FB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Tex]

I, for one, would like to see things get shuffled up a bit.  My recent complaints include the fact that many of Trinity's tougher opponents have gotten a bye week prior to playing TU (if you doubt, check the SCAC schedule page here http://www.scacsports.com/sports/fball/2008-09/schedule).  Add the fact that Millsaps faced walk-over (for the Majors) opponents (BSC & CoC) after the Trinity game, while TU had "trap" games (Centre & AC) to finish the season.

Yeah, but....

Look at the first half of those seasons leading up to the Trinity/Millsaps game.  Millsaps played Miss Coll, Belhaven, Rhodes, both of your trap teams, DePauw, and Sewanee.  Trinity played McMurry, TLU, Colorado, BSC, Rhodes, DePauw, and Sewanee. 

So, removing the common opponents, Millsaps played Miss Coll, Belhaven, and Austin and Centre before Trinity.  Trinity played McMurry, TLU, Colorado,  and BSC to get to the Majors. 

Let me ask you this:  If talent is equal, who is likely to be A) more healthy and B) executing better of those two teams?  Trinity played ONE winning team before their biggest game of the year.  Millsaps played only two teams with records under .500!  I'd take Trinity's schedule over Millsaps' schedule every time.  You've got to get by DePauw, which you've had 0 previous problems with, and that aside, you've got 6 tune-ups to get ready for your toughest opponent. 

Would you rather go like Austin-Centre-DePauw-Millsaps-BSC-Sewanee?  You can't want that either, can you?

You make a good argument.  I'd counter that with the tougher schedule leaves a team more "battle tested".

I think you don't get better by playing push-overs (this is a generalization, not intending to dis anyone in the SCAC).  I saw this year in and year out with our Highschool.  Our coach would load up 4 non-district opponents each year that had all gone deep into the playoffs the previous year or two before.  No slouches.  True that in HS football in TX, the non-district counts for nothing when it comes to getting into the playoffs.

But by the time our district would begin (weak district pretty much overall), our guys would have had their weaknesses exposed and had a chance to correct them before it counted. 

It's a shame that in D-3, every single game counts and more than one L in the SCAC pretty much eliminates you from post season consideration.  Just the way it falls.

But, I'd rather see Tu load up some tougher opponents early on. 


Also having a week off before your biggest conference game is a huge plus.  No matter how much I tried to spin it the other way prior to last Nov 1st. 

[Ralph Turner]

In the UIL, almost half of the schools make the playoffs.

In D-3, the ratio is 6.5:1 except in football (and a few other sports) where the (239 minus 10 NESCAC schools=) 229 schools are competing for 32 bids, for a ratio of 1:7.16.

With Hendrix, you are down to one non-conference game.

If and when Concordia-Austin adds football, we will be, too.

[crufootball]

I would love for TU to load up with UMHB, it would be one more road game I could see and another good game for both teams, kind of like a pre-Texas sub bracket game.

[roocru]

I was in San Diego's Balboa Park yesterday and went through the museum of San Diego sports history.  I saw a big poster of two teams of old playing in mud several inches deep!  When I looked at the caption it read, "San Diego's first bowl game - 1921.  University of Arizona vs. Centre University".  Sorry, it did not give the score!! 

[Ron Boerger]

I was in San Diego's Balboa Park yesterday and went through the museum of San Diego sports history.  I saw a big poster of two teams of old playing in mud several inches deep!  When I looked at the caption it read, "San Diego's first bowl game - 1921.  University of Arizona vs. Centre University".  Sorry, it did not give the score!! 

Arizona was 7-1 and had outscored its opponents 418-30; their only loss was 17-13 to a Texas A&M squad coached by the legendary Dana X. Bible.  They met Centre in the "San Diego East-West Christmas Classic" and the final score read:

Centre 38,  Arizona 0

This was the Centre team that defeated Harvard earlier in 1921 in the famous "C6H0" game that is ranked among the greatest upsets of all times in college sports.  Ironically, the only thing standing between that team and a national championship, if such a thing existed was a 22-14 loss the next week at the Dixie Classic bowl to the same Texas A&M team that defeated Arizona.  Centre ended the year 10-1, playing only four home games, and gave up only 6 points combined in the other ten games. Other Centre victims that year included Clemson, Virginia Tech, Kentucky, Tulane, and Auburn.

[Ralph Turner]

I was in San Diego's Balboa Park yesterday and went through the museum of San Diego sports history.  I saw a big poster of two teams of old playing in mud several inches deep!  When I looked at the caption it read, "San Diego's first bowl game - 1921.  University of Arizona vs. Centre University".  Sorry, it did not give the score!! 

