Hendrix Joining SCAC

Rumblings came into my message folder last night about this and I’m still surprised about this news today. The SCAC makes another move to shore up their membership by grabbing a school from the conference that took Trinity and Southwestern from them. That’s right, the SCAC has announced that Hendrix will be moving to the SCAC from the SAA for the 2025 season.

Hendrix is in Conway, Arkansas and that puts them about 4 hours from Centenary and LeTourneau (moving to the SCAC in 2025) and about 5 hours from Austin College and University of Dallas. The location is not perfect but it’s not horrible, either. They also bring football, which is something that the conference should love. As for volleyball, they are typically a good to really strong program, which just adds to the impressive depth of the SCAC. Once the deck chairs stop getting moved, the SCAC should be at 11 teams in volleyball (as 12^th member University of Ozarks doesn’t sponsor the sport) as they lose Southwestern and Trinity but gain LeTourneau and, now, Hendrix. What they are missing is a travel partner for McMurry (who are coming into the conference this fall). That last deck chair could one day be Howard Payne or Hardin-Simmons and it would shock me if those president’s and athletic directors don’t see that. I have also sported a rumor that I started and have absolutely no confirmation on that Austin College makes sense to join the SAA. That would make less sense after today’s announcement in my opinion.

I did reach out to SCAC Commissioner Dwayne “I’ll be your” Hanberry last night for comment but he ignored me. Yes, he will pay for that in the future but totally understandable. From the release he said, “From a logistical and structural standpoint, Hendrix is a slam dunk add. They bring a highly competitive and broad-based athletics program that fits nicely into our geographic footprint. There is no denying we are a better conference with Hendrix College as a member.”

One other quote I liked was from Hendrix President, Karen Peterson, “With 92 percent of our student body originating from the geographic region represented by the SCAC, it made strategic sense to align Hendrix with another highly competitive conference from a student enrollment and student-athlete recruiting perspective.”

But…what about the academics? That was the reason for Trinity and Southwestern going the other direction.

Back to volleyball and this would mean that future SCAC seasons could still have this wonky dual divisions and schedule that has be rolled out for 2024. I did talk to a SCAC coach that indicated that a number of members wanted to get more home and away matches in conference and this setup does provide that. What’s crazy about that is Colorado College is a SCAC member. The Colorado College schedule is published and they will have 5 conference home matches all on different dates. They will have 4 away flights where they are grouping their conference matches. (Note – Hey Kelli Miller! Tell someone your team can’t play McMurry on October 26^th at 1 pm and then play Dallas at 2 pm. You guys are good but unless you get a quick sweep and a teleporter this isn’t going to work.) That’s a lot of flights coming in and going out of Colorado Springs to make all of this work. (Also, I’m getting tired of the IG photos of every team that visits The Garden of the Gods. Someone go to the Caves of the Winds Mountain Park just once. Or do some shopping in Manitou Springs.)

As for the SAA, this will bring them to 8 teams in 2025 as they lose Hendrix and Birmingham-Southern (closing) but add Trinity and Southwestern. Part of the appeal of getting TU and SU was going with 10-teams in the conference. They are basically back to square one in that regard so I’d expect them to also add more teams in the future.

I guess my final thought is that Commissioner Dwayne is a stud. The SCAC has been pretty down at times during his tenure but he’s always brought the conference back stronger than before. His only failing is letting me know what’s going on in a timely manner.