FB: Southern Athletic Association

[jknezek]

wow, not a good day for centre college. Very fishy story with the 250M gift.

The stories I'm seeing this morning in the higher ed-related blogs imply that Centre's staff jumped the gun in announcing the gift.   Lot's of "he said/they said" recriminations are on-going between the donor and school at the moment.

Since I work in finance and occassionally deal with these types of issues on a smaller scale I will say that the arrangement was not that unusual. Generally it is prudent not to announce until the underlying transaction is complete, but it looks like the school knew the deal was contingent upon a stock transaction based on a refinancing.

It's pretty rare that the transaction doesn't go through once it gets to the advanced stages, so Centre was probably going to be OK announcing, but since it isn't guaranteed until the stock is gifted and sold, or retained in the endowment (something I'm sure the schoool wasn't planning to do, at least not for the whole amount), it would have been prudent not to announce the gift.

The announcement was actually part of the problem, as the refinancing was contingent upon a credit rating from what I understand. Again, nothing unusual, but since the credit agencies learned the stock was going to be gifted, and most likely sold, driving down the market value of the firm, the credit rating sagged, leading to a sticking point in the refinancing and blowing up the transaction.

Since the trust that announced the gift has given to Centre in the past, it would not be unprecedented to rework this deal in the future. Either way, highly embarrassing to all sides.

[Ralph Turner]

Thanks jknezek for the "insider" explanation of what you think is going on.

[jknezek]

Best article I've found so far on Centre's lost money. The article is not really explaining the mechanics of it all, but at least touching upon how something like this could fall apart without it being the true "fault" of one or a couple people:

http://chronicle.com/blogs/bottomline/250-million-gift-to-centre-college-is-withdrawn/

[Shoreman]

Week 2 Pick 'em

LaGrange       Millsaps       Majors make it 2 straight
      
Rhodes       Washington (Mo.)    Wash U wins  in an early preview to their joining SAA next season.   
      
Hendrix       Birmingham Southern   Magic runs out for Hendrix, BSC wins big.

      
Sewanee       Willamette   Tigers with cross country road win


      
Centre       Rose-Hulman       The Engineers will try to White Out the Colonels, Colonels prevail on road
   

[jknezek]

Can anyone tell me is Hendrix that good? I didn't go over to the game today figuring a first year program would get it handed to them by a good B-SC team. Instead, it seems like Hendrix didn't let anything go for the second straight week. Really wondering how a first year program is that good or if it is just fluky. Not sure what to make of B-SC after this. They killed a LaGrange team that hung tough with Millsaps, but couldn't put away a first year program at home?

And hats off to Sewanee. Two years in a row they have pushed Willamette to the wire. A Willamette team that absolutely sand-blasted an ASC team expected to be pretty decent.

[roocru]

Can anyone tell me is Hendrix that good? I didn't go over to the game today figuring a first year program would get it handed to them by a good B-SC team. Instead, it seems like Hendrix didn't let anything go for the second straight week. Really wondering how a first year program is that good or if it is just fluky. Not sure what to make of B-SC after this. They killed a LaGrange team that hung tough with Millsaps, but couldn't put away a first year program at home?

And hats off to Sewanee. Two years in a row they have pushed Willamette to the wire. A Willamette team that absolutely sand-blasted an ASC team expected to be pretty decent.

Time will tell, but Buck Buchanan, the new head coach at Hendrix is probably part of the reason.  Great guy, enthusiastic, knows about D3 from previous coaching experience, and good recruiter.  A fellow Austin College alumni!

[awadelewis]

And hats off to Sewanee. Two years in a row they have pushed Willamette to the wire. A Willamette team that absolutely sand-blasted an ASC team expected to be pretty decent.

Def. had a since of deja vu while watching the game as it went almost the same as last year's contest on the Mountain.   Was impressed by the play of Willamette's QB; the young man had a bunch of really nice plays throughout the game.  We're going to have to do some work in practice this week to work on fixing some of the silly mistakes our guys made during the game. That series of three straight penalties on that 4th down play late in the game that killed our last drive was painful to watch.

[awadelewis]

Not sure what to make of B-SC after this. They killed a LaGrange team that hung tough with Millsaps, but couldn't put away a first year program at home?

B-SC has always been odd that way.  I'm thinking there's a coaching issue somewhere as I expected them to thunk us last year when Sewanee ended up beating them at home.  They always seem to have have one game a season I look at and ask myself "What?".

I'll second roocru about Hendrix making a good hire with Coach Buchanan.  A lot of what you're seeing is signs of good coaching.   Should be a fun game in Conway next week with Southwestern coming into town and will be interesting to see what happens the following week when they have to go down to Jackson to take on Millsaps.

[Shoreman]

SAA Action this week, predictions anyone?

   Point University (Ga.)  @  Millsaps       Majors win big.
      
     Maryville (Tenn.)  @   Sewanee               Tigers revenge last years loss to Maryville on Mountain.
      
     Washington and Lee  @   Centre       Centre wins at home

      
     Berry @   Mercer                                    Mercer has mopped up on some NAIA teams, Berry on a JV team. I'll take Mercer at home

      
     Birmingham Southern @ Stetson       BSC should win against D1AA newcomer.    
      
     Rhodes       Claremont-M-S       Lynx win on long road trip.

Say what you want about the SAA, their kids get to take some pretty interesting road trips on a D3 schedule. Great experience.

[Ron Boerger]

We have a new Around the South columnist - welcome to Andee Djuric - and Hendrix is the feature story this week.

(I had something else posted here but it was pretty stupid so removed it)

[Shoreman]

Sewanee-Maryville Game Notes

http://static.psbin.com/e/s/dcgw27fc5y4ypg/Game_Notes_Maryville.pdf

[awadelewis]

Looks like we'll get to see just how well the new turf works on the field at Sewanee as a huge storm front is currently passing over the Mountain.   Tho' the forecast is for the weather to be clearing out by game time.    Does look like the weather may be really sloppy for both the Berry and Centre games.

[jknezek]

Looks like we'll get to see just how well the new turf works on the field at Sewanee as a huge storm front is currently passing over the Mountain.   Tho' the forecast is for the weather to be clearing out by game time.    Does look like the weather may be really sloppy for both the Berry and Centre games.

Yeah. That goes for most of the south east I think. Looks pretty nasty for Huntingdon and La Col. Still trying to decide if it is worth going.

[Shoreman]

Sewanee Tigers w 10-0 lead in first quarter. Run game is working very well. Looks like the fog is rolling in on the live video!

[Shoreman]

Sewanee up 16-7 with 10:00 to go in second.