In the course of a little over 12 months, the SCAC has lost Rose-Hulman and gained Austin College and Colorado College. This doesn’t represent much of a change in basketball terms, but then again, this process probably isn’t done yet. The conference probably isn’t done at 11 schools.
Although the conference hasn’t said whether it will play basketball in divisions, here’s the breakdown that would seem to make the most sense.
East Division
Centre: Danville, Ky.
DePauw: Greencastle, Ind.
Hendrix: Conway, Ark.
Oglethorpe: Atlanta
Rhodes: Memphis
Sewanee: Sewanee, Tenn.
West Division
Austin: Sherman, Texas
Colorado College: Colorado Springs
Millsaps: Jackson, Miss.
Southwestern: Georgetown, Texas
Trinity (Texas): San Antonio
That West Division is a team short. Many options have been debated, but the perfect 12th school might be someone nobody (well, except for Pat Cummings, who first brought it to my attention) is talking about: Nebraska Wesleyan. This is Colorado College’s travel partner. Lincoln, Neb., and Colorado College are a little over eight hours apart by car. They wouldn’t be particularly close but they wouldn’t be as far apart as, say, Case Western Reserve (Cleveland) and Emory (Atlanta) in the UAA.
Is this conference better? No, probably not. But it’s siginificantly more interesting, especially if it can rescue Nebraska Wesleyan from NAIA/NCAA dual membership.
Nebraska Wesleyan would seem to be a logical choice from the perspective of the SCAC, especially since the school has a Phi Beta Kappa chapter. And of course it would make sense for NebWes as well (provided that the school is willing to fund all that plane travel), inasmuch as it would mean that the Prairie Wolves would no longer have to compete against NAIA schools in the GPAC.
But is the SCAC as currently constituted going to remain at eleven members? I think that that’s the question that needs to be asked before the league tries to add a twelfth member. The departure of Rose-Hulman makes DePauw even more of a geographical anomaly than it already was in this league. Of course, Colorado College is now the league’s most obvious geographical anomaly, but that’s different. Because it’s located in the midst of several D3 conferences, DePauw has choices in terms of conference affiliation; Colorado College really doesn’t.
Neb Wes may be an interesing candidate, but I see two significant details that make Neb Wes problematic.
Neb Wes does not have a Phi Beta Kappa Chapter. Only Oglethorpe of the current 11 doesn’t have a chapter.
http://www.pbk.org/affiliate/chapterdir.htm
Secondly, the Neb Wes endowment is especially small, only $32.9 Million according to NACUBO 2004 numbers.
http://www.nacubo.org/documents/research/FY04NESInstitutionsbyTotalAssetsforPress.pdf
If Phi Beta Kappa chapters is a proxy for “Mission and Vision”, then the University of Dallas is still sitting by the phone, awaiting the call for 5 years now. UDallas failed in its attempt to add club football 3 years ago, as a springboard to something more substantial.
It looks like #12 is still to be determined.
If the SCAC goes to divisional play, I would expect Rhodes and Millsaps to be in the same division. My old friend “Memphis” reminds me that there is something of a rivalry there. Perhaps Hendrix takes the Majors’ place in the west.
I have been anticipating the departure of DePauw from the SCAC ever since Rose left. I wonder what the holdup is; maybe, for some reason, none of the MW/GL conferences want the Dannies? They’re a fairly good fit for the NCAC, provided that there is a suitable 12th team that can join with them–perhaps one of the nine HCAC teams?
Rhodes and Hendrix are currently travel partners in basketball as are Oglethorpe/Millsaps and Sewanee/Centre.
I assume that Colorado College and Austin College will be partners. DePauw is off in the wilderness.
If the Scac goes to divisions, will the tourney be just the two division winners instead of all but two teams?
Also what are Sewanee’s chances next year to compete for the title?
I believe the plan for travel partners for next season with AC and no Colorado College yet was this:
TU/SU
Depauw/Centre
Oglethorpe/Sewanee
Rhodes/Millsaps
Hendrix/AC
Once Colorado College and TBA get announced then if could mix things up again. I would be surprised if Depauw leaves. Unlike Rose, they have been very firmly committed to the SCAC since they joined. The Rose departure was talked about almost as soon as they got in.
The loss of RHIT (not to mention the odd number of teams) throws the travel partnership out of whack. DePauw may be off in the wilderness (considering it’s Indiana, perhaps “milderness?”), but it’s not really that far from Centre (243 miles, per Yahoo.) Pairing them up would allow the more natural travel pairing of Oglethorpe/U of the South (167 miles.) I’d also pair Rhodes with Millsaps (209) and Trinity with Southwestern (106), and then draw straws to see which outlier (CC, 704 miles, or Hendrix, 339 miles) travels with Austin.
Just some fun with maps.
For the record, I was typing my note when Carl posted his travel pairings. 🙂
Counselor (dcollinge), we know of your veracity, your proclivity to outstanding research and your high moral character. (Diehardfan would not associate with a reprobate. 🙂 ) We believe you!
Carl, you are well connected. Whom do you see as being on the “short” list as the 12th for the SCAC?
I think that CC makes a great addition to the SCAC.
I missed it – where is Rose Hulman moving to???? HCAC, OAC or NCAC???
RHIT to HCAC
Football doesn’t usually maintain conference members in different evaluation regions.
However, the West Region needs opponents due to geographic isolation. As I look at the Colorado College schedules, only McMurry (’03,’04) Huntingdon (’04-’06), Wash StL (’99-’01) and CMU (’05) (among non-SCAC South Region opponents) have played CC.
Please contribute your opinions as to whether Colorado College will be moved to the South Evaluation Region, or left in the West.
Obviously the Univ. of Dallas has to be considered. Would twist travel partners around. I have also over the years heard rumors of one or two Minnesota schools. Not sure where that would go but unlikely at best. Neb. Wesleyan would surprise me. My guess is the University of Dallas will be announced as the 12th SCAC team.
Not so concerned with Colorado College’s region status in football.
Also, Brown assistant coach Andy Partee was named the new men’s basketball coach at Colorado College.
UDallas is, of course, a natural travel partner with Austin. With Southwestern and Trinity also an unbreakable pairing, that means that Colorado College’s travel partner would have to be someone not only far away (duh) but actually farther away than their nearer Texas-based confederates. So since there are reasonable travel partnerships between DPU/CC, OU/UotS, and RC/MC, I’d guess that CC would end up paired with Hendrix, as odd as that seems.
As for football, well, I confess that I don’t even know which of these teams play football and which (if any) don’t. 🙂
That’s strange. I saw no fewer than two references to Phi Beta Kappa on the NebWes website. One was on a roommate survey sheet, and I can’t remember where the other one was.
Thanks, Carl for responding to my requests in #9 and #12! Thanks also David!
Other comments still invited!
Gregory…any pontifications? 🙂
Ralph, I only speak *ex cathedra* in Posting Up rooms where I have yet to make an error. It has thus been reduced to a couple of very quiet rooms. 🙂
Given precedence, I am pretty sure that the football and women’s basketball committees will leave CC in the West. Men’s basketball has not put DePauw in its logical home so I am not sure they will do so with CC either. They might put CC in the South.
With the new Geographic Region amendment from the Championships Committee, moving CC to the South Basketball Region would open up the teams in the South, especially the ODAC, the USAC and GSAC.
Colorado College now picks up UDallas as a Region #4 opponent.
The big winner that I see in this part of the country is UDallas. Since they left the ASC, they have had but one competitive season, 2004. Now they can play all of the SLIAC teams as “in-region”.
They have been more competitive with the SLIAC than any other conference in recent years.