FB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Tex]

So, parity in the SCAC is an exciting thing for sure.  "On any given Saturday" type thing apparently.  I guess my question to the masses is this... are the individual teams each getting better in relation to the rest of D-3 or just to each other?  Is the SCAC mired in mediocrity albeit it exciting?  Or, is the SCAC a conference being built up to the point where soon 2 teams will routinely make the playoffs?

I've only been following D-3 football for 3 seasons now.  So forgive the lack of background or the desire/time to research it.  (That's what I have you guys for!)


My observations from Trinity are that overall, we're a young team, especially on Offense.  4 of our 5 O-linemen starters will return next season.  I believe all three QB's return next season.  One RB with significant' playing time (furlow) returns.   I'm not 100% sure where we are on youth and defense since I"m so busy watching my son play on offense.  (and I'm hugely proud of his and his teammates efforts this season!)

C'mon TU, 3 more W's for an 8-2 season! 

[DPU3619]

I don't think the conference is growing dramatically faster than everyone else, Tex.  The SCAC has always had a pretty good out of conference record.  The playoff record isn't any good, but that's due to Trinity rarely getting out of that dastardly Texas sub-bracket.  Trinity usually beats the ASC teams on their schedule.  DePauw hasn't lost a non-conf game since the '06 Bell game.  They're 22-10 against non-conf in this decade and 8-1 in their last 9.  That's not a bad little number there considering there's a bunch of Wabash's, Hanover's (when they were good), a Wesley, and a UW-Stout on the ledger.

This is probably the best DePauw team by record since Clinton got re-elected, and I don't think I'd be selling a lot of people short if I went back even farther than that to get to the best actual football team.  Hard to tell since this is such a better conference than DePauw's previous ones.  At the same time, this might be the worst Trinity team in a LONG time.  Those two right there contribute an awful lot to the parity.  Centre's up a little bit, too.  They just might be back to the 2003 or so type Centre teams.

I don't think the SCAC can be a 2 bid league routinely anytime in the near future.  First, we still haven't ever had two teams finish with 1 loss since the playoffs expanded.  There hasn't even been a legitimate Pool C candidate.  Secondly, the SCAC has next to no postseason success aside from Trinity's Stagg run in 2002.  Somebody in this conference is going to have to do something crazy and do it for a few years running for anybody to start believing that a second SCAC team is worth a Pool C bid.  Forget a two loss SCAC team.  DePauw got close last year, but look what happened to the Wheaton team that the committee took instead.

[D3_DPUFan]

So, parity in the SCAC is an exciting thing for sure.  "On any given Saturday" type thing apparently.  I guess my question to the masses is this... are the individual teams each getting better in relation to the rest of D-3 or just to each other?  Is the SCAC mired in mediocrity albeit it exciting?  Or, is the SCAC a conference being built up to the point where soon 2 teams will routinely make the playoffs?

I've only been following D-3 football for 3 seasons now.  So forgive the lack of background or the desire/time to research it.  (That's what I have you guys for!)


My observations from Trinity are that overall, we're a young team, especially on Offense.  4 of our 5 O-linemen starters will return next season.  I believe all three QB's return next season.  One RB with significant' playing time (furlow) returns.   I'm not 100% sure where we are on youth and defense since I"m so busy watching my son play on offense.  (and I'm hugely proud of his and his teammates efforts this season!)

C'mon TU, 3 more W's for an 8-2 season! 

I don't know about the conference's position relative to others, but I do think the SCAC is a solid league. There are some really good players and not just on the top tier teams---look at how Austin and Birmingham have improved their programs in the past two years. Add in the travel and week in and week out, the SCAC presents a really competitive situation. Not many leagues where you could be playing in 40 degree weather in the midwest one week, 90 degrees in Texas or Mississippi the next and the altitude of Colorado Springs the next (although no more).

And Tex, you should be proud of the Texas Tigers...here's hoping you win out to go 8-2!   

[Ralph Turner]

I don't think the conference is growing dramatically faster than everyone else, Tex.  The SCAC has always had a pretty good out of conference record.  The playoff record isn't any good, but that's due to Trinity rarely getting out of that dastardly Texas sub-bracket.  Trinity usually beats the ASC teams on their schedule.  ...

Have you heard whether Trinity and Austin College will renew their 2-year contracts with McMurry again?

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity was fortunate to have some incredible talent at QB and WR during their heyday;  Roy Hampton and Mike Burton could have played scholarship ball and been successful.   Receivers like Jason Hunt, Bo Edwards, and Canaan Factor simply were able to get open at will and dominate.  Jerheme Urban was arguably not even the best WR during his time at TU (a close second to Hunt) and now he's making a living in the NFL.   

