ASC Scheduling

With the loss of Louisiana College upcoming for the Fall 2021 season, the ASC has decided to get rid of their 2 division setup that they used when they had 11 members. This was not unexpected as this format has been used in the past when the conference had 10 members. It also makes perfect sense. I had reached out to the conference when Louisiana College made their announcement to move to the NAIA, and was told the coaches would have to vote on the new format so I assume this was done earlier this year and I missed it.

The fallout to this is that each program will now play a home and home series against every school in the conference. Previously, they did this within division but would only play out-of-division schools once. It also gets rid of their pod weekends where one school would host a number of cross-division matches. This actually provides more dates to play within conference but the flexibility to schedule around other tournaments also exists. Side note, there are nine weekends in the Fall 2021 season if the conference is playing a tournament. In theory, an ASC school could fill up their entire season playing two conference matches a weekend if they wanted. (Narrator’s voice: They wouldn’t do that.)

One other note on this format change is that this will definitely increase travel for each school as each former division had schools that exist quite a distance away. Specifically, the Sul Ross State/Belhaven matches will require a 900 mile trip. That’s just 40 miles less than most of the SCIAC schools would have to travel to get to Willamette University (out of the NWC). It’s 50 miles more than Trinity would need if they decided to drive to Colorado College. For my loyal New England to New York to Mid-Atlantic to South readers, it’s like traveling from Husson University (Maine) to North Carolina Wesleyan College. The West Region (or is it Region X, yet) is sure fun!