FB: USA South Athletic Conference

[batteredbard]

Bard, I think that this is an excellent move for those GSAC schools for the next 4-6 years.  I think that both schools will be very competitive for that Pool A bid.

I think that LaGrange gets a very good chance to get to .500 in the SLIAC very quickly.  I think that both teams will benefit from the success.  I believe that the USAC is a stronger conference top to bottom, so the less stressful competition will allow LaGrange to be a winner faster.  Huntingdon ranks as my favorite for the first Pool A bid in the SLIAC, whenever that occurs.  Its Pool B chances got better, solely because it is hard to keep out a Pool B candidate if they can go undefeated, a not-incomprehensible thought even this year.

Ralph any idea what that will mean on a region basis? Will Huntingdon and LaGrange be considered out of the south region due to the conference they will be in? How will that play into folks like Maryville, Sewanee, Rhodes etc wanting to put them on the schedule?

[Pat Coleman]

Even if they don't remain in the South Region for Division III football purposes, they will remain in the same administrative region as long as they remain in Alabama and Georgia and Maryville remains in Tennessee.

[Big Scream]

Great hire for Greensboro!!!  Sulkowski will bring some good things to the offense.

[kickerdad]

I don't think I have every seen this message board any more dried up than this. Nothing new on schedules, nothing new on the schools web pages, not a hint of what is being seen in spring practice, nothing. This has to be the worst part of the year.

[Ryan Tipps]

I didn't take the time to look back over the past couple of pages, but here are two lists of schedules that I don't think have been posted here yet. I got them from the schools' Web sites, so I hope they're right!

This does at least a little to ward away the off-season crickets on this board.

AVERETT
Sept. 1 at Mount Union
Sept. 15 at Guilford
Sept. 22 Washington & Lee  TBA
Sept. 29 at Ferrum
Oct. 6 Methodist
Oct. 13  NC Wesleyan
Oct. 20 at Greensboro
Oct. 27 Shenandoah
Nov. 3rd  Christopher Newport
Nov. 10 at Maryville

METHODIST
Sept. 8 Guilford
Sept. 15 at Chowan
Sept. 22 NC Wesleyan
Sept. 29 Emory & Henry
Oct. 6 at Averett
Oct. 13 at Ferrum
Oct. 20 Christopher Newport
Oct. 27 at Maryville
Nov. 3 at Greensboro
Nov. 10 Shenandoah

[hasanova]

Great hire for Greensboro!!!  Sulkowski will bring some good things to the offense.

On a related note, I was surfing the web the other night and found some discussion about Sulkowski in a North Carolina A&T fan site.  The back and forth conversation went something like this:

Sulkowski is leaving to take an assistant role at Guilford.
Why would anyone leave an assistant role at A&T to go to Guilford?
Well, actually it's an Offensive Coordinator position.
Well, yeah, but still ...
I don't think it's Guilford ... maybe Greensboro College.
I didn't know Greensboro had a team.  When did that happen?
I think they started a team about 10 years ago.  Some guy from Page HS is the Coach (Marion Kirby was the coach until about 5 years ago). 
Where do they play?  I've never seen them at Memorial (old baseball park adjacent to A&T).
Grimsley (HS), I think. (true)
Huh ... well, the Aggies need to get some more offense this fall. (he's right)

I guess the point I'm trying to make is here are some students (or alumni) at another school inside the city of Greensboro and some of them didn't know Greensboro College has fielded a football team since 1997.  Frustrating, but welcome to DIII in ACC, Southern Conference and MEAC country!    lol

[allsky7]

Great hire for Greensboro!!!  Sulkowski will bring some good things to the offense.

On a related note, I was surfing the web the other night and found some discussion about Sulkowski in a North Carolina A&T fan site.  The back and forth conversation went something like this:

Sulkowski is leaving to take an assistant role at Guilford.
Why would anyone leave an assistant role at A&T to go to Guilford?
Well, actually it's an Offensive Coordinator position.
Well, yeah, but still ...
I don't think it's Guilford ... maybe Greensboro College.
I didn't know Greensboro had a team.  When did that happen?
I think they started a team about 10 years ago.  Some guy from Page HS is the Coach (Marion Kirby was the coach until about 5 years ago). 
Where do they play?  I've never seen them at Memorial (old baseball park adjacent to A&T).
Grimsley (HS), I think. (true)
Huh ... well, the Aggies need to get some more offense this fall. (he's right)

I guess the point I'm trying to make is here are some students (or alumni) at another school inside the city of Greensboro and some of them didn't know Greensboro College has fielded a football team since 1997.  Frustrating, but welcome to DIII in ACC, Southern Conference and MEAC country!    lol

     Amazing....guess I am so D3 endoctrinated, that seems hard to believe.  Guess I / we are truly fortunate to have been exposed to D3 athletics at such an early age. For me, that was pretty much at birth. 
     Can't remember if I shared this but I had a free ticket to go see UVA / GT play hoops in C-Ville a while back. I chose to go see H-SC and VWC play in the ODAC tourney. Boy am I glad I did!! The gf played hoops at Roanoke College but even she says I am crazy.     Oh well!!

[kickerdad]

Anyone know anything about Washington & Lee University. My cousin's husband is a grad from there (mid 60"s) he claims they use to be D1 and went to several big bowl games in the 50's, however something happened and they stopped playing for a few years. When they came back it was DIII. All I know is they are in the ODAC conference but other than Bridgewater and Guilford, I don't follow that conference. Does anyone have any insite to what Averett can expect from them? Have we gotten another Wesley to contend with, early in the season.

