FB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[Macon]

And, in an obviously lesser poll, the Jackets are No. 26 in the College Football America Yearbook's 2019 Division III Preseason Top 30.

[hasanova]

Randolph Macon ranked 24th in d3football.com preseason poll.

Kudos to the Jackets.  Hope the ODAC will still be competitive this season in spite of one team being the clear favorite.

[HSCTiger fan]

Randolph Macon ranked 24th in d3football.com preseason poll.

Kudos to the Jackets.  Hope the ODAC will still be competitive this season in spite of one team being the clear favorite.

The last time an ODAC team was ranked in the preseason poll was HSC in 2014. They finished in a 4 way tie for first.

[MRMIKESMITH]

Was near R-MC this weekend for a family reunion. Beautiful scenery, certain individuals no so much.

[Macon]

I assume that in DIII, there is a high correlation between winning programs and player retention.  Recently, RMC has maintained an approximately 93+% player retention.  I'd think that's extremely high among most DIII programs.  If you're playing with a high number of juniors and seniors, you're probably winning games.  Recently, RMC is fielding 30+ juniors and 30+ seniors.  I wonder how other ODAC teams do on this front?

[jknezek]

I assume that in DIII, there is a high correlation between winning programs and player retention.  Recently, RMC has maintained an approximately 93+% player retention.  I'd think that's extremely high among most DIII programs.  If you're playing with a high number of juniors and seniors, you're probably winning games.  Recently, RMC is fielding 30+ juniors and 30+ seniors.  I wonder how other ODAC teams do on this front?

W&L's retention is usually through the roof. They tend to recruit about 20-25 first years and have 18-22+ seniors lately. A few drop, a few get hurt. Of course, W&L is generally the smallest squad in the ODAC, so they don't have much choice. I think around 80 reported to camp this year, maybe mid 70s. That's up a few as we've been as low as 70 or 71 recently I believe. But yes, retention matters, but only so much. There are lots of schools that bring in 50-125 first years, but really only recruited 20 or 30. So long as the impact 20 or 30 stick around, it doesn't matter if the other 30-100 quit. Retention isn't necessarily the key. Retention of the right players is the key.

[Macon]

I consider WLU as an ODAC outlier, they recruit nationally and to a much higher academic standard.  I'd also add that programs that bring in 100+ recruits may lose as many to academics as athletic considerations.  Starting with 100 and ending with 15 Seniors is 85 students that potentially have negative thoughts about the school and the football programs.  Higher academic colleges tend to have overall higher student retention, as is certainly the case for WLU, and I'd contend that RMC would be in that conversation, but not to WLU's standards.

[Wild Horse Rider]

Unfortunately I think with D3 specifically it is hard to point at one factor and say that is why this program wins consistently.  Cost of attendance, endowment, retention, recruiting pools (location), admission requirements, and recruiting requirements play a hand.  There are state schools vs private schools as well as well endowed schools vs tuition driven schools.  Retention certainly helps but in the case of a W&L the fact that they do not have but so many players on the program has likely hurt them in different seasons/games.  Injury's happen and when you may only be 1 or 2 deep at a position is a real problem for schools like that.  I know it is a completely different animal but the Mount Union's and Mary Hardin-Baylor's of the world since they have extremely large rosters and conversely poor retention rates but injuries are not as scary for them.  I would look at it from conference to conference to determine what the biggest factor in consistency is.  In the ODAC I believe over the past few seasons HSC, RMC, and W&L are usually competing for the top spot.  I would imagine those three schools have the largest retention rate but also likely not required to bring in large freshman classes.  All three of those schools are not driven by the cost of attendance and could function just fine without football.  In the USAC I think all of the programs have requirements to bring in large numbers of freshman year in and year out therefore the retention is not as high.  Recently Huntingdon and Maryville have owned the conference.  I think in both their cases the location and their respective recruiting pools play a large part as well as consistency from a head coaching perspective.  Coach Turk has been at Huntingdon for 15 seasons this coming year and Coach Hayes at Maryville has been with the program since 2008 (this will be his 5th season as the head coach).

