FB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[arktraveler]

Yeah, as I was reading up for my previous response, I looked back at the old news release about adding football, and I was surprised at how definite it sounded. That said, even there the key sentence included a caveat: "Trustees directed the college's administration to begin these sports contingent on raising start-up costs from external sources." That was in May 2008. I don't know whether Hendrix had any good leads then on what those external sources might be, but the market crash in October 2008 surely dried any up. As it is, Hendrix had to scramble to find donors for their "Student Life Center" which they had already started building. I suspect if the market had held up for another year, the picture would have been different.

[Ron Boerger]

Here is a hard distinction for other SCAC programs to overcome:  DePauw ranked #10 party school in the US by Princeton Review.

So now we have one more reason for the Greencastle crew leaving the SCAC;  we just didn't party hearty enough.   

[Fripp52]

My son sent me an email this morning with a link to the party school ranking.  He said his number one goal this season is to have DePauw's football ranking exceed the party school ranking.  That would be a nice accomplishment.

[Ron Boerger]

Yeah, as I was reading up for my previous response, I looked back at the old news release about adding football, and I was surprised at how definite it sounded. That said, even there the key sentence included a caveat: "Trustees directed the college's administration to begin these sports contingent on raising start-up costs from external sources." That was in May 2008. I don't know whether Hendrix had any good leads then on what those external sources might be, but the market crash in October 2008 surely dried any up. As it is, Hendrix had to scramble to find donors for their "Student Life Center" which they had already started building. I suspect if the market had held up for another year, the picture would have been different.

I found a column in the Log Cabin Democrat dated 4-19-2010 which says, in part, "Hendrix still plans to add football at some point in the future, but only when enough funds are raised through private donations to fully support adding the sport, which is one of the most expensive to add."    So football at Hendrix isn't dead, just in deep hibernation ...

[Ron Boerger]

D3football.com pre-season Top 25 is out.  No SCAC school made the list; among other schools receiving votes, DePauw ("31st") and Trinity ("T38") were the only conference representatives. 

[D3_DPUFan]

So now we have one more reason for the Greencastle crew leaving the SCAC;  we just didn't party hearty enough.   

The truth has been uncovered. 

My son sent me an email this morning with a link to the party school ranking.  He said his number one goal this season is to have DePauw's football ranking exceed the party school ranking.  That would be a nice accomplishment.

I like the way he is thinking...

[jekelish]

Austin College's season preview is up:

http://www.austincollege.edu/18551/2010-football-season-preview/

[Pat Coleman]

Mentions the "new era" twice but to find out about the new offense, guess you'll have to buy Kickoff.

http://www.d3football.com/kickoff/

[Navidad]

Thinking of the upcoming season and about predictions of teams' success, I'm wondering if some programs perhaps are better able to retain more of their players over the entire period of their eligibility, and if that might be a key element in predicting team success on the field. I mean, since there are no football scholarships at DIII schools, but many DIII schools are know for their academic rigor, I would guess that a significant number of players give up on football at some point at many schools ... but maybe not so many in those schools that are most successful on the field. Probably no one keeps tracks of this, but I'd bet that the data would be interesting. Anyone have any thoughts or insights? 

[Tacttm1]

The Fred Mitchell Award watch list is out.  The kicker from Millsaps, Taylor Russolino is on the list again this year.  Congrats to him.


http://www.fredmitchellaward.com/2010watchlist.pdf


Is it football time yet???

[Pat Coleman]

Interesting thought -- the other question that comes to my mind is how you would separate the two parts of this chicken-egg scenario.

Do people continue to play football because the team is good, or is the team good because people continue to play football?

[DPU3619]

Interesting thought -- the other question that comes to my mind is how you would separate the two parts of this chicken-egg scenario.

Do people continue to play football because the team is good, or is the team good because people continue to play football?

I think I can recall exactly one case at DePauw over the last 10 or so years in which a player who contributed regularly decided he wanted to take his ball and go home.

To me, people COME to play football because the team is good.  The team then goes on to keep being good because those kids play all four years.

That said, DePauw sees a lot of attrition just like other schools, but those are mostly the young pups who either realize that scout team sucks or that college is a lot more fun without 30 hours a week of football for 5 months.

[historymajor]

Trinity T38???  Ok, I'll predict a much higher finish....  say top 10?

[Pat Coleman]

Interesting thought -- the other question that comes to my mind is how you would separate the two parts of this chicken-egg scenario.

Do people continue to play football because the team is good, or is the team good because people continue to play football?

I think I can recall exactly one case at DePauw over the last 10 or so years in which a player who contributed regularly decided he wanted to take his ball and go home.

Except I believe this discussion is about the exact opposite situation, someone who doesn't contribute sticking around.

[DePauw05]

When does the pre-season poll come out?  Anyone have a sense for the favorite(s)?