SCAC (Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference) 2010

[SULaxCoach]

Southwestern went 1-2 in their tourney on Oct. 25th. Beating Sam Houston and losing good games to UT and Texas State. Good showing for a team made up of mostly freshmen.

Pics: http://photos.anglin.com/Sports/Lacross ... 1427_ERFRb

[gopherlaxer]

just wondering if anyone thinks any of the scac teams will come close to colorado college. last year none of the 3 came within 15 goals

[UnConquered]

maybe. we'll probably have to wait and see to know for sure though. i would hope that the recruiting in the SCAC has gotten better so the competition would be getting tighter.

[BTDT]

Just some random thoughts:

CC will likely be the the class of the SCAC in 2010. BSC & Sewanee may play with them...for a while at least based on the success to date of those programs. Hendrix has been in operations for a few years now, but have not seen them get a win since inception. Mostly players from 2nd tier HS programs in Texas but may turn around with experience. Southwestern...who knows what they have in 2010, but going forward they do have a HUGE state/talent pool to recruit from. One would anticipate a challenging year for the newbies.

Recruiting will be paramount for the SCAC to get any respect-other than CC- in the near term. These schools have a lot to offer academically and a ton of potential to develop meaningful programs.For all the new programs coming on line they need the best "local" talent they can get and a few high lax I.Q. "Yankee" kids who want to have a tan in December! Coaches who look for good/great athletes who are currently marginal players can only take a team so far. You never know if they will turn into good/great players exclusive of how good the coaching. More a luxury for an established program than a beginning one. Yea, like it is a perfect world. The top half of the SCAC will be competitive in a few years is my humble guess.

Speaking of recruiting, anyone have info on commitments or leanings of players to any of the SCAC schools?

[TexasLaxin]

In my research of DIII schools with NCAA Lacrosse programs, I found many, if not most, were Liberal Arts schools. That being said there is not a whole lot of difference between Southwestern in Texas and some East Coast school. For Texas, that is very good news. Yes, Texas does have a few quality players that get the attention of D1 and D2 teams that have scholarship money. But truthfully, many of the talented HS players in Texas never get "seen" and therefore end up playing D3 or even club ball in college. What Southwestern will offer for Texas HS players is an opportunity to play NCAA Lacrosse without going far from home. DIII Lacrosse is littered with teams that are made up of "local" or close talent. Many of those programs are mediocre at best. The thing that will set Southwestern apart is that they will be pulling from the entire state with little to no competition from other schools for the same players. There are a few, not a lot, freshman players that will be on the Southwestern roster this season that could have easily gone and played for a DIII team on the East Coast. Some may even have been quality enough to play for an average to better than average DIII team. Going to Southwestern will give them the same opportunity while staying close to home. In time, as Texas HS players begin to develop into even better players, Southwestern will benefit greatly. I know I am going to enjoy watching some DIII Lacrosse this season.

[laxxfan2]

you think bsc and sewanee will play with cc based on their success? i dont see much success against cc, as they both lost by about 20 last year

[UnConquered]

that is true. but everything at this point is speculation. hopefully the SCAC will get tougher than last year.

[oaksw12]

you think bsc and sewanee will play with cc based on their success? i dont see much success against cc, as they both lost by about 20 last year

BSC will have a better time against CC this year. They have D1 facilities and easier admissions requirements than most SCAC schools, and their roster last year was made up of freshmen. In fact every single player was a freshman except for one sophomore.

I'm not sure they'll come close, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them within 5-10 goals of CC.

[bsclax]

you think bsc and sewanee will play with cc based on their success? i dont see much success against cc, as they both lost by about 20 last year

BSC will have a better time against CC this year. They have D1 facilities and easier admissions requirements than most SCAC schools, and their roster last year was made up of freshmen. In fact every single player was a freshman except for one sophomore.

I'm not sure they'll come close, but I wouldn't be surprised to see them within 5-10 goals of CC.

Of course, BSC lost to Sewanee at home last season, so one could argue that Sewanee is more likely to challenge CC (which just demonstrates the futility of team match-up comparisons).

I attended the BSC-CC last season (photo below) and it was clear that CC is a very deep, talented team and has a solid program, even with the recent coaching change. So, it's unrealistic to expect the new SCAC lax teams to be very competitive with CC at this point in their development (especially if they have to play at altitude in Colorado Springs).

Hopefully, if the newer teams continue to improve, gain experience against good teams, and bring in some talented recruits, the balance of power in the SCAC will begin to shift. But for a the next few seasons at least you would have to expect that CC will remain the standard in the SCAC for the other programs to measure themselves against.

[TexasLaxin]

I think the SCAC teams will maintain an upward swing in improvement. I think it might also be more than other conferences. I do not have any facts to back up these predictions. It is just a gut feeling. Will BSC hang with the likes of Roanoke or Salisbury in the next few years? Probably not. As there are new D3 teams coming on board every year the talent pool is going to get spread out thinner, and some of the talented players may decide to stay close to home and be "local heros" rather than go to school on the East Coast.

[Power]

It's great to see the expansion of the SCAC and the automatic qualifier in 2011. It looks like 8 teams will have NCAA sanctioned programs next year and there are 12 Colleges/Universities in the conference. Is there any word on the other 4 institutions starting a men's lacrosse program? The SCAC has the potential to be a very strong conference in a few years. I look forward to following all of the teams this spring.

[UnConquered]

i'm looking forward to seeing what the first and second team all conference team will look like this year.

[laxxfan2]

my guess is all of CC's starters and some of their backups.