MBB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

Ralph Turner · June 29, 2006, 12:06:00 AM

Good post tu2698,

Travel costs just got lighter with the opportunity to divide into divisions. Colorado College can handle it. They are just glad to be playing D3's in hoops instead of the D2s in the Rocky Mountain AC, (Mesa State, Adams State, Colorado State-Colorado Springs).

The SCAC has a strong idea of who they are and whom they want to play in a conference. Travel to Colorado Springs and Danvile, KY and Greencastle IN and Conway AR is not a problem.

I think that it is quite clear that RHIT did not like the missed class time. Terre Haute is isolated from the SCAC schools. By the time that the RHIT players were boarding the plane to fly to San Antonio or Atlanta, they could be getting off the bus for their game with Anderson or Transylvania.

RHIT saw their best conference choice as the HCAC (many of the old members in the Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference). Do Southwestern, Trinity or Austin College Millsaps or Hendrix see the ASC as conference peers? Do Sewanee, Birmingham-Southern and Centre see the GSAC as their conference peers? Frankly no! They have voted with their feet to the SCAC over previous conference arrangements. Their endowments can handle it.

emory_eagle · July 31, 2006, 07:18:54 AM

I know this has been beat like a dead horse but I found this to be a good read on BSC.

http://www.hoopville.com/column/hinnen.asp?EntryID=15426

Ralph Turner · July 31, 2006, 08:48:10 AM

Thanks Emory Eagle! Good article summarizing BSC.

Presbyterian College has an endowment that is $37M less (almost 1/3rd less than BSC, $77M vs BSC's $114M). One wonders where they will get the money to do this. If BSC's budget of $6.5M is a true reflection of the cost of doing business in the Big South, then I wonder where Presbyterian will get their money.

Surely a smaller travel budget alone won't make up the difference. (BSC was westernmost in the Big South. Presbyterian is right in the middle of the conference.)

warriorfan · September 24, 2006, 06:38:31 PM

Hendrix is currently advertising for someone to run their wellness center. Looks like this will be the last year for ballgames in Grove.

Hendix men will play an exhibition game against in state division one Arkansas State University November 4th. With several players from the Jonesboro area, hopefully there will be some support there for the Warriors.

JJFlash · October 17, 2006, 10:02:38 AM

Now that practice has officially begun, is anybody willing to weigh in on how they think the SCAC looks this year? Is it going to be the usual suspects at the top or is this the year for a shift in the power?

frank_ezelle · October 17, 2006, 04:50:48 PM

I was wondering if this board would start up with the beginning of official practices. Millsaps returns just about all of their players with the biggest loss being Tyler Warren. That's a big loss but I expect them to be one of the contenders this season and I feel like they will be in the preseason top three in the SCAC. DePauw is also returning a bunch of players and they have to be considered one of the favorites. Anyone have reports on new players in the league that might be impact players in their first year?

spfan22 · October 17, 2006, 08:50:23 PM

I see it playing out like this..

1. Depauw
2. Millsaps
3. Centre
4. Oglethorpe
5. Trinity
6. Southwestern
7. Sewanee
8. Rhodes
9. Hendrix
10. Austin

Obviously depauw returns tons of talent.. I think they have to be the favorite especially the way they ended the year last year. After Depauw, its kind of a tossup. This year in the SCAC could be very interesting

JJFlash · October 18, 2006, 08:27:57 PM

So is it the consensus that DePauw is the class of the league? Trinity and Southwestern seem to have been at a pretty high level each of the last few years. Have they dropped that far in your estimation that they are not going to ccmpete for the top spot in the SCAC?

spfan22 · October 18, 2006, 09:00:27 PM

To answer your question, I do think Depauw is at the top of the SCAC. I do believe that after Depauw the SCAC is wide open. The teams that I placed toward the top of the league return several starters and are relatively veteran teams in comparison to trinity and southwestern. Southwestern basically lost all five starters and Trinity lost its two leading scorers. But do I think they can compete at the top of the league or even win the SCAC, most definitely. They have great coaches and recruit well every year. There could also be players who didn't play much for either team last year that could step up. Like I said, this should be a very interesting year in the SCAC since so many teams are relatively close in talent

frank_ezelle · October 19, 2006, 10:13:04 AM

I think last year's SCAC Tournament tells the story of the current state of the league which is very competitive from top to bottom. I look at spfan22's list and I just don't see how Hendrix will finish as low as 9th because the program has improved so much over the last two years. On the other hand, I don't know who to drop below them.

One thing we found out last year is that the SCAC is now capable of sending an at-large team to the NCAA Tournament. We also learned that just about anyone who gets to the SCAC Tournament is capable of winning the championship and the automatic bid. Therefore, teams like Millsaps and DePauw who expect to have good years need to be focused all year so they have a shot at an at-large bid as a backup if they don't win the automatic bid.

spfan22 · October 19, 2006, 01:00:59 PM

thats actually a great point Frank. I know Hendrix is going to be a tough team to play in the SCAC. I though about moving them up, but like you said, who would you move them above. Every team in the SCAC will need to be focused going into every game, because the conference is so competitive and any team can win on any night

JJFlash · October 23, 2006, 12:08:17 PM

Does anyone know when the SCAC will release its preseason rankings? (I know they don't mean too much, but I'm curious to see what the coaches think.)

frank_ezelle · October 23, 2006, 04:42:27 PM

That release came out on November 9th last year so I think we have a couple of weeks before we see what the coaches think. I haven't heard much on the Millsaps team and how practices are going. I saw the Mississippi College coach last week and he said they were scrimmaging Millsaps on November 5th. Sometimes you can't tell much of anything from a scrimmage but it should be interesting to watch since Mississippi College is ranked #2 in the Street & Smith preseason rankings.

irion · October 23, 2006, 09:44:45 PM

What will Sewanee have this year? Anybody know anything? They seem to have most everyone back except Ben Campbell

warriorfan · November 05, 2006, 12:56:58 PM

Hendrix lost their exhibition game last night to division 1 Arkansas State University as expected but........Hendrix looked great on the floor even without two regulars who were not playing due to health reasons. Hendrix took the lead a couple of times early in the game and even outscored ASU the second half. ASU rarely sat their starters down during the game, which, in my opinion, is a credit to Hendrix. Hendrix definately played with ASU and according to their coach gave them "lots of trouble." They could not let up all night. This looks to be a great season for Hendrix. Coach Priest and Coach McCracken have done a fantastic job recruiting and have many returning players that are revved up and ready to play some ball.