FB: Southern Athletic Association

[DGPugh]

BSCPanthers
hope yall get in the playoffs

keep the faith

[jknezek]

636 miles between W&L and Huntingdon unfortunately. Birmingham Southern is listed as 559 away from W&L. Not that I think any of those 3 teams gets a home game, but it is interesting to note for the future that the expanded radius now puts the lower half of the ODAC inside the Southeastern most SAA range, Trinity, Rhodes, and Hendrix are still too far out. And the very southern part of the ODAC, Ferrum, Guilford, and soon to be Averett, are inside the southern most USASAC range.

[Ron Boerger]

636 miles between W&L and Huntingdon unfortunately. Birmingham Southern is listed as 559 away from W&L. Not that I think any of those 3 teams gets a home game, but it is interesting to note for the future that the expanded radius now puts the lower half of the ODAC inside the Southeastern most SAA range, Trinity, Rhodes, and Hendrix are still too far out. And the very southern part of the ODAC, Ferrum, Guilford, and soon to be Averett, are inside the southern most USASAC range.

The NCAA has shown a willingness in the past to give a team that doesn't deserve a home game one if it saves them flights (e.g. if the two teams would otherwise have to fly and those are the only two flights that would result). 

[Ralph Turner]

636 miles between W&L and Huntingdon unfortunately. Birmingham Southern is listed as 559 away from W&L. Not that I think any of those 3 teams gets a home game, but it is interesting to note for the future that the expanded radius now puts the lower half of the ODAC inside the Southeastern most SAA range, Trinity, Rhodes, and Hendrix are still too far out. And the very southern part of the ODAC, Ferrum, Guilford, and soon to be Averett, are inside the southern most USASAC range.

The NCAA has shown a willingness in the past to give a team that doesn't deserve a home game one if it saves them flights (e.g. if the two teams would otherwise have to fly and those are the only two flights that would result). 

I have trouble with the UMHB/ Trinity/ Huntingdon / W&L Pool A and what to do with Pool C.

If neither BSC not HSU makes it, then

1) Huntingdon can be flown somewhere.
2) TU goes to UMHB, and
3) Redlands goes to Linfield for the other orphan pairing.

If BSC makes it,
1) Huntingdon to BSC
2) Trinity to UMHB
3) Redlands to Linfield
4) HSU stays home because Wayland Baptist(NAIA) helped with scheduling but not playoffs hopes.

[justafan12]

636 miles between W&L and Huntingdon unfortunately. Birmingham Southern is listed as 559 away from W&L. Not that I think any of those 3 teams gets a home game, but it is interesting to note for the future that the expanded radius now puts the lower half of the ODAC inside the Southeastern most SAA range, Trinity, Rhodes, and Hendrix are still too far out. And the very southern part of the ODAC, Ferrum, Guilford, and soon to be Averett, are inside the southern most USASAC range.

The NCAA has shown a willingness in the past to give a team that doesn't deserve a home game one if it saves them flights (e.g. if the two teams would otherwise have to fly and those are the only two flights that would result).

NCAA will do whatever it takes to save them money at the D3 level. 

[Hawks88]

636 miles between W&L and Huntingdon unfortunately. Birmingham Southern is listed as 559 away from W&L. Not that I think any of those 3 teams gets a home game, but it is interesting to note for the future that the expanded radius now puts the lower half of the ODAC inside the Southeastern most SAA range, Trinity, Rhodes, and Hendrix are still too far out. And the very southern part of the ODAC, Ferrum, Guilford, and soon to be Averett, are inside the southern most USASAC range.

The NCAA has shown a willingness in the past to give a team that doesn't deserve a home game one if it saves them flights (e.g. if the two teams would otherwise have to fly and those are the only two flights that would result). 

I have trouble with the UMHB/ Trinity/ Huntingdon / W&L Pool A and what to do with Pool C.

If neither BSC not HSU makes it, then

1) Huntingdon can be flown somewhere.
2) TU goes to UMHB, and
3) Redlands goes to Linfield for the other orphan pairing.

If BSC makes it,
1) Huntingdon to BSC
2) Trinity to UMHB
3) Redlands to Linfield
4) HSU stays home because Wayland Baptist(NAIA) helped with scheduling but not playoffs hopes.

Remember, BSC had Arkansas Baptist(NAIA) in the same role as Wayland Baptist for HSU.
If HSU is on the board ahead of BSC and gets in while BSC doesn't,
1)HSU to Trinity
2)Huntingdon/Redlands to UMHB/Linfield

On the neither BSC or HSU making it, with the 500 mile rule being changed to 600 miles,
1) Huntingdon can be flown somewhere. Greenville or RHIT/Mt St Josephs winner can bus to Montgomery. 
2) TU goes to UMHB, and
3) Redlands goes to Linfield for the other orphan pairing.