[Pat Coleman]

Unfortunately I think with D3 specifically it is hard to point at one factor and say that is why this program wins consistently.  Cost of attendance, endowment, retention, recruiting pools (location), admission requirements, and recruiting requirements play a hand.

Coaching needs to be much higher on this list than where you have it.

[Wild Horse Rider]

I completely agree.  That was an oversight on my part.  I believe it takes a special type of person and coach to want to be a coach (head coach or otherwise) at this level.  They are not doing it for fame of fortune but because they love coaching and working with young men.  You would think that I didn't coach at a small private school for a decade (I was fortunate after playing I was able to coach at my alma mater).  Thanks for the catch Pat.

[HSCTiger fan]

I assume that in DIII, there is a high correlation between winning programs and player retention.  Recently, RMC has maintained an approximately 93+% player retention.  I'd think that's extremely high among most DIII programs.  If you're playing with a high number of juniors and seniors, you're probably winning games.  Recently, RMC is fielding 30+ juniors and 30+ seniors.  I wonder how other ODAC teams do on this front?

In 2015 they had 36 freshmen and last year there there were 24 seniors. That's still very good but not 93%. It's still very high among many D3 programs and certainly has a lot to do with their recent success.

[Macon]

I was looking at all classes, year over year.  So, 36 freshmen to 24 seniors would be about 87.5% retention per year for that class.  This coming fall, RMC has 31 Seniors starting as 38 freshmen, thus about 94% annual retention.  Regardless, I think most coaches and most programs would take those numbers any day.  As mentioned above, there are numerous factors in a successful program.  Being a novice mathematician, I was highlighting just one factor that may be correlative to winning programs.

[Macon]

Congrats to ODAC recipients for the 2019 D3football.com Preseason All-America team.  One from BC, one from FC, and two from RMC (Wernle and Frederick). 

[HSCTiger fan]

I was looking at all classes, year over year.  So, 36 freshmen to 24 seniors would be about 87.5% retention per year for that class.  This coming fall, RMC has 31 Seniors starting as 38 freshmen, thus about 94% annual retention.  Regardless, I think most coaches and most programs would take those numbers any day.  As mentioned above, there are numerous factors in a successful program.  Being a novice mathematician, I was highlighting just one factor that may be correlative to winning programs.

Not to be nit-picky but 24 of 36 is 66% and 31 of 38 is 82%. Both excellent numbers. I agree most would take those numbers and be exceptionally happy.

[Air Raid]

Unfortunately I think with D3 specifically it is hard to point at one factor and say that is why this program wins consistently.  Cost of attendance, endowment, retention, recruiting pools (location), admission requirements, and recruiting requirements play a hand.  There are state schools vs private schools as well as well endowed schools vs tuition driven schools.  Retention certainly helps but in the case of a W&L the fact that they do not have but so many players on the program has likely hurt them in different seasons/games.  Injury's happen and when you may only be 1 or 2 deep at a position is a real problem for schools like that.  I know it is a completely different animal but the Mount Union's and Mary Hardin-Baylor's of the world since they have extremely large rosters and conversely poor retention rates but injuries are not as scary for them.  I would look at it from conference to conference to determine what the biggest factor in consistency is.  In the ODAC I believe over the past few seasons HSC, RMC, and W&L are usually competing for the top spot.  I would imagine those three schools have the largest retention rate but also likely not required to bring in large freshman classes.  All three of those schools are not driven by the cost of attendance and could function just fine without football.  In the USAC I think all of the programs have requirements to bring in large numbers of freshman year in and year out therefore the retention is not as high.  Recently Huntingdon and Maryville have owned the conference.  I think in both their cases the location and their respective recruiting pools play a large part as well as consistency from a head coaching perspective.  Coach Turk has been at Huntingdon for 15 seasons this coming year and Coach Hayes at Maryville has been with the program since 2008 (this will be his 5th season as the head coach).

Great post(s) (including the added coaching point).  The relationship between coaches and players has a direct yield to retention rates. All of the coaches across the USAC and ODAC are talented, but the coach-player bond between Arruza (RMC) and Adams (AU)  is what has helped both of their schools be preseason favorites for their respective conferences. I have heard of at least one school in the ODAC with almost 90 incoming freshman starting camp.  We shall see how that school does with that large number over the next couple seasons.