving.

1. convince 2 football-playing schools outside the SCAC to switch all their athletics to the SCAC for 2026 to get the auto bid then.

2. have one school (core or affiliate) join in 2026, have no one else leave, so they can end their "6-team-2-year-waiting-period" in 2027.

3. convince any of its non-football playing members to add football so it can likely start varsity football and get an auto bid in 2027. (Colorado College, Concordia (TX), Dallas, Ozarks or St. Thomas (TX))

Because lyon is an affiliate. Got it.

Quote from: Etchglow on March 23, 2025, 06:05:55 PM

Quote from: Mavchamp on March 23, 2025, 04:36:38 PMI think affiliates count towards an AQ...... provided I'm reading this article from Pat Coleman correctly
 
https://www.d3sports.com/notables/2022/01/d3-reduces-aq-requirements

It states that it was 7....but reduced to six schools for the AQ.

"extending automatic qualification status to essentially any group of.....schools offering a sport"

The question is.....

Can the ASC and the SCAC both move forward with six for 2026?

SCAC:  Austin College, TLU, Centenary, Lyon, Hendrix

ASC:  UMHB, HSU, ETBU, HPU, McMurry, Schriener

Can the SCAC get Trinity or Southwestern to stay instead of moving to the SAA?  Can they get someone from the Sooner Conference to come over?  Louisiana Christian?  Nelson?  Maybe Belhaven?

Can the ASC lure more from the SCAC?  Will Sul Ross return to D3?  Can they get LCU or Nelson?  Belhaven?

If I'm reading the 2023-2024 DIII Manual correctly, it appears the SCAC will have to have 6 football members for two years before they get an AQ?

Taken from: NCAA Publications

So how did the Landmark get their auto bid in their first season? By starting with 7?

Lyon completed their transition to d3 last fall so they will officially have 6 teams in 25.

What if the ASC gets a championship game to limit the non-conference schedule?

So will the scac have an auto bid with 6 teams this upcoming season?

If the 2 umac schools joined the scac, then the UMAC would need 2 more members to retain its auto bid, and stealing from the miac wouldn't be viable cause doing so would be a downgrade.

This upcoming season will be telling how well Rindahl is as a leader of a program. New coaches left and right would certainly be an adjustment for the players to get used to.

Sorry I meant southwestern.

Have to imagine the SCAC commissioner is calling Trinity (Texas) and Texas Lutheran to join in 2026 right about now.

What if the money was pooled from the baptist 4 equally to invite McMurry and Schreiner?

Quote from: Ron Boerger on March 17, 2025, 08:12:02 PMAs mentioned earlier in the thread, small seven figures were allegedly being offered as an incentive.  I have heard from several sources today - both Hogue and D3vbwest as well as others - that the magnitude of the amount was correct.  The two schools in question have small endowments - Schreiner around $78M (as of May 2023), McMurry a similar amount (May 2024) - so a million dollars could make a significant difference to those schools.

The source of the funds is unknown.  The ASC front office isn't it. 

Well then if money rules d3 then I guess membership goes to the highest bidder.