[allsky7]

Anyone know anything about Washington & Lee University. My cousin's husband is a grad from there (mid 60"s) he claims they use to be D1 and went to several big bowl games in the 50's, however something happened and they stopped playing for a few years. When they came back it was DIII. All I know is they are in the ODAC conference but other than Bridgewater and Guilford, I don't follow that conference. Does anyone have any insite to what Averett can expect from them? Have we gotten another Wesley to contend with, early in the season.

     They played non scholarship D1 lax until sometime in the 80's. I believe they played D3 in other sports. D3 has only been around since the 70's so I'm not sure what their affiliation was before then.
     With all due respect to the Generals, They are solid but I doubt they are on the same level as Wesley. At least the Wesley teams of the past few years.

[hasanova]

Anyone know anything about Washington & Lee University. My cousin's husband is a grad from there (mid 60"s) he claims they use to be D1 and went to several big bowl games in the 50's, however something happened and they stopped playing for a few years. When they came back it was DIII. All I know is they are in the ODAC conference but other than Bridgewater and Guilford, I don't follow that conference. Does anyone have any insite to what Averett can expect from them? Have we gotten another Wesley to contend with, early in the season.

W&L did, in fact, once play "big time" football, but your grandfather will have to tell you about it ... and they did go to some bowl games.   I'm talking more than 50 years ago.  Their stadium, Wilson Field, is on campus in Lexington, VA and probably seats 7000 or so.  "Way back when" W&L probably played UVa, VaTech, WVU and a lot of schools that are now ACC, Southern Conference or Big East, but that's sort of like saying Portugal used to be a naval power.

W&L is a truly excellent school academically and has an absolutely beautiful campus.  If the game is in Lexington, you should go for an overnight trip.  I've done it a couple of times and always enjoy sightseeing and local restaurants.  W&L is literally next door to VMI, so a lot of history with the chapel, Lee's tomb, Lee's stuffed horse Traveler, the Keydet parade ground and Civil War battlefield at Haymarket.  A trip to Lexington any time is great, but the fall is superior.

W&L is now thoroughly entrenched as a DIII school and won the ODAC last fall (7-3, 5-1).  The Generals were thoroughly beaten in the first round of the DIII play-offs, however, so they're still trying to build a better football program.  They are a LOT better than they used to be, but not Top 25 material.  Wesley, in my opinion, is still a much superior football program to W&L.  Enjoy the game!

[allsky7]

Anyone know anything about Washington & Lee University. My cousin's husband is a grad from there (mid 60"s) he claims they use to be D1 and went to several big bowl games in the 50's, however something happened and they stopped playing for a few years. When they came back it was DIII. All I know is they are in the ODAC conference but other than Bridgewater and Guilford, I don't follow that conference. Does anyone have any insite to what Averett can expect from them? Have we gotten another Wesley to contend with, early in the season.

     They played non scholarship D1 lax until sometime in the 80's. I believe they played D3 in other sports. D3 has only been around since the 70's so I'm not sure what their affiliation was before then.
     With all due respect to the Generals, They are solid but I doubt they are on the same level as Wesley. At least the Wesley teams of the past few years.

     Also, prior to the founding of the ODAC in 1976, Hampden-Sydney played in the Mason-Dixon Conference. W&L was not in that conference but did play the Tigers. The MD consisted of R-MC, H-SC, West. MD, Hopkins, Towson, Bridgewater, and Gallaudet. Shepherd was in the conf. in 1969 but that is as far back as my press guides go. Appraently they dropped out between 69 and 70. I know that is not much info on W&L but I thought it interesting anyway.

[kickerdad]

Thanks for the information on W&L, I know Averett wanted to play the out of conference power's and didn't know that much about W&L. No telling what shape we will be in after that 1st game in Alliance with the Mount. Last year's game opened the teams eyes, so it will be interesting to see how they respond to Mt. Union this year and go from there. I would love to see them in contention again this year, but they did lose a lot of seniors at key positions.

[Highlander]

Dear followers of the USA south,

Been real quiet on here since it is the off- season. Maybe we need a topic to get things started for a nice discussion about football. I would like to pose one (or two)questions, feel free to respond or choose a question of your own. My question is simply this - It seems that for the short time that I have been following the conf. that except for CNU there seems to be a curse on whomever finishes the previous season as champions. What are your feelings on this- Is it that the conf. has parity or is it just that hard to be able to maintain due to the nature of D3 athletics? Side question- Who is seen as the front runners for the conf. championship, and will there be another tie for first?

[kickerdad]

Dear followers of the USA south,

Been real quiet on here since it is the off- season. Maybe we need a topic to get things started for a nice discussion about football. I would like to pose one (or two)questions, feel free to respond or choose a question of your own. My question is simply this - It seems that for the short time that I have been following the conf. that except for CNU there seems to be a curse on whomever finishes the previous season as champions. What are your feelings on this- Is it that the conf. has parity or is it just that hard to be able to maintain due to the nature of D3 athletics? Side question- Who is seen as the front runners for the conf. championship, and will there be another tie for first?

Don't know who the experts are picking this year, but based on what I saw last year and what I have read on this board, I would think NCWC is the top dog in the conference with CNU, Maryville right on their heals. I would hope that Averett could defend but that remains to be seen if they can fill some shoes that have graduated. Honestly I don't see any weak teams this year based on performance last year. Shenandoah, Ferrum and Greensboro should be ready to break back into the mix. NCWC, CNU and Maryville should be strong with Methodist and Averett being your sleepers this year.

[kickerdad]

And unless UVA gets a new Offensive Cord, finds a running back, gets the QB healthy, and gets some linebackers and DB's that can play smart; they will be hard up to finish above 500 in the conference.