FB: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[Ron Boerger]

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

If you mean the SCAC coaches' poll, it came out on the 20th of August last year, so if they keep the same timing it will be the 19th.

Favorites -

DPU, won it all last year, going want to leave the SCAC on a high note, but they have a big hole to plug at QB.

Trinity, because they're always in the hunt
Millsaps - hard to say with new coaching staff but you think the success of the last few years will carry over this season
Centre - 5-2 in conference each of the last two years
Birmingham-Southern - It finally counts this season.  They're very successful in other sports, football less so the last couple of years but could surprise as they had to rebuild after the first-year coach brought in a bunch of guys who weren't real B-SC material and had to start over.  Pat says nope, not 'til next year.

The best answers, though, will be found in Kickoff, coming soon to a monitor near you (and half-price 40% off from .edu email addresses).

[Ron Boerger]

Hmm .. this will not help:  Al Furlow, Trinity's leading returning RB, has transferred to D2 Incarnate Word per a story in today's Express-News (p.2).  The remaining backs combined for less than 100 yards last year.

EDIT:  Furlow's stats from last year were not huge, 289 yds/3 TDs on 68 carries (3.9 ypc), 141 yds receiving on 15 catches.  Still, never good to lose someone who knows the system. 

[DPU3619]

He was a good little runner, too.  Liked what I saw from him in Greencastle last year.  He played a significant number of snaps in that game.  Very speedy little guy.

[Ron Boerger]

Pick the SCAC winner on the D3football.com front page poll.   Choices are Centre, DePauw, Millsaps, Trinity, other. 

[Navidad]

These are all good insights, but in starting the discussion, I pretty much meant the persistence or retention (whichever you want to call it) of all players, whether they are contributing at the time or not. You never know when someone is going to get the knowledge/expertise/confidence to start contributing in the future, so if we limit this discussion only to players who are already contributing in a big way and then leave, we may be missing some of the ingredients.

Yes, the best players probably do go to the historically successful teams, but success is often cyclical over the years. Teams on top don't often stay there forever, and it's not unheard of for a team not near the top to rise up and become more successful. In these cases, I would bet that player retention -- through their entire eligibility -- is a major factor over time. Of course, I have no data to back that up. We need to get some enterprising students working on determining whether such a correlation (or better yet, a cause and effect) exists!

Of course, I would guess that coaching staffs might have something to do with team success too. Right?

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.

[1837Tigers]

2007 Monon Bell hero Jordan Havercamp has been cast in an upcoming Kurt Russell movie:

http://www.depauw.edu/news/?id=25623

[Tex]

Hmm .. this will not help:  Al Furlow, Trinity's leading returning RB, has transferred to D2 Incarnate Word per a story in today's Express-News (p.2).  The remaining backs combined for less than 100 yards last year.

EDIT:  Furlow's stats from last year were not huge, 289 yds/3 TDs on 68 carries (3.9 ypc), 141 yds receiving on 15 catches.  Still, never good to lose someone who knows the system. 

Hmm... that sucks.  But, we've got some good guys ready to step in. 

[Pat Coleman]

It is one more year before Birmingham-Southern counts, by the way.

[Navidad]

Although I have the administrator's okay for doing this, I'm still a little hesistant, but will go ahead anyway ... and offer information to anyone interested about my new book, titled Beyond Friday Nights: College Football Recruiting for Players and Parents. No, it's not specifically about DIII football, but certainly includes the advantages of playing at that level. For more info, go to www.raygrasshoff.com/college-football-recruiting.html. And please spread the word if so inclined. Thanks!

[Tacttm1]

Re:  Millsaps --  Is there an SID in place?  I maen, hasn't football practice started and yet not a single release or update on their website?  Most of the news their is from May (in most sports, not just football.)  Hawkins (LB) makes D3 pre-season team and Russolino (K) gets on Fred Mitchell list and nothing posted.  Last year I seem to remember updates about camp, reports, etc.     

[Ron Boerger]

Re:  Millsaps --  Is there an SID in place?  I maen, hasn't football practice started and yet not a single release or update on their website?  Most of the news their is from May (in most sports, not just football.)  Hawkins (LB) makes D3 pre-season team and Russolino (K) gets on Fred Mitchell list and nothing posted.  Last year I seem to remember updates about camp, reports, etc.      

The sports information page says that Michael Nienaber, Christian Brothers '04, is the SID.  Email contact there if you want to ask him any questions.  Mr. Nienaber was formerly a graduate assistant for media relations at Delta State and last year was Assistant SID at Birmingham-Southern. 

[Pat Coleman]

Re:  Millsaps --  Is there an SID in place?  I maen, hasn't football practice started and yet not a single release or update on their website?  Most of the news their is from May (in most sports, not just football.)  Hawkins (LB) makes D3 pre-season team and Russolino (K) gets on Fred Mitchell list and nothing posted.  Last year I seem to remember updates about camp, reports, etc.     

My understanding from talking to Aaron Pelch for Kickoff was that he should have started last Monday.

Starting less than a week before camp opens is an SID's nightmare. I wonder how much work was done on the media guide.

[Ron Boerger]

Since we're still waiting for anything related to football ... might as well throw this out.  The annual US News college rankings were just published - SCAC schools were all ranked, as follows:  

• Austin - T81st, National Liberal Arts Colleges (NLAC)
• Birmingham-Southern - T93rd, NLAC
• Centre - T47th, NLAC
• Colorado College - T26th, NLAC
• DePauw - T51st, NLAC
• Hendrix - T81st, NLAC
• Millsaps - T93rd, NLAC
• Oglethorpe - T166th, NLAC
• Rhodes - T47th, NLAC
• Sewanee - T32nd, NLAC
• Southwestern - T62nd, NLAC
• Trinity - 1st, Regional Universities (West)

Worth noting that US News changed their tier structure this year.  All SCAC schools are "Tier 1", but "Tier 1" has been expanded from representing the top 25% of ranked institutions to the top 75%... grade inflation hits US News, too!   Guarantee that you will see releases from some schools (not necessarily SCAC schools) saying "XYZ college named to US News Tier 1 for first time ever!" as a result.  

There are 189 Tier 1 schools  in the National Liberal Arts category - so top 25% would be the first 63.   The top 10 NLACs, btw, are Williams, Amherst, Swarthmore, Middlebury, Wellesley, Bowdoin, Pomona, Carleton, Davidson, and Haverford.  

One has to imagine that the only reason Trinity is the only "regional" SCAC school is that they want to be there so they can keep saying they've been #1 for the last 15+ years.  Southwestern was considered regional until 5-6 years ago.  Will be interesting to see if this changes under the new president who has said he wants Trinity to play nationally.  

[DPU3619]

DePauw second out of all Indiana schools on that list, which is a nice thing to have.  Notre Dame 19, Purdue 56, Wabash 58.  Franklin awarded 10th on the Midwest Colleges list.

[Navidad]

Isn't Trinity on the U.S. News & World Report "Regional" list because it offers master's degree programs in addition to baccalaureate degree programs? That's what I had thought, but could be wrong ... don't know if other SCAC schools or Southwestern offer master's degrees.

One has to imagine that the only reason Trinity is the only "regional" SCAC school is that they want to be there so they can keep saying they've been #1 for the last 15+ years.  Southwestern was considered regional until 5-6 years ago.  Will be interesting to see if this changes under the new president who has said he wants Trinity to play nationally.