FB: Southern Athletic Association

[Clark Kent]

Berry College has it's first All-American.  Congrats to Mamadou Soumahoro.

http://www.berryvikings.com/sports/fball/2016-17/releases/afca_all_am

Congrats to Mamadou on 1st team selection by AFCA.  Well deserved.  Can't believe he's 2nd team on D3Football.com All-American team.  Mamadou racked 1st nationally in sacks, 7th in tackles for loss, 4th in forced fumbles, tied for 2nd in fumbles recovered and had several 'strip & score' plays.  Those selected 1st team DE aren't even close to those stats. 

While I'm griping, why did 3 teams from one conference gain entry to the playoffs.  It baffles me that an 8-3 3rd place team in the WIAC was in the playoffs while 9-1 Berry sat home.

[Ralph Turner]

Berry College has it's first All-American.  Congrats to Mamadou Soumahoro.

http://www.berryvikings.com/sports/fball/2016-17/releases/afca_all_am

Congrats to Mamadou on 1st team selection by AFCA.  Well deserved.  Can't believe he's 2nd team on D3Football.com All-American team.  Mamadou racked 1st nationally in sacks, 7th in tackles for loss, 4th in forced fumbles, tied for 2nd in fumbles recovered and had several 'strip & score' plays.  Those selected 1st team DE aren't even close to those stats. 

While I'm griping, why did 3 teams from one conference gain entry to the playoffs.  It baffles me that an 8-3 3rd place team in the WIAC was in the playoffs while 9-1 Berry sat home.

Thank you for the opportunity to compare conferences as the Selection Committee might have.

(How many points do you give for home field advantage?)

That 3rd place team in the WIAC, (UW-Platteville) lost on the road 22-13 to the Stagg Bowl finalist, UW-Oshkosh.

They lost at home by 6 points to the WIAC champion, UW-Whitewater, which made it to the Quarterfinals.

Then they lost on the road in the first round by one point at St John's (32-31).

Your SAA co-champ WashUStL (which beat Berry) lost at UW-Oshkosh 46-13.

These comparative scores give us a good idea of the relative strengths of the various conferences.

[blue_jays]

Berry College has it's first All-American.  Congrats to Mamadou Soumahoro.

http://www.berryvikings.com/sports/fball/2016-17/releases/afca_all_am

Congrats to Mamadou on 1st team selection by AFCA.  Well deserved.  Can't believe he's 2nd team on D3Football.com All-American team.  Mamadou racked 1st nationally in sacks, 7th in tackles for loss, 4th in forced fumbles, tied for 2nd in fumbles recovered and had several 'strip & score' plays.  Those selected 1st team DE aren't even close to those stats. 

While I'm griping, why did 3 teams from one conference gain entry to the playoffs.  It baffles me that an 8-3 3rd place team in the WIAC was in the playoffs while 9-1 Berry sat home.

Thank you for the opportunity to compare conferences as the Selection Committee might have.

(How many points do you give for home field advantage?)

That 3rd place team in the WIAC, (UW-Platteville) lost on the road 22-13 to the Stagg Bowl finalist, UW-Oshkosh.

They lost at home by 6 points to the WIAC champion, UW-Whitewater, which made it to the Quarterfinals.

Then they lost on the road in the first round by one point at St John's (32-31).

Your SAA co-champ WashUStL (which beat Berry) lost at UW-Oshkosh 46-13.

These comparative scores give us a good idea of the relative strengths of the various conferences.

Platteville was the right pick and in a head to head would win handily versus Berry. There's a reason the WIAC is the best conference in the country. Yes, Berry has a nice defense, but they would not be able to keep up with UWP in all phases of the game. The 4-6 UChicago team had Berry firmly on the ropes in the 4th quarter this past year.
Not belittling Berry on this one, they are clearly on the rise and could be a player on the national scene soon. But comparing WIAC to SAA is not even close. For one, the WIAC actually plays defense.

