The Undefeated and the Winless

[Flying Dutch Fan]

Old School - Hope has a game at Trinity (Ill - NAIA D2) on Tuesday as well.

[David Collinge]

(For all of the newbies, McMurry and Mississippi College are arch-rivals.  I was trying my hardest to hex them by picking them in the survival pick'em!)

Ralph, how do schools in Abilene, TX and Clinton, MS (574 miles apart) that in many ways aren't even in the same conference (McM: ASC-W, MC: ASC-E) become archrivals?    Is there some bad blood involved?

[Ralph Turner]

David, MC and McM have been the top basketball programs in the ASC since the formation of the conference.  Former MC Coach Jones (now AD) and McM's Coach Holmes are good rivals.  MC and McM have the most NCAA appearances in the ASC and the most appearances in the post-season tourney and tourney finals.  So, a tourney bid or national/regional ranking has been always on the line directly or indirectly, every time they have played.  Not bad blood, just great rivals!

The ASC was created in 1996 as the NCAA D3 option for intercollegiate athletics in this part of the country.  With the leadership of college presidents from McMurry, Austin College and others, Commissioner Fred Jacoby (one of the finest conference commisioners ever to grace college athletics, e.g. WSUC and the old D1 Southwest Conference), assembled Mississippi College, which was moving up from D2, U Ozarks, and  the members of the NAIA-2 Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Assn (Austin College, U Dallas, Hardin Simmons, Howard Payne, McMurry and Sul Ross State.)

Over the next decade, Commissioner Jacoby brought Texas Lutheran from D2, Louisiana College from the NAIA/NCCAA, saw UT-Dallas add a full range of intercollegiate sports and move from the NAIA, saw UT-Tyler add a full range of intercollegiate sports and move from the NAIA/ USCAA, and brought UMHB, Concordia, Schreiner, LeTourneau and ETBU from the NAIA en masse.

UDallas left after 2000-01.  Most people speculate that they would jump at the invitiation to join the SCAC.  UDallas was not able to get a club football team going in 2003.  That may have been an attempt to attract interest from the SCAC.

The 15-team conference (plus provisional 2007 UT-Tyler) has provided competition and "in-region" games by the use of crossover games between the divisions.  Also, the conference has had enough schools for an AQ in the AQ sports (FB, Hoops, VB, Soccer, Baseball and Softball) even if every one of the 15 schools did not offer a sport.  Yes, we are spread out, but the conference provides access to the playoffs.

My personal desire is for another 4 schools (2 west and 2 east and preferably private schools) to join the conference and then we split into 2 conferences and 2 AQ's.  The moving of Austin College to the SCAC may make that program more competitive. (But,  they will always lose to Trinity.    )  However, the AC loss also means that we are now 5 schools away from that magical number.

D-3 UDallas won't likely come back.  D-3 Rust is too far to the north and east (near Memphis, TN)  and too far west for the GSAC!

D2's St Edwards in Austin, Incarnate Word in San Antonio, St Mary's in San Antonio and Abilene Christian (which has won more D2 national championships than anyone except UC-Davis) are not likely to move up to D3.

As one looks at the map of NAIA schools that we might "invite", the mission/vision issue is just one confounding factor.

Texas Wesleyan University in Ft Worth spent one exploratory year moving from D2 (Heartland Conference) thru the ASC back to the scholarship NAIA-1 Red River AC.  I guess they could not imagine life without scholarships on their campus.

Other private schools (NAIA-1) in this broad area include Northwood Institute in Cedar Hill (a southwest Dallas suburb), Southwestern Assemblies in Waxahachie (30 miles south of Dallas) and College of the Southwest in Hobbs NM.  CSW likes NAIA-1.  Houston Baptist sees itself as NAIA-1.

A large corps of HBCU's, namely Wiley College, Texas College, Jarvis Christian College, Paul Quinn College and Huston-Tillotson College, compete in the Red River AC and have active rivalries amongst themselves.  HBCU Langston OK is moving to D2.  Texas A&M International in Laredo is not geographically desirable.   UT-Permian Basin in Midland is exploring D-2 and D-3.  This state school would have numerous close state school rivals in the D2 Lone Star Conference.  Each of these NAIA schools would have to upgrade their programs to match D3 requirements.

As for other NAIA-1 schools, the Texas Panhandle schools of Wayland Baptist (Plainiview) and Lubbock Christian are in the Sooner AC and are closer to Oklahoma than most of the ASC schools.  Football playing Bacone College in Muskogee OK has moved from the junior college ranks, but I think they see NAIA-1 as their model as does John Brown University, Siloam Springs AR, the NAIA-1 reigning basketball champ and football-playing Southern Nazarene OK.

