FB: American Southwest Conference

[crufootball]

Chicago and WashU are going to be affiliates of the SAA, not SCAC.

MY bad!  Huge brain burp! 
I shall delete that driveling post to avoid any confusion!

ARGGHHH!

With that in mind Ralph do you still see a way for the SCAC to have a Pool A bid before the end of the decade without taking a few non UMHB members?

[Ralph Turner]

Chicago and WashU are going to be affiliates of the SAA, not SCAC.

MY bad!  Huge brain burp! 
I shall delete that driveling post to avoid any confusion!

ARGGHHH!

With that in mind Ralph do you still see a way for the SCAC to have a Pool A bid before the end of the decade without taking a few non UMHB members?

Stealing "ASC" members who might add football and want to get out from under the CRUthedral.  You gotta get to seven. (I am sorry about the brain burp!)

I don't think that Colorado College wants to resume football.
UDallas might.
The SAA is more closely aligned with UChicago and WashUStL in terms of mission and vision than the SCAC schools.  The SAA would love to have the presence in StLouis and Chicago on an occasional basis.

[umhb2001]

Chicago and WashU are going to be affiliates of the SAA, not SCAC.

MY bad!  Huge brain burp! 
I shall delete that driveling post to avoid any confusion!

ARGGHHH!

With that in mind Ralph do you still see a way for the SCAC to have a Pool A bid before the end of the decade without taking a few non UMHB members?

Stealing "ASC" members who might add football and want to get out from under the CRUthedral.  You gotta get to seven. (I am sorry about the brain burp!)

I don't think that Colorado College wants to resume football.
UDallas might.
The SAA is more closely aligned with UChicago and WashUStL in terms of mission and vision than the SCAC schools.  The SAA would love to have the presence in StLouis and Chicago on an occasional basis.

The Temple Daily Telegram article today discusses this issue. Wish I could share the link, but anyways, it says that Coach Fred has discussed joining the SCAC with the ASC to form one conference and that the Trinity Coach has said he would be in favor of doing this. Seems interesting and right to me.

[Ralph Turner]

I think that the more probable result would be an affiliation of the SCAC schools with the ASC, in football only, to access the football Pool A bid. The SCAC doesn't need the ASC for anything else.  I cannot think of a sport where there is an advantage to Playoff access other than football.

[Ron Boerger]

With that facility in Belton and Coach Fred's history of success, ain't nobody else in the conference getting that Pool A bid for a long time, so the idea of the SCAC schools joining up with the ASC for theoretical access to a bid is pretty much a moot point.   Crimeny, you saw what the Cru just did to Trinity and TLU barely got by TU thanks in part to the #3 QB having to come in cold to try to win the game when #2 went down. 

You guys keep forgetting there's a reason Austin, Trinity, and now TLU left the TIAA/ASC in the first place (we'll leave Schreiner and Centenary out since they don't play FB and are unlikely to do so).   I don't see the leadership at any of those institutions caring enough about football to make the necessary changes to be competitive with UMHB, and absent that why bother?

[jknezek]

   I don't see the leadership at any of those institutions caring enough about football to make the necessary changes to be competitive with UMHB, and absent that why bother?

You might do it just to make scheduling enough games, with reasonable travel expenses, a simpler process. I agree just a football hookup would be the way for the SCAC teams to go. And yes, it would make it hard to get an A bid, but it's pretty hard to get a "B" right now with Wesley in the way. Scheduling is the issue and it might just be enough of an issue, and expense, for common sense to prevail. At least until another solution presents itself.

[crufootball]

   I don't see the leadership at any of those institutions caring enough about football to make the necessary changes to be competitive with UMHB, and absent that why bother?

You might do it just to make scheduling enough games, with reasonable travel expenses, a simpler process. I agree just a football hookup would be the way for the SCAC teams to go. And yes, it would make it hard to get an A bid, but it's pretty hard to get a "B" right now with Wesley in the way. Scheduling is the issue and it might just be enough of an issue, and expense, for common sense to prevail. At least until another solution presents itself.

I would think the scheduling affect could be big, I mean this year Austin College, Southwestern, and Trinity are all playing each other twice which leaves TLU which is playing more of an ASC schedule than a SCAC schedule.

[Ray Finkles]

If the ASC loses its automatic bid with Mississippi College jumping to D-II, all of the SCAC programs would be in competition with UMHB for a Pool B bid in a couple of years if neither conference is able to expand. So, the SCAC programs would find themselves right back in the situation most of you seem to think they are trying to avoid only with much higher travel budgets, double round robin schedules with multiple games against the same opponent, or multiple non-DIII games on the schedule. I'm not sure which scenario makes more sense for those schools.

[Ron Boerger]

I don't see the leadership at any of those institutions [e.g., Trinity] caring enough about football to make the necessary changes to be competitive with UMHB, and absent that why bother?

For the sake of argument, what "necessary changes" would you have Trinity's leadership make to "be competitive with UMHB"?

It's painfully obvious to anyone watching this region that UMHB is increasingly on another plane in just about any dimension you want to come up with, and there is no sign that that is going to change.   Number of student-athletes, skill level, facilities, you name it.  With the number of schools adding football/emphasizing football as a way to balance their numbers, the talent pool is spread thinner and the bulk of the more skilled players who want to go to school in TX are going to continue going where they can have the best chance for success ... Belton.

The ASC will find someone else or convince a member like UT-Tyler to add football.   Who knows, they might even get TLU back now they they have decided to spend some money on upgrading their facilities.

[Ron Boerger]

And please don't insert things when you're quoting me, WT.  I didn't say [e.g. Trinity] and I sure as hell don't see the new admin at Southwestern or the admin at Austin trying to compete at that level.   TLU, don't know enough about but I don't think their new 1500 seat stadium, while a welcome addition to their campus, qualifies as trying to challenge UMHB.

[cover2]

I've heard that UT-Tyler has no interest in adding football.  Anybody have any insight into that for sure?  I think they could be competitive and do so quickly!

[Pat Coleman]

Events on the ground there say otherwise.

[Kelly Boggs]

Some pretty good high school football played in East Texas. With the right leadership/coaching, if UT-Tyler did add football I would think it could be competitive with most programs in a relatively short space of time, say 4 to 6 years.

[Bill McCabe]

Is it any coincidence that the addition and success of football has coincided with an increase in enrollment at UMHB?

[Bill McCabe]

It seems to me that UMHB is not trying to compete with the rest of the ASC, as they are trying to compete with the Mount Unions and UW Whitewaters.  It seems to me they are trying to be an elite program in D3.  The new stadium certainly helps.  Take a look at the campus and there are many new facilities.