Arizona was 7-1 and had outscored its opponents 418-30; their only loss was 17-13 to a Texas A&M squad coached by the legendary Dana X. Bible.  They met Centre in the "San Diego East-West Christmas Classic" and the final score read:

Centre 38,  Arizona 0

This was the Centre team that defeated Harvard earlier in 1921 in the famous "C6H0" game that is ranked among the greatest upsets of all times in college sports.  Ironically, the only thing standing between that team and a national championship, if such a thing existed was a 22-14 loss the next week at the Dixie Classic bowl to the same Texas A&M team that defeated Arizona.  Centre ended the year 10-1, playing only four home games, and gave up only 6 points combined in the other ten games. Other Centre victims that year included Clemson, Virginia Tech, Kentucky, Tulane, and Auburn.

Aggies remember the Dixie Classic as the origins of the "12th Man" tradition started by E. King Gill.

[frank_ezelle]

Juan Joseph is named as the finalist from the South in the Gaglairdi voting:

http://www.millsaps.edu/athletic/football/121208story.shtml

[frank_ezelle]

The story about Centre football of old brings up the memory of the 1899 Sewanee team that was considered one of the greatest of all time:

"Those 1899 Sewanee Tigers are still recognized as one of the greatest college football teams ever. In that year, they accomplished what everyone concedes was the most astounding accomplishment of any college team in any sport ever: They played and won five games in six days, all on the road, beating Texas, Texas A&M, Tulane, LSU and Ole Miss. It's been the subject of hundreds of stories and books, most recently around the 100th anniversary of the famous road trip, when Sports Illustrated and ESPN both featured it."

That quote if from a column I quickly found on the subject and some other interesting things about Sewanee.  The link to that column is (you have to go halfway down to get to the Sewanee part) :  http://www.offenburger.com/guestpaper.asp?link=20011115

[Ron Boerger]

Not a lot else going on here, so for anyone desperate to see what a SCAC grad can do in the NFL, here's a nice TD catch Jerheme Urban (Trinity '03) had in yesterday's Cardinals-Vikings game.   

http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d80d56660

Sorry for the ad you have to sit thru first.

[D3_DPUFan]

You make a good argument.  I'd counter that with the tougher schedule leaves a team more "battle tested".

I think you don't get better by playing push-overs

No question about it, IMHO...and, as the saying goes, if you're not getting better, you're getting worse. In this part of the country all you have to do is look at Wabash...I can only imagine how bad some of the teams they put 60 on must have been...of course, not much they can do about it as that's the conference they're in...one thing's for sure, they would not be sniffing the playoffs in the SCAC...

[Ralph Turner]

You make a good argument.  I'd counter that with the tougher schedule leaves a team more "battle tested".

I think you don't get better by playing push-overs

No question about it, IMHO...and, as the saying goes, if you're not getting better, you're getting worse. In this part of the country all you have to do is look at Wabash...I can only imagine how bad some of the teams they put 60 on must have been...of course, not much they can do about it as that's the conference they're in...once things for sure, they would not be sniffing the playoffs in the SCAC...

+1!     Right on!

[D3_DPUFan]

+1!     Right on!

Thank you, Ralph!

[D3_DPUFan]

Some food for thought...

Just finished watching the DVD of the Monon Bell Game...the striking thing to me is not the margin of victory...but how DPU whipped Wabash with a really young team. No fewer than 5 of the top defensive players from the game were sophomores (Sherer, Preuss, Huffman, Doane, Gbur); Valdiserri is a freshman; and Fitch, Collins and Crawford are juniors; on offense, Ellis is a freshman as is starting OT Louis Brown; the receiving stable includes sophomores Koors, Branigan and Dahlstrom; while the vets, Dick and Mulligan as well as OT Joekel are juniors.   

Which made me think back to all of the crap the Wabash crowd was spewing when Matt Walker was named head coach. Not only is he beating the Wallies on the field...he and his staff seem to be beating them at recruiting as well.   

[Ralph Turner]

I think that some of the Wabash posters took offense at my observation that Wabash went 7-0 versus the NCAC and 3-0 versus the UAA and 0-2 versus everyone else.   

The key to the improving SCAC is what type of program that BSC can start. 

[D3_DPUFan]

I think that some of the Wabash posters took offense at my observation that Wabash went 7-0 versus the NCAC and 3-0 versus the UAA and 0-2 versus everyone else.   

The key to the improving SCAC is what type of program that BSC can start. 

...sometimes the truth can be painful...

Agree on BSC...the program seemed to take a bit of a step back this season, but if the school is committed to football I gotta think they can put things together. I'll tell you this, they gave us a game in Greencastle...also beat Colorado College on the road and smashed Sewannee at home in their new stadium...