FB: Southern Athletic Association

[Pat Coleman]

We find ourselves heading towards a new academic year and start of a new season and I'm looking forward to getting back into football.

On the Mountain, we're looking forward to having a new coach bringing an attitude towards the game into the program that I've not seen for a long time on the Mountain.  Coach McCollum has brought in a group of young coaches onto his staff who had been either assistant coaches or graduate assistants at FBS and FCS schools around the region.    And those folk have been out recruiting over the past few months.     Most enthusiasm I've seen around the program in years.

That's obviously his background and I can see why he is surrounding himself with other people with similar backgrounds, but generally (highly generalizing here) people without D-III backgrounds don't stick around as long or have as much success. There's a learning curve at D-III and probably even more so as a high academic such as Sewanee.

[awadelewis]

We find ourselves heading towards a new academic year and start of a new season and I'm looking forward to getting back into football.

On the Mountain, we're looking forward to having a new coach bringing an attitude towards the game into the program that I've not seen for a long time on the Mountain.  Coach McCollum has brought in a group of young coaches onto his staff who had been either assistant coaches or graduate assistants at FBS and FCS schools around the region.    And those folk have been out recruiting over the past few months.     Most enthusiasm I've seen around the program in years.

That's obviously his background and I can see why he is surrounding himself with other people with similar backgrounds, but generally (highly generalizing here) people without D-III backgrounds don't stick around as long or have as much success. There's a learning curve at D-III and probably even more so as a high academic such as Sewanee.

How well Coach McCollum and his staff adapt to the difference between the divisions is one of things we will be watching during the season.  Coach and his lead assistants were guests late in the school year on the podcast our SID does each week and this topic came up during the Q&A with the audience.   My take from that discussion is that Coach McCollum gets it and is looking forward to working with kids wanting to play the game vs. the entitlement culture that has become the hallmark of FBS football over the years.   

[Ron Boerger]

Another BSC update courtesy of AL.com, "Birmingham-Southern College president tells United Methodists: 'It's been a tough year'".  Highlights:

• The school is looking for "$40 million to bridge" operations, meaning they are still trying to scrape up $10M from city, county, and any other rock where grants might be hiding.  That assumes they reach an acceptable deal with the state for the entire $30M loan allowed under the bill recently passed.
• The campaign is still sitting at $46M but hopes to reach $75M by October when the public phase will be announced.
• The school received 3300 applications but news about the school's financial plight "dampened enrollment."
• 10% of the current student body left.
• Fall enrollment is expected to be 750-775; the school hopes it will eventually increase to 1200-1500.  A Dec. 2022 AL.com article put last year's enrollment at 1058.
• The endowment now sits at $20-$25M (down from $48M in 2012) but debt has also been reduced from $68M to $27M in the same timeframe.

I don't understand why they're still not in the public phase of fundraising, but I do know from experience that many schools try to get a big lump of initial pledges/donations before they go public to seek the rest.  The difference here is that, let's face it, anyone who follows the school already knows the situation is dire and that funds are badly needed, which (again, in my experience) is not often the case.  It may be that they want to be sure the $40M for continuing operations are in hand first. 

FWIW:  there were 137 on the B-SC football roster last season.  If the same percentage of student body participates as last year, that number would be reduced to around 100. 

[BSCpanthers]

You always have attrition from the freshman class moving up to sophomores, this year will be no different.  I know we had some production transfer out once the news came out about the school possibly not continuing, and we had an injury on the OL that will surely hurt our depth there.  But we have had some DII and NAIA players come in from the transfer portal as well.  Of course it all comes down to who shows up in August.  Recruiting was almost impossible until the news came out, but since then the coaches have been working hard. 

The current players are excited about the potential for this coming season, and hopefully the school makes a dramatic change soon concerning all of financial and enrollment worries. 

[Ron Boerger]

Local station WVTM broadcast an interview with B-SC's new HC, Anthony Colucci.   Not a whole lot there, to be honest.

