FB: Southern Athletic Association

[Pat Coleman]

RPI and Colorado College are basically the same -- D-III schools with one D-I sport per gender.

[BSCpanthers]

Camps are in session, it's time to get this party started.  Excited for another season with high expectations on the HillTop. BSC has their largest freshman class coming in around 70 guys.  Coach White is building big in numbers,  would like to see BSC start a JV program, maybe next season they can work that direction. 

[Ron Boerger]

Trinity's roster is up (though you have to click as the website default is still 2021's).  118 total, 38 first-years.  I only noted two transfers; Joseph Wolken, a sophmore LB from Cal Lu who saw limited playing time last season, and (as previously noted) Tyler Huettel, the A-A K/P from St. Olaf who's listed as a junior.

[awadelewis]

Anyone going to the mountain will have a steep Uphill battle with a UoS this season. Program is coming on strong and everyone returns.

We are looking at an interesting season on the Mountain with a very favorable schedule and a large returning class.   Our first four games are at home and the schedule isn't too awful after that.

Big question mark for me is how can we improve our defensive performance, and particularly in the secondary.   There was a significant lack of athleticism among that group last year that has got to improve.

Coach Rundle remains on the hot seat after that perfect 0-fer season last year.   That's compounded a bit by our having a new AD who is a lot more aggressive about things than the previous one.   

It's hard to make any predictions about this group but I have hope that we might  have a chance to pull off an 0.500 record this season given the schedule.

[BSCpanthers]

The BSC roster has posted, showing 55 freshman and 3 transfers.  I don't see the success BSC has had the last few years as a fluke.  I think as long as White is there, this program will be strong. 

On a side note, with all the success BSC is having in all athletics, I'd love to see some improvements being made to facilities on campus.  Even as small as an improvement to lighting and scoreboard, just to increase the fan and athlete experience.

[tigerguy]

5 Trinity Tigers selected to D3football's preseason AA List

Centre with one selection

No other SAA team had a selection

https://d3football.com/awards/all-americans/2022-preseason

[rjtiger]

I'm always shocked at these schools that talk 55 young men to come in as freshman.  Do you think they don't know how big the class is or the cherish the competition?  I have a feeling they don't realize how big the class is.   Why pay all that money to go D3 and get stuck trying to beat out that many kids for playing time not to mention the upper classmen.

[tigerguy]

Well, I know one sell for schools like Trinity is that there will be "JV" scrimmages and games that will allow for some playing time in addition to whatever work they may get on the practice squad/varsity team. Does BSC have a JV team? Usually its only schools that field big teams, such as UMHB, TLU, Trinity, that offer JV games.

[Ralph Turner]

I'm always shocked at these schools that talk 55 young men to come in as freshman.  Do you think they don't know how big the class is or the cherish the competition?  I have a feeling they don't realize how big the class is.   Why pay all that money to go D3 and get stuck trying to beat out that many kids for playing time not to mention the upper classmen.

Welcome to the Boards, rjtiger.

The nice thing about D3 is that I hope that the student-athlete is coming to a particular institution for the education.
I will sell the benefits of a D3 student/athlete experience in that s/he continues a very successful schedule:

Go to class
Go to practice.
Go back to the dorm/apartment to study because the coach is watching and student/athletes on the Academic Honor Roll are a valued metric for the Athletic Dept.
Repeat until game day. Compete.
Start over.

Enjoy the friendship of really talented hard working people.
Enjoy the discipline and structure which is contributing to your growth.
Assess your performance after the 1st semester/1st year in all aspects of the year.
Enjoy the acknowledgment by friends and family of how much you have grown and matured.
Mom and Dad are proud that your first year grades reflect the hard work that they expected (and not that of the kid in your high school class who wasted tens of thousands of dollars and now will enroll in the local community college to bring up his/her grades and get his/her Associates Degree so s/he can start over.)

Reassess whether you resume the next year, or realize that you progressed in your sport as far as your talent could take you. After all 19-year-old student-athletes are a year older, wiser and stronger than that 18-year-old freshman that you were a year ago.

#WhyD3

[BSCpanthers]

My son plays at BSC, and we have all throughly enjoyed the experience.  As the coach sold us on it, when it comes time to need a tutor, you find out the best tutor for that subject happens to be 3 lockers down from you in the locker room.  In D3, you are a STUDENT athlete. 

As for the large classes coming in, if your opportunity is with that school, and they offer exceptional education opportunities, you take it.  Currently BSC does not have a JV team, they do have a weekly "JV" intrasquad scrimmage.  I know Huntingdon has JV, so hopefully we are building towards having a JV program in the coming years.

[tigerguy]

5 Trinity Tigers selected to D3football's preseason AA List

Centre with one selection

No other SAA team had a selection

https://d3football.com/awards/all-americans/2022-preseason

Upon further review, Trinity's five selections are the most of any team. Delaware Valley, Johns Hopkins, UMHB, and Mount Union each had four. High praise and big expectations for this team.