LSU-Shreveport is in the NAIA-1 Gulf Coast AC.  It would need to add numerous sports.  Belhaven in Jackson MS would be a nice addition to the ASC-East.  It has all of the sports necessary, but I believe that they see NAIA-1 as their model.  All of the other GCAC schools are around New Orleans or Mobile, except the HBCU's Tougaloo and William Carey.

NAIA-2 Lyons College in Batesville AR is probably not interested.  They could be a travel partner for Ozarks in a new ASC-East Conference.

There just aren't any more schools.  I cannot imagine the ASC getting the schools necessary to allow the 2 ASC divisions to split into 2 distinct  conferences.  If there were to be a change in rules to allow multiple bids for very large conferences, basically a special case for the ASC, we might get some help on bids.  But I think that Pool C is the way we have to go for extra bids.

(Sorry about the verbosity, but this is a comprehensive assessment of college hoops in this part of the country.  Thanks to all for indulging me.)

[David Collinge]

Wow--what an answer!!!   

[Mr. Ypsi]

Wow--what an answer!!!   

David,

I was tempted to jump in with my speculation on the answer, but figured I'd defer to Ralph who would KNOW.

They are arch-rivals for the same reason that IWU-Wheaton are now arch-rivals.  For those of my generation, the EVIL ones will always be Millikin (MUCH closer than any other CCIW school - AND always competitive back then), but the COMPETITION nearly every year has been lately (in bball) Wheaton.

Even UM-OSU was beginning to fade a bit towards the end of John Cooper's lack of competitiveness!

(Now if UM doesn't win one pretty soon, it may begin to fade the other way!)

[smedindy]

Well, we have Public Enemy #1 (the evil Dannies) - however, Witt is Public Enemy #2 thanks to the NCAC. I think rivalries can spring up anytime conference play makes it spirited.

[hopefan]

Here it is  - The first list of undefeated teams - we are already down to a mere 30  - led by 3 teams from the CCIW and 3 teams from the MWC  -  including "crowd favorite"  Grinnell - uh oh, here we go again  -  and note, the Atlantic region is already wiped out

East   Hamilton
   Keuka
   Potsdam St
   Oswego St
   NYU

GL   Hope
   Wooster
   Wittenberg
   Ohio Northern
   CMU

MA   York Pa
   Widener
   Albright

MW   Illinois Wesleyan
   Augustana
   North Central
   Lawrence
   Grinnell
   Carroll

NE   Gordon
   Plymouth St
   Keene St
   Middlebury
   Amherst
   WPI

S   Maryville Tn
   Hampden Sydney

W   Chapman
   Gustavus Adolphus
   Occidental

[smedindy]

How many 'defeated' teams are there?

And I think Keuka started the year as one of the 'defeated' ones last season, before righting the ship. Nice turnaround.

[hopefan]

smedindy  whereever there are undeated, there are the winless - 35 remain on this list, with some familiar names from last year - incidently, I noted on today's blog that Medaille, who was perfect last year, won for the first time in at least 30games when they beat LaRoche on Saturday

The WINLESS :

A   Lehman   
   Hunter   
   John Jay   

E   Ithaca   
   D'Youville   

GL   Hiram   
   Oberlin   
   W&J   
   Thomas More   

MA   Goucher   
   Swarthmore   
   Delaware Valley   
   Chestnut Hill   
   Misericordia   
   Immaculata   

MW   Principia   
   Westminster Mo   
   Webster   

NE   Roger Williams   
   East Nazarene   
   Albertus Magnus   
   Daniel Webster   
   Maine Presque Isle   
   Mitchell   
   Thomas   

S   Texas Dallas   
   Schreiner   
   W&L   
   Lynchburg   

W   Cornell   
   Pac Lutheran   
   Caltech   

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Roger Williams actually won their game with Anna Maria Saturday, but they reported in wrong to the website.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Medaille is the current reigning champion however, currently 0 for their last 29 (including all of last season). 

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

And an update on the worst d3 team of all time, the CCNY Women, lost a close one to King's Point 94-29.  CCNY had four players score points, including one in double figures, who more than doubled the total team output from the Endicott game.

Currently for the season, after three games:  CCNY 61 Opponents 329 (that is not a typo).


Those of us on this board live for teams like this, so no, it doesn't matter that they are a women's squad.

[hopefan]

Hoops  -  did you note my comment that Medaille won on Saturday?   They no longer can be mentioned in the same breath as our current members   -  only to be looked "down to" as a former perfect season.

Thanks for info on Roger Williams

[Knightstalker]

Sadly, Centenary has already won a game this season.

[smedindy]

Ah, well, I would look for Oberlin to be on this list for a l-o-n-g time.