A little deceiving as there are more elite academic institutions who are not being counted for both. Use Babson from the NEWMAC as an example, as they were ranked the 10th best institution in the nation according to the Wall Street Journal. Also number 1 in entrepreneurship by USNWR.
The Trinity/Southwestern move is only "under the radar" to those unfamiliar with those schools and conferences. The American Southwest Conference has been bleeding schools to both the SCAC and Division II and will be down to six schools, only four of which play football, in a year or two. The influx of those schools, much less academically rigorous than the SCAC used to be known for, drove both Southwestern and Trinity to in effect "rejoin" the SAA, made up primarily of schools that used to be part of the SCAC and which split off from the SCAC primarily for academic reasons when the latter conference started admitting schools that didn't share their academic profiles. Travel was another reason, but suddenly it's not such a big deal. Here's why.
The SAA has some schools (Birmingham-Southern especially) which share the same financial and numerical struggles as you mention for the OAC, so the SAA didn't just let Trinity and Southwestern in for fun - both schools have substantial financial resources and Trinity will bring a larger endowment than any of the SAA schools possess (Berry is fairly close). Should B-SC and/or another school close up shop, the SAA will survive, unlike the ASC which seems willing to force its few remaining schools to find other options like the C2C. It's highly unlikely the SCAC would entertain the remaining ASC schools.
A little deceiving as there are more elite academic institutions who are not being counted for both. Use Babson from the NEWMAC as an example, as they were ranked the 10th best institution in the nation according to the Wall Street Journal. Also number 1 in entrepreneurship by USNWR.
The Trinity/Southwestern move is only "under the radar" to those unfamiliar with those schools and conferences. The American Southwest Conference has been bleeding schools to both the SCAC and Division II and will be down to six schools, only four of which play football, in a year or two. The influx of those schools, much less academically rigorous than the SCAC used to be known for, drove both Southwestern and Trinity to in effect "rejoin" the SAA, made up primarily of schools that used to be part of the SCAC and which split off from the SCAC primarily for academic reasons when the latter conference started admitting schools that didn't share their academic profiles. Travel was another reason, but suddenly it's not such a big deal. Here's why.
The SAA has some schools (Birmingham-Southern especially) which share the same financial and numerical struggles as you mention for the OAC, so the SAA didn't just let Trinity and Southwestern in for fun - both schools have substantial financial resources and Trinity will bring a larger endowment than any of the SAA schools possess (Berry is fairly close). Should B-SC and/or another school close up shop, the SAA will survive, unlike the ASC which seems willing to force its few remaining schools to find other options like the C2C. It's highly unlikely the SCAC would entertain the remaining ASC schools.