MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[scottiedoug]

So will Colorado College send a plane to get the Oglethorpe, Centre, and Sewanee teams?

[Pat Coleman]

Does DePauw?

[scottiedoug]

So Pat, it does add to travel budgets to add a second long trip.  Isn't it possible Oglethorpe (to pick just one) can (maybe barely) afford one but not two?  Was the vote unanimous?

Of course my notsohidden agenda is to find schools to join the GSAC.

[Pat Coleman]

We don't know if there will be a second long trip. They may go divisions, meaning a trip to CC every other year.

[Gregory Sager]

Scottiedoug raises a good point. Oglethorpe is a school of a thousand students, with 14 varsity teams ... and only a $21.5m endowment. Unless the Petrels have some other way of acquiring funds, it would seem to me that the extra cost of flying all of those teams to Colorado Springs and back every year could be a real bite in the shorts for their school. Yearly bake sales probably aren't gonna cut it for Oglethorpe.

[carlweathers]

But Pat raises a better point.  There will be divisional play.  The SCAC will add one more team and go divisional so Oglethorpe will only have to make that trip every other year. 

Of course that type of schedule would mean a bump up in coference games to 16 regular season from the 14 that the SCAC went to when it started the conference tournament 4 years ago.  This will still be less than the 18 that were played pre-tournament.

[wilburt]

We don't know if there will be a second long trip. They may go divisions, meaning a trip to CC every other year.

Whether it's every year or every other year it's still a BIG bite out of the travel budget!  Unless they have a wealthy alum to charter flights for them.

[old_lion]

We don't know if there will be a second long trip. They may go divisions, meaning a trip to CC every other year.

Whether it's every year or every other year it's still a BIG bite out of the travel budget!  Unless they have a wealthy alum to charter flights for them.

I have the solution for Oglethorpe's travel budget problem. They should join the GSAC.
They are centrally located ... their longest trip would be right at 3 hours.

I wonder if Oglethorpe has ever even considered a move to the GSAC?

[Ron Boerger]

That's really a good question.  There's not much difference in the SAT/ACTs of students entering Oglethorpe and Maryville (TN); Huntingdon's are only slightly lower.    As the SCAC is a "collegiate" conference of schools with similar academic goals that's an important consideration.

I always thot the SCAC was a stretch for the Stormy Petrels due to the huge endowment disparities and their non-competetiveness in athletics (9, 10, 10, 8th, and 10th in the conference Presidents' Trophy standing over the last five years).  It'll be interesting to see if they decide to make a move. 

[Ralph Turner]

Of course, the SCAC was practically the only option for D3 in the early 1991 for a team in Atlanta.

Does Oglethorpe continue to benefit from the company that they keep?  Or can they do a better job without the drain on the travel budget?

[Spencer Beaty]

Oglelthorpe, move to the GSAC

[irion]

Will Sewanee be more competitive in the SCAC this year?  Also, will the league go to two divisions in the near future?

[warriorfan]

Made a trip through Conway yesterday and construction has started on the new gym.  Looks like this will be the last season the Warriors will play in Grove!  Hendrix is turning over a new leaf.

[warriorfan]

http://www.hendrix.edu/athletics/newsItem.aspx?i=1577

[evacuee]

Everytime another school enters the SCAC, all anyone talks about is the travel costs and how they might cause problems.  These teams have had their travel costs covered somehow for decades, guys, and the travel has always been substantial.  Unless the recent rise in energy costs is significant enough, I have to believe that travel logistics are mostly a non-factor in the decision making for structuring the conference.  Is it something that the budget folks have to confront?  Of course, but clearly the schools are going to find that money.  You can say that RHIT dropped out because of the travel costs, but if that were the case, why would they have ever joined?  Its not like the other schools were easier to get to in 1998.