FB: Southern Athletic Association

[Ralph Turner]

Congrats TUTx.  Trinity 38 Berry 35 in OT.

Trinity has come a long way this season.

Centre at Berry next week.
What are the tie-breakers in the SAA?

[tigerguy]

I was really questioning the decision to kick it on 3rd and 1 but glad he did. Love the confidence Urban has in the kicking game now. Recall - last year at St. John's at end of game, Urban chose to run in with qb rather than kick a game winner, and it cost us the game. Having a kicker we can trust is such a weapon at the D3 level.

[Ron Boerger]

Congrats TUTx.  Trinity 38 Berry 35 in OT.

Trinity has come a long way this season.

Centre at Berry next week.
What are the tie-breakers in the SAA?

From the SAA Operations Manual, page 30:

2. In the case of two or more teams tying for the conference championship, each team will be
declared a co-champion and receive a trophy. To determine the representative to NCAA
postseason competition and the recipient of the conference's automatic bid, the following criteria
will be used as a tie-breaker:

A. Two teams – head-to-head result from conference game played.

B. Three teams – Using the following point system: (Normal Fall tiebreaker)
● Each team will be awarded two points for each victory against other conference co-champions.
● Each team is awarded one point for each victory over other conference teams not sharing the championship.
● In the event that both parts of Section B are applied and two teams are still tied, the formula will revert back to Section A.

C. If Sections A and B cannot break the tie and there are still three teams tied, then the team or teams with the fewest losses will be declared as the recipient of the conference's automatic bid to the NCAAs. If two teams have the equal number of losses, Section A is applied.

D. If there are still three teams tied with the same number of losses, then the percentage of each team's opponents' total overall record will be used.

E. The team whose opponents have the higher win/loss percentage will receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAAs.

F. If [only] two teams remain [at any point] throughout any of these tie-breaking procedures. Section A is applied.

[Ron Boerger]

If Berry beats Centre and the teams win their remaining games, they would all be 8-2, so it would go to the OWP.  Obviously if Centre wins they hold all the cards.

[Ron Boerger]

And Berry, with DePauw and Randolph-Macon on their schedule, have the OWP advantage.

[Cowboy2]

We just have to win each week and let the cards fall where they lay.

Love the tenacity of the young Tigers today and the resiliency to finish the game amongst a top 25 program. Brandon Cade did his part, but our Black Flag defense and Ryan Beck and Co. had their say to give our AA Kicker a chance to solidify greatness this afternoon.

I lost my voice cheeering lol.


Good job Trinity.

[Ralph Turner]

We just have to win each week and let the cards fall where they lay.

Love the tenacity of the young Tigers today and the resiliency to finish the game amongst a top 25 program. Brandon Cade did his part, but our Black Flag defense and Ryan Beck and Co. had their say to give our AA Kicker a chance to solidify greatness this afternoon.

I lost my voice cheering lol.


Good job Trinity.

I liked the 57-yd FG attempt at the end of the 4th Q.

[tigerguy]

We just have to win each week and let the cards fall where they lay.

Love the tenacity of the young Tigers today and the resiliency to finish the game amongst a top 25 program. Brandon Cade did his part, but our Black Flag defense and Ryan Beck and Co. had their say to give our AA Kicker a chance to solidify greatness this afternoon.

I lost my voice cheering lol.


Good job Trinity.

I liked the 57-yd FG attempt at the end of the 4th Q.

Looked like it had the distance and then some. Hope he gets another chance to break the Trinity record.

[tigerguy]

If Berry beats Centre and the remaining games play out as Hanson ratings predicts, Berry likely get the tiebreaker for opponent win%, which will be a gut punch. I don't think it will end up mattering, but does SAA include non-D3 opponents in calculating winning percentage? I believe at least one of Centre's opponents played non-D3, but those results likely won't change anything.

I was surprised to see Berry still getting votes in the latest top 25 poll. Their only good win this year is at Randolph-Macon, who was fantastic last year but has been ho-hum this year, although it is indeed 7-1. Berry's 30-0 loss at home to DePauw is a pretty major blemish. SAA just not as top-tier this year unfortunately.

[Pat Coleman]

Randolph-Macon is getting votes, so it's not impossible for a team that beat them to get six votes out of 8,125.

[Ron Boerger]

Millsaps also only has one SAA loss and has both Berry and Trinity left to play.  They could get into this equation.

[wally_wabash]

Millsaps is playing pretty good ball.  Brandon Lechtenberg is doing a heck of a job there in year 1. 

[tigerguy]

Was shocked to see that Hansen had a predicted bracket containing Trinity: https://x.com/LogHanRatings/status/1851700278262681666

His Bracket actually projected three SAA teams: Berry, Centre, and Trinity, because his model projects them to all have at least a 67% chance of being in the top 40 teams to qualify under the new standard. The major caveat is that he does not believe that the SAA will actually end up having three teams. I assumed there was no chance Trinity would have any shot at the playoffs based on current NPI, but I guess theirs is projected to go up so long as they win out. Based on where the NPIs currently are, however, I also assume that if any second team would make it, it will be Centre, not Trinity.

But, one can dream...

[Ron Boerger]

A lot of things can happen in this new strange world of NPI where things can change so dramatically week to week.  The guys just need to win out and hope for a little help along the way.

[tigerguy]

Ryan Back had a very bad habit of trying to evade pressure rather than either stepping up in the pocket or merely taking a sack. He has lost like 30yards on 3 sacks today.