[Scots13]

Berry College has it's first All-American.  Congrats to Mamadou Soumahoro.

http://www.berryvikings.com/sports/fball/2016-17/releases/afca_all_am

Congrats to Mamadou on 1st team selection by AFCA.  Well deserved.  Can't believe he's 2nd team on D3Football.com All-American team.  Mamadou racked 1st nationally in sacks, 7th in tackles for loss, 4th in forced fumbles, tied for 2nd in fumbles recovered and had several 'strip & score' plays.  Those selected 1st team DE aren't even close to those stats. 

While I'm griping, why did 3 teams from one conference gain entry to the playoffs.  It baffles me that an 8-3 3rd place team in the WIAC was in the playoffs while 9-1 Berry sat home.

Thank you for the opportunity to compare conferences as the Selection Committee might have.

(How many points do you give for home field advantage?)

That 3rd place team in the WIAC, (UW-Platteville) lost on the road 22-13 to the Stagg Bowl finalist, UW-Oshkosh.

They lost at home by 6 points to the WIAC champion, UW-Whitewater, which made it to the Quarterfinals.

Then they lost on the road in the first round by one point at St John's (32-31).

Your SAA co-champ WashUStL (which beat Berry) lost at UW-Oshkosh 46-13.

These comparative scores give us a good idea of the relative strengths of the various conferences.

Platteville was the right pick and in a head to head would win handily versus Berry. There's a reason the WIAC is the best conference in the country. Yes, Berry has a nice defense, but they would not be able to keep up with UWP in all phases of the game. The 4-6 UChicago team had Berry firmly on the ropes in the 4th quarter this past year.
Not belittling Berry on this one, they are clearly on the rise and could be a player on the national scene soon. But comparing WIAC to SAA is not even close. For one, the WIAC actually plays defense.

We'll have to see how bad the 5th year hangover will be for Berry.  Hopefully they are much better after the first class leaves than LaGrange was.  Personally, I think they'll be ok even with graduating all that production. If they can get through this next year relatively well, they have the chance to be a perennial Top 25 team. Great location, great facilities, obvious fan support at home games.

[awadelewis]

Sewanee coach Tommy Laurendine resigned today.   This comes on the heels of an 0-10 season in 2016 and a 15-45 career record on the Mountain.

Link to press release:
http://sewaneetigers.com/sports/fball/2016-17/releases/20170206ilznhv

[jknezek]

Huh. Strange time to resign. Wonder if recruiting was not going well or he got an escape from a situation that wasn't improving.  Release sounds like the latter.

[awadelewis]

Agreed.    Made even more odd when one notes that our Board of Regents was on the Mountain up through Monday.   Of course, people accuse me of being a latent conspiracy theorist. 

Our administration likes to get as much marketing capital out of our program's history as they can without putting any real investment into the product produced by the current generation.  Result: our last wining season was in 2000.

The other thing I hear quite often is that you can't recruit players with talent into a school like Sewanee without sacrificing academic standards.  That one, I always point them at W&L, Centre, and WashU and ask why are kicking our tails in football and staying ahead us in the many academic rankings.

[jknezek]

Agreed.    Made even more odd when one notes that our Board of Regents was on the Mountain up through Monday.   Of course, people accuse me of being a latent conspiracy theorist. 

Our administration likes to get as much marketing capital out of our program's history as they can without putting any real investment into the product produced by the current generation.  Result: our last wining season was in 2000.

The other thing I hear quite often is that you can't recruit players with talent into a school like Sewanee without sacrificing academic standards.  That one, I always point them at W&L, Centre, and WashU and ask why are kicking our tails in football and staying ahead us in the many academic rankings.

I think there is a limit. For example, Wash U, CMU, and JHU are significantly larger schools. This goes back many years, but I graduated with a guy who went to JHU to play football. He was in the top 1/3 of the class of 300 seniors, but nothing really special academically. He was a pretty good football player and I know he played for at least 2 or 3 years for the Blue Jays. I knew a girl who was in the top 10% of my graduating class who was rejected from JHU the same year. Academically special, but few extra curriculars. I think it is easier to do that kind of thing at JHU, CMU, Wash U and the other 5000+ enrollment high ranking schools than W&L, Centre, Sewanee and the other non-NESCAC small elite liberal arts schools. If you do that with too many athletes, it doesn't take much to show up in a class of 300 or 400 students in a way it doesn't show up in a class of 1000.