One of those five is Tyler Huettel, the All American punter that transferred to Trinity from St. Olaf this summer. (credit to Ron for reporting this). What I'm interested to see is who actually ends up being the starting punter. An under-the-radar standout from last years squad was sophomore k/p Eli Gehman, who averaged 40.5 yards per punt on 35 attempts (8th in nation), 38.8 net (3rd in the nation), with 16 inside the 20. Huettel meanwhile averaged 42.8 yards on 45 punts (1st in nation), 38.7 net (4th in nation), with 15 inside the 20. For whatever reason, Gehman's stats (other than team net punt) weren't listed on the D3 individual punting stats website: http://stats.ncaa.org/rankings/national_ranking?academic_year=2022.0&division=3.0&ranking_period=23.0&sport_code=MFB&stat_seq=17.0.

[Ron Boerger]

I'm always shocked at these schools that talk 55 young men to come in as freshman.  Do you think they don't know how big the class is or the cherish the competition?  I have a feeling they don't realize how big the class is.   Why pay all that money to go D3 and get stuck trying to beat out that many kids for playing time not to mention the upper classmen.

One of the beauties of D3 is that it allows schools and student-athletes to handle things in whatever way works best for them.  For some, the joy of continued participation in the sport they love, be it on game day or only on the practice field, is a huge plus and you go wherever the school and all of its programs, not just the team itself, suits your needs.  For the schools themselves, bringing in a large number of student athletes usually helps the bottom line as those students will often pay a premium so they can keep enjoying whatever sport they play.  UMHB had almost 100 first years last season, probably at least that many this year due to their success.  Hardin-Simmons has close to 80 this year.  Texas Lutheran, over 70.  Even Austin College has over 50.  Trinity is a bit of an outlier in Texas in that it deliberately keeps its yearly classes small - that's something Urban put in place because certainly the classes during the program's glory years under Steve Mohr were larger.  Some of that is no doubt due to the difficulty of getting into the school in the first place; requirements now are considerably higher than they were at the turn of the century, but there is a premium placed on retaining as many players as possible and that's difficult with larger class sizes.  And I'd say the SAA in general follows a "less is more" approach - looking at rosters I see Centre, ~45; Berry, 13 which makes me wonder if they haven't got everyone posted; Rhodes ~25, Hendrix ~50, Millsaps ~60, BSC 55, Sewanee not posted.

[Pat Coleman]

One of those five is Tyler Huettel, the All American punter that transferred to Trinity from St. Olaf this summer. (credit to Ron for reporting this). What I'm interested to see is who actually ends up being the starting punter.

Same. If I could have been sure he would be the starting punter, Huettel would have been our first-team pick.

[rjtiger]

I'm always shocked at these schools that talk 55 young men to come in as freshman.  Do you think they don't know how big the class is or the cherish the competition?  I have a feeling they don't realize how big the class is.   Why pay all that money to go D3 and get stuck trying to beat out that many kids for playing time not to mention the upper classmen.

One of the beauties of D3 is that it allows schools and student-athletes to handle things in whatever way works best for them.  For some, the joy of continued participation in the sport they love, be it on game day or only on the practice field, is a huge plus and you go wherever the school and all of its programs, not just the team itself, suits your needs.  For the schools themselves, bringing in a large number of student athletes usually helps the bottom line as those students will often pay a premium so they can keep enjoying whatever sport they play.  UMHB had almost 100 first years last season, probably at least that many this year due to their success.  Hardin-Simmons has close to 80 this year.  Texas Lutheran, over 70.  Even Austin College has over 50.  Trinity is a bit of an outlier in Texas in that it deliberately keeps its yearly classes small - that's something Urban put in place because certainly the classes during the program's glory years under Steve Mohr were larger.  Some of that is no doubt due to the difficulty of getting into the school in the first place; requirements now are considerably higher than they were at the turn of the century, but there is a premium placed on retaining as many players as possible and that's difficult with larger class sizes.  And I'd say the SAA in general follows a "less is more" approach - looking at rosters I see Centre, ~45; Berry, 13 which makes me wonder if they haven't got everyone posted; Rhodes ~25, Hendrix ~50, Millsaps ~60, BSC 55, Sewanee not posted.

Oh I agree with everything everyone is saying and I'm passionate about D3 for the emphasis on education and the love of the game.  I just have a feeling that some of these kids may have gone a different route if they new they would be competing with 15 other QBs, 25 other WRs, etc.  Sure some don't care and you would hope they went to the school for the academics and experience and football was just a bonus....but we know that isn't always the case.

I hate it but I think it turns more into a sales job by the coaches for tuition dollars rather than a "building as many young men as possible"  especially those schools that do not have a large endowment and rely heavily on tuition.

Think about bringing in 75 kids and they are paying 15K in tuition.  that is over a million dollars a year coming in for these small schools.

Just my  2 cents. 

[Pat Coleman]

Division III football has been seen as an enrollment driver for going on 30 years, and probably longer.

Here's a story I wrote going on 17 years ago about the reasons schools add football programs at the D-III level, and yes, enrollment is one of the reasons discussed:
https://d3football.com/notables/2005/adding-football-why-and-how