SCAC adds Texas Lutheran

Texas Lutheran will join Schreiner in switching from the ASC to the SCAC.
Texas Lutheran athletics photo

The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference announced today that Texas Lutheran University has accepted an invitation to join the conference.

“We are pleased and honored that Texas Lutheran University will join the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference beginning July 1, 2013,” said Austin College president Marjorie Hass, who currently serves as the chair of the SCAC Board of Directors.

“Managing the membership of an athletic conference is challenging work. It is wonderful to know that another private, liberal arts and sciences college from the southwest region with an engaging curriculum and similar commitment to the philosophy of the NCAA Division III athletics program will join the conference. The addition of Texas Lutheran will bring the SCAC membership back to eight, which will be helpful to the overall scheduling of the Conference. We look forward to many competitive contests in the future.”

Currently a member of the American Southwest Conference, Texas Lutheran will join the SCAC at the beginning of the 2013-14 academic year, becoming the eighth member of the reconstructed league.

“This is an exciting opportunity for TLU athletics,” said Texas Lutheran president Stuart Dorsey. “We are honored to be invited to join a conference of institutions that have such an outstanding reputation for academics and athletics success. We believe that the SCAC is an excellent fit for TLU.”

Texas Lutheran, which is located in Seguin, Texas (34 miles east of San Antonio), joins Austin College, Centenary (La.), Colorado College, the University of Dallas, Schreiner, Southwestern and Trinity (Texas) in the league following the conference’s split this upcoming summer. Centenary’s membership in the SCAC begins in 2012-13 while Schreiner and Texas Lutheran come aboard in 2013-14.

“The addition of Texas Lutheran University marks a significant step in the advancement of the SCAC,” said SCAC commissioner Dwayne Hanberry. “Less than eight months ago, we began the process of seeking new members who fit the profile we consider to be a special and unique blend of academics and athletics. With the additions of Centenary College of Louisiana, Schreiner University and now Texas Lutheran University, we feel like we are well on our way to achieving that goal.”

“We are excited that Texas Lutheran has agreed to become a member of our conference and welcome them into the SCAC family.”

The addition of Texas Lutheran insures that the SCAC will retain its automatic bids in nine of its 14 AQ sports, including baseball, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, softball, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, men’s tennis, women’s tennis and volleyball.

The SCAC will continue to explore its options in other AQ sports such as football, men’s golf, women’s golf, men’s lacrosse and women’s lacrosse.

Thirteen of Texas Lutheran's 14 intercollegiate sports programs will join the SCAC. Football will play as an independent until the SCAC has enough football members to qualify for an automatic bid. Trinity and Austin College are the only SCAC members that currently field football teams, with Southwestern slated to launch a football program in 2013.

“TLU is committed to fielding a football program that will compete for the national championship,” said Dorsey. “We anticipate that the SCAC will eventually reach the minimum number of seven football-playing schools so that the conference champion automatically qualifies for postseason play, but until then we will build a competitive schedule against regional and national opponents that we think will get us to that level.”

TLU sponsors 14 sports: basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball for women; and baseball, basketball, football, golf, soccer and tennis for men. The Bulldogs have won 10 national championships: two in football, two in women's volleyball, three individual titles in golf, and three individual event titles in women's track and field. Approximately one-third of TLU’s 1,300 full-time students participate in intercollegiate athletics.