All that said, however, Sewanee can certainly do better. There really isn't an excuse, but it probably will take some money and some grace on the admissions side.

Collegecalc.org says the average net cost of attending Centre in 2014/15 was $24,885. W&L was $20,700. And Sewanee was $25,414. Both Centre and Sewanee had sticker prices of around 45K, W&L's sticker was closer to $60K, but it didn't seem to be calculated exactly the same. Regardless, as you can see, what the kids pay, on average, is a lot less than the sticker, though Sewanee is still the highest. That might be part of the impediment.

Sewanee's numbers are in line with Rhodes, 28K net, and Berry, 24K net. However, Millsaps at 21K net and BSC at 22K net plus Hendrix, which is not in the same format, all appear less than Sewanee and more in line with W&L's net number.

I suspect money isn't the whole problem though. A pervasive losing culture simply makes it hard to recruit. I suspect the 16 years of futility has created a self-fulfilling kind of problem.

[Hawks88]

According to this tweet Ben Fox, Huntingdon's Offensive Coordinator/QB Coach, has taken the same position at Centre.

https://twitter.com/CentreFootball/status/833875309195829248

[BerryViking92]

I thought of an interesting off season topic:  ranking the quality of SAA school's foobball facilities.  I do think Berry is at the top, with Valhalla.  I have been to a game at Centre, which has a nice little stadium, but I hate the absence of a visitors "side." I would assume Hendrix has nice facilities, but again I think only seating on one side of the filed, which is just not ideal.  I would be interested to read other's opinions.

[jknezek]

I thought of an interesting off season topic:  ranking the quality of SAA school's foobball facilities.  I do think Berry is at the top, with Valhalla.  I have been to a game at Centre, which has a nice little stadium, but I hate the absence of a visitors "side." I would assume Hendrix has nice facilities, but again I think only seating on one side of the filed, which is just not ideal.  I would be interested to read other's opinions.

Let's see. Sewanee is rooted in history and a lovely stone structure. Much improved since the turf got put down. I'm quite partial to BSC since I can park my motor home behind the end zone and look down into the field. However, the stands are tiny and all on one side. The band fills half the dang stands which is a problem at Homecoming. I haven't been to Centre in probably 20 years. I liked both my visits, but as noted it is one side only. Haven't been to Berry or Hendricks. Trinity is a wreck although they might have a new stadium on the board? Millsaps is nothing special. Those narrow stands on either side I find uncomfortable. Plus I always feel like those buildings are looming over me. I went to Rhodes a very long time ago, but quite frankly remember nothing about it.

Of the ones I've been to and remember, I'll give it to Sewanee. That old stone stadium is just so different from just about everywhere else in DIII. Now that the surface is actually playable, they are just missing a team. Maybe one of these days I'll get around to Berry. Can't imagine any reason I'll get out to Hendrix.

[Ron Boerger]

No changes to the field at Trinity.   Plans have been drawn up for a replacement but funds have yet to be raised.   I've been told it's the next priority after the ongoing athletic center expansion/refurb is done (2018 or 9) but have heard something similar so many times that I have low confidence it will happen.  v

[Scots13]

BSC is nice, although that's not surprising as the entire campus is beautiful.

Berry is very nice. Probably the best bathrooms this side of the Mississippi. I can do without the track around the field. You're too far away from the action, but if you have a track team, you gotta do what you gotta do.

Berry would be Numero Uno for any small college I've been too (Hampden Sydney has a nice layout) if it wasn't a dry campus. You have to knock back a couple cold ones when it's Week 1 and 90 degrees. 

[awadelewis]

Sewanee hires Illinois Wesleyan defensive coordinator Travis Rundle as our next head coach:
http://www.sewanee.edu/newstoday/top-stories-homepage/rundle-football-coach.php

[Hawks88]

What kind of Spring game is Centre having on May 20?


https://twitter.com/CentreFootball/status/855192563086749698