[BSCpanthers]

Local station WVTM broadcast an interview with B-SC's new HC, Anthony Colucci.   Not a whole lot there, to be honest.

As a football program in Birmingham, AL, we are just happy to get any media recognition.  Not that it changes support much.  We do fill our little stadium every Saturday, outside all of the financial mess, I'd love to see it expanded. 

[albatross]

Feeling pretty good about the direction of Hendrix these days, given all the uncertainty surrounding small liberal arts colleges lately. Hendrix recently completed a $150 million fundraising campaign a year ahead of schedule (after surpassing an original goal ahead of schedule the year before). Add that to the largest incoming class in 7 years after 3 straight years of growth and I feel like I can breathe a little easier. The newly announced incoming president comes from MTSU and Tulsa and is the parent of student-athlete at a liberal arts college, so I think this new era will continue that healthy respect for athletics, too (I hope).

[albatross]

I'm interested in seeing if Southwestern regains the competitiveness it had developed before it headed to the Wild Wild West of the ASC...

Have any renderings been released for the new on-campus stadium complex in Georgetown?

[ADL70]

I live in Georgetown and I haven't seen any.

[Ron Boerger]

If early returns are any indication, B-SC has not lost many of last year's players to concerns over the future of the school.  They have been gradually adding to the 2023 roster in numerical order the last couple of days and are up to jersey 44 - 47 players so far (lots of duplicate numbers until you get above 20) and that's with only returnees - no first years yet. 

https://bscsports.net/sports/football/roster?view=2

[BSCpanthers]

If early returns are any indication, B-SC has not lost many of last year's players to concerns over the future of the school.  They have been gradually adding to the 2023 roster in numerical order the last couple of days and are up to jersey 44 - 47 players so far (lots of duplicate numbers until you get above 20) and that's with only returnees - no first years yet. 

https://bscsports.net/sports/football/roster?view=2

We know we lost a few, but we do have a lot returning as well as transfers coming in.  Expectations are as high as usual on the Hill Top!!!

[Ron Boerger]

If early returns are any indication, B-SC has not lost many of last year's players to concerns over the future of the school.  They have been gradually adding to the 2023 roster in numerical order the last couple of days and are up to jersey 44 - 47 players so far (lots of duplicate numbers until you get above 20) and that's with only returnees - no first years yet. 

https://bscsports.net/sports/football/roster?view=2

We know we lost a few, but we do have a lot returning as well as transfers coming in.  Expectations are as high as usual on the Hill Top!!!

What appears to be a full roster with the incoming class is now live (at least there are numbers from 0-99) and the total roster as of today numbers 106:
- 32 Fr, 30 Soph, 21 Jr, 23 Sr
- 22 DB, 19 DL, 3 K, 13 LB, 15 OL, 6 QB, 6 RB, 4 TE, 18 WR

Last year's roster:  55 Fr, 28 Soph, 25 Jr, 24 Sr, 4 5th yr (136 total) so losses came primarily from last year's freshman class - not that unusual - and possibly some combination of last year's juniors and those seniors who opted not to return for a fifth season

[FLALTX]

That's good to hear. Birmingham Southern being good is good for the SAA as a whole. I do have to wonder about their running back depth. John Lewis is going to be hard to replace.

[BSCpanthers]

That's good to hear. Birmingham Southern being good is good for the SAA as a whole. I do have to wonder about their running back depth. John Lewis is going to be hard to replace.

Nearly all of our RB production transferred out with Lewis and Grayson Stacey leaving.  However, we do have a couple RB's transferring in that should be able to fill those spots.  Replacing Jon Lewis is nearly impossible, but we should be fine.

[Ralph Turner]

That's good to hear. Birmingham Southern being good is good for the SAA as a whole. I do have to wonder about their running back depth. John Lewis is going to be hard to replace.

Welcome FLALTX  (Just contemplating ... FLorida ALabama TeXas?)