(Seguin) – Texas Lutheran University will play a five-game varsity football schedule this spring semester, starting with a Feb. 6 matchup at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas.
TLU and all of its fellow football members in the American Southwest Conference will play four games against divisional opponents and a final game against a cross-divisional opponent.
For the first time in ASC history, the conference’s football schedule will be played under a two-division model with teams closing the 2020-21 season with a playoff pitting teams cross-seeded in a single game.
Each division will have five teams. Belhaven, East Texas Baptist, Louisiana College, Mary Hardin-Baylor and Southwestern will be in the East