[wally_wabash]

Saturday wasn't the best case for BSC (obviously), but it probably was the best case scenario for the SAA to put two teams in.  BSC presents as a much stronger Pool  C candidate than Trinity so the league's AQ went to the team that probably needed it most. 

We'll wait and see how the rankings look, but BSC seems likely to have two results against ranked opponents this week (Trinity and Centre...I think Centre stays in).  If Berry beats Centre on Saturday, Berry could get ranked in the final rankings or clear the deck for Huntingdon to get in there.  BSC could end up with 3 (or four if somehow Huntingdon and Berry squeeze into the final rankings...might take a Hampden-Sydney win to get there), two of them wins, one a single point loss to who I assume will be the #2 team in the region.  Could certainly see BSC ranked ahead of HSU in the Region 3 pecking order. 

[Ralph Turner]

I want the SAA representative to be sent to UMHB. The rest of the South "never" plays the ASC rep. The only time I can find an ASC-SCAC/SAA South Region (non-Huntingdon/non-Wesley/non-Texas Lutheran) matchup in the previous 10 post-seasons is the 2018 2nd round game, UMHB versus Berry, 75-9. Before that you have to go back to 2011 when McMurry was sent to Trinity and beat them, 25-16.

[jknezek]

Regional Rankings are out...B-SC sits ahead of Hardin-Simmons. That makes for a big boost to B-SC's playoff hopes assuming nothing changes in the "secret rankings" next weekend.

[Ron Boerger]

Good news for BSC, less so for Trinity who likely end up at UMHB next week.

But a 1-1 vRRO and less than .500 SOS is going to be very hard to pick over the other regional reps. 

[BSCpanthers]

Still have business to take care of this weekend.  Don't need to stumble in Millsaps and mess this up.  Sorry Millsaps, need a big win against you and think the boys will be bringing the whipping stick with them.

[Ralph Turner]

The way this is playing out over on the Bracketology board, I expect TU to go to UMHB.

For the sake of Region 3, I want the bracket to have BSC-vs whomever (Huntingdon?) playing the UMHB-TU winner in the 2nd round.

[SW1]

The way this is playing out over on the Bracketology board, I expect TU to go to UMHB.

For the sake of Region 3, I want the bracket to have BSC-vs whomever (Huntingdon?) playing the UMHB-TU winner in the 2nd round.

If BSC were to make it in and played a Huntingdon and TU had to play MHB in fist round games then that shows how location plays way to much of a factor for D3 games. TU won their conference and get a worse draw by being closer to a top seed while a runner up got a much more winnable game. I do understand the D3 rules of travel but 1 or 2 flights extra flights a year should be factored into that budget because that is a terrible way to run a tournament.

[jknezek]

The way this is playing out over on the Bracketology board, I expect TU to go to UMHB.

For the sake of Region 3, I want the bracket to have BSC-vs whomever (Huntingdon?) playing the UMHB-TU winner in the 2nd round.

If BSC were to make it in and played a Huntingdon and TU had to play MHB in fist round games then that shows how location plays way to much of a factor for D3 games. TU won their conference and get a worse draw by being closer to a top seed while a runner up got a much more winnable game. I do understand the D3 rules of travel but 1 or 2 flights extra flights a year should be factored into that budget because that is a terrible way to run a tournament.

Wishful thinking when each flight game can cost between $250,000 and $500,000. Moving a football team is expensive. 100 seat private jets cost $10-20k per flight hour. We all wish money was no factor, but it always has been and this is a cross the island teams have always, and I suspect will always, bear.

All of us recognize it isn't fair, but it is the same across all sports in D3. The committees are charged with minimizing flights in the first round. Thankfully that charge is not for the whole tournament.

[Ron Boerger]

The way this is playing out over on the Bracketology board, I expect TU to go to UMHB.

For the sake of Region 3, I want the bracket to have BSC-vs whomever (Huntingdon?) playing the UMHB-TU winner in the 2nd round.

If BSC were to make it in and played a Huntingdon and TU had to play MHB in fist round games then that shows how location plays way to much of a factor for D3 games. TU won their conference and get a worse draw by being closer to a top seed while a runner up got a much more winnable game. I do understand the D3 rules of travel but 1 or 2 flights extra flights a year should be factored into that budget because that is a terrible way to run a tournament.

Welcome to the wonderful world of NCAA Division III playoff matchups.  Teams on the edge are almost always impacted like this.  When you only get 3.18% of the NCAA's spending to spread among all the playoff teams in all sports (and for all the other expenses associated with running the NCAA's largest division) it's pretty hard to find the money for fairness.   That's one reason football only gets 32 teams when it has the numbers for a few more (1 playoff bid for every 7.8 teams; I think the NCAA's "desired" ratio is 1 for every 6.5), plus adding more teams would require another week of playoffs which would push the championship dangerously close to Christmas.