Since those days, though, we've seen the following happen:
- more schools across the nation have made a commitment to D3 ball
- schools like UMHB (and, to a lesser extent, HSU) have burst onto the scene in Texas, diluting the available local talent.  Austin College, with Ronny Gage's North Texas recruiting pipeline, is also getting a few kids that might have gone to Trinity in the past
- many D3 schools have made their facilities more appealing, while TU has inexplicably remained mired in the 80's
- and, not coincidentally, admission standards at TU are tighter than they've ever been

The combination of factors means that student athletes who used to consider Trinity a no-brainer now have many other appealing choices.   

Then you look at what else is going on in the conference:
- obviously, the day Mike DuBose became a head coach at Millsaps changed the conference landscape.  Not only was he successful in getting the players to believe in themselves from day one, but his name alone lured players to Millsaps who might have never considered the school before. 
- DePauw has always had a solid program, just look at what they can do to Wabash.  The issue has always been transferring that intensity to SCAC play and perhaps Coach Long has been able to do that some this year.  Who knows how successful DPU would be if they could keep a head coach around for more than a season or two?
- Austin is getting better thanks to Coach Gage and with just a little luck would be in the thick of the race right now.
- Centre obviously controls their destiny this year, but they've been on the cusp before. 
- Birmingham-Southern should be a contender in their first year of actual conference play next season.
- Rhodes, usually a mid-pack team or better, is down this year; Sewanee has struggled for a while.

Overall, I think the conference is getting stronger, but as Wes says we won't get any respect until we start seeing some playoff success.   BTW, Wes, Trinity did win at least one playoff game each year from '97-'01; 8-5 during that stretch (and one year where they got a bye and didn't play a week 1 game).   Since the 2002 Stagg, though, the SCAC's only playoff win has been the one Millsaps had in the first round last year.   Until that changes it's hard to justify a second SCAC team, should we ever get a one-loss contender.

[PrayingColonel]

Centre is not the same team they were earlier in the year. They have too many key players missing from their lineup. It was nice to see Sneed back on the field Saturday. I do think they will win Saturday vs Rhodes, but it will be a close game. Hopefully the offense can get something going and carry it over into the Trinity game.
Go Colonels!

[frank_ezelle]

Here's some history (plus a weather forecast) for those of you who like to focus on the definites instead of the possibilities:

1)  Thunderstorms are in the forecast for Sewanee this Saturday.  Will it be as sloppy as when DePauw was only able to manage a 3-0 victory?  Don't know, but bad weather has a way of making games close and making upsets more feasible.

2)  After clinching the SCAC title in 2008, Millsaps went on the road to BSC and played like crap in a bad weather game.  Millsaps had 7 turnovers and were fortunate to score TDs on 3 big plays--a 53-yard pass play, a 71-yard kickoff return, and a 61-yard interception return.  The kick return and the interception were 2 of 3 unanswered TD's which allowed Millsaps to come from behind in the 2nd half for a 31-14 win.

3)  Millsaps has had a habit of getting way behind early in their road games.  To jog your memory:  down 3-24 at MS College; down 0-14 at Austin; down 0-16 at DePauw; down 0-14 at Huntingdon.  So in their 4 road games this season, Millsaps is 1-3 and they have fallen behind by a combined score of 3 to 68.

NOW THEN, for those who like to think about the possibilities:

The possibility of Millsaps losing at Sewanee isn't as farfetched as it might appear on paper:

--Millsaps played horrible football last year after locking up the SCAC title and who could blame this year's team if they think they locked up the title last Saturday.
--While their 1-3 road record this year could very easily be anywhere between 0-4 and 4-0, the one consistent thing all year is that Millsaps has been a slow starter on the road. 
--Combine a slow start with bad weather and Millsaps might not be able to work their way back into the game.  Sewanee may be 0-7 this year, but they have a good defense and they were leading BSC 17-7 in the 3rd quarter last week until five 2nd half turnovers by Sewanee helped BSC to a 34-17 win.

All that being said, if I was a betting man I'd pick Millsaps to win the game this Saturday.  I'm just not so sure that I would pick them to cover what most of you might consider the spread for this game.

[pbrooks3]

Centre is not the same team they were earlier in the year. They have too many key players missing from their lineup. It was nice to see Sneed back on the field Saturday. I do think they will win Saturday vs Rhodes, but it will be a close game. Hopefully the offense can get something going and carry it over into the Trinity game.
Go Colonels!

Agree Saturday's game with Rhodes will be a battle.  Also hope there will be some offense for the Colonels.

[exmajor]

Here's some history (plus a weather forecast) for those of you who like to focus on the definites instead of the possibilities:

1)  Thunderstorms are in the forecast for Sewanee this Saturday.  Will it be as sloppy as when DePauw was only able to manage a 3-0 victory?  Don't know, but bad weather has a way of making games close and making upsets more feasible.

