How does McMurry's exit affect crosstown rival and ASC member Hardin-Simmons?
In addition to McMurry University, three other football-playing members of the American Southwest Conference will be leaving to join another Division III athletic conference.
McMurry announced Tuesday afternoon that it would join the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference in all sports beginning the fall of 2024.
More:McMurry leaving ASC for Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference
Other schools named in the new 10-school league are Austin College, Southwestern and Texas Lutheran. All three currently are ASC members, along with the two Abilene schools - McMurry and Hardin-Simmons.
That will reduce membership to HSU, East Texas Baptist, Howard Payne, Mary Hardin-Baylor and Sul Ross in football.
The ASC brags having two of the best teams in Division III football, with Mary Hardin-Baylor the defending national champion and currently ranked by d3football.com at No. 3, and HSU ranked No. 8, losing only to UMHB this season and in 2021.
Before its loss to HSU last weekend, Howard Payne at 6-1 was receiving top-25 votes.
SCAC member Trinity is 8-0 and No. 6.
Concordia Texas, LeTourneau, UT-Dallas and University of the Ozarks competed in other ASC sports during the 2021-22 athletic year.
Belhaven, located in Mississippi, recently left the ASC to join the Division III USA South Athletic Conference, while UT-Tyler moved to NCAA Division II and is a member of the Lone Star Conference.
In 2020, Louisiana College left the ASC for the Red River Athletic Conference.
Thus, change in the conference has been dealt with before, said John Neese, athletic director at HSU for 24 years.
"We're going to have to sit down and see what that looks like," he said of a conference that, currently, would have only five teams competing in football. ""Obviously with this just being released, I don't want to speak for anybody else in the league, but I know we'll all communicate. The university presidents and our commissioner, Amy Carlton, will look at this and decide what's the next best option for us to look at and make sure we have a full schedule of games."
Carlton has been ASC commissioner since 2006.
The conference could look at extending invitations of its own to rebuild the league for football. Perhaps an NAIA school moving up to Division III.
"That's always a possibility," Neese said. "Our commissioner has reached out to some folks. I'm sure in the past, those discussions were preliminary. And after (Tuesday), they'll probably have a little bit more emphasis to them. What are some potential targets of people out there who may be interested in transitioning to Division III."
HSU has scrambled to find even two non-conference games to go with the current eight-game ASC schedule. For two years, the Cowboys have had to play NAIA Wayland Baptist, two blowout victories that some believe works against HSU, even rated in the national top 10, when it comes to choosing playoffs teams.
At 9-1 in 2021, HSU was left out of the 32-team field despite its only loss being 34-28 loss to Mary Hardin-Baylor in Belton - the Crusaders' closest game of the season.
"In the past, we've faced issues where we've had to go out and find opponents to play and fill our football schedule," Neese said. "We've had more years where that has been one of our main priorities. We're aware we're probably going to have to do what we've done in the past, liked we did this year, and make a trip to Wisconsin to play a school up or some other schools across the country.
"Now we're really going to have to look at that and investigate and see what we need to do to make sure we have a full schedule."
The HSU athletic director said a decision such as the one McMurry made this week is not so surprising these days.
"I know McMurry did their research and decided this was the best move for them," Neese said. "I think that, regardless of what division you're in in NCAA, universities are looking at their conferences and deciding what's the best fit. This is something we're seeing all across the college landscape."
This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: How does McMurry's exit affect crosstown rival, ASC member Hardin-Simmons?