2)  After clinching the SCAC title in 2008, Millsaps went on the road to BSC and played like crap in a bad weather game.  Millsaps had 7 turnovers and were fortunate to score TDs on 3 big plays--a 53-yard pass play, a 71-yard kickoff return, and a 61-yard interception return.  The kick return and the interception were 2 of 3 unanswered TD's which allowed Millsaps to come from behind in the 2nd half for a 31-14 win.

3)  Millsaps has had a habit of getting way behind early in their road games.  To jog your memory:  down 3-24 at MS College; down 0-14 at Austin; down 0-16 at DePauw; down 0-14 at Huntingdon.  So in their 4 road games this season, Millsaps is 1-3 and they have fallen behind by a combined score of 3 to 68.

NOW THEN, for those who like to think about the possibilities:

The possibility of Millsaps losing at Sewanee isn't as farfetched as it might appear on paper:

--Millsaps played horrible football last year after locking up the SCAC title and who could blame this year's team if they think they locked up the title last Saturday.
--While their 1-3 road record this year could very easily be anywhere between 0-4 and 4-0, the one consistent thing all year is that Millsaps has been a slow starter on the road. 
--Combine a slow start with bad weather and Millsaps might not be able to work their way back into the game.  Sewanee may be 0-7 this year, but they have a good defense and they were leading BSC 17-7 in the 3rd quarter last week until five 2nd half turnovers by Sewanee helped BSC to a 34-17 win.

All that being said, if I was a betting man I'd pick Millsaps to win the game this Saturday.  I'm just not so sure that I would pick them to cover what most of you might consider the spread for this game.

I hope this is not the case and the Majors leave no doubt on the mountain Frank.  I am sure Coach Dubose and the team know that the SCAC is not locked up this time and a stumble here would end it.  Even with a win, they still need some help for the AQ, so hopefully they will come out firing!  The motivation of at least another share of the conference title should have them up if nothing else.

[Ron Boerger]

Initial South regional rankings are out:

South Region
1. Wesley 3-0 7-0
2. Mississippi College 6-0 6-1
3. Washington and Jefferson 7-0 7-0
4. Hampden-Sydney 8-0 8-0
5. Mary Hardin-Baylor 4-1 6-1
6. Thomas More 7-0 7-0
7. Centre 6-1 6-1
8. Huntingdon 3-0 6-1
9. Dickinson 6-1 6-1
10. DePauw 5-1 5-1

[frank_ezelle]

I screwed up my quote option, but the following was written recenly by Tex:

On a positive note, I had to drive home to College Station from Houston right when the game started.  I managed to jack into the DePauw mp3 stream from the FM radio station.  Very nice.  I got to listen the entire way home during the first half.  I managed to get my laptop hooked up to the net to watch the 2nd half.  

I mention this to say how impressed I was with the two young men announcing for the DeP team.  I thought they were entertaining and objective, from the pregame thru the end of the first half.  Figured I'd give props where due.

----------------------

I thought about this comment from Tex when driving in to work this morning.  First off, I'll agree that the broadcast crew from DePauw always does a great job and seem to be very objective.  I also enjoy the regular programming on the DePauw station--whoever is in charge of that operation does a first class job.

The main thing I was thinking about on the drive in was that Tex was listening to a D3 football game while driving in his car.  Not a local station covering a local team, but a college radio station several states away.  As this expanded coverage and accessibility to D3 athletics has grown by increments over the years, it's easy to get acclimated to the changes without realizing just how much this has improved.  It has been an amazing growth.

Maybe I have the details wrong on this, but it seems like a Carthage baseball fan was talking about this last year and when his team won the national championship at some point in the 90's, he didn't know about the title until reading a story 3 months later in an alumni magazine.  What a gift the internet has been to D3 sports, starting with a website like D3Sports and the websites at each school, and now into live coverage of many ballgames.  I wonder what changes the future will bring.

[exmajor]

Pretty quiet around here. 

Here is the Millsaps/Sewanee preview:

http://gomajors.com/news/2009/10/29/FB_1029095022.aspx

[TigerDad]

Trinity hosts NAIA Azusa Pacific tomorrow in SA. They are 1-7 but may be a handful for the Tigers. Hope our guys can pick up a meaningless "W" at home (thanks to Colorado College), but more important stay healthy and sharp for Centre and the Roos.

Kind of rough to be 5-2 (with losses to two strong teams on their own turf) and have everyone critical of your season already!  I guess that's what comes with having such a strong program over the past decade or more.

Go Tigers ... Git 'R Done!

[Tacttm1]

Prediction for Millsaps v. Sewanee:  31-10, Majors.

Safe travels to the team and to all of the participants this weekend throughout the division.

[Shoreman]

Whats the weather forcast for today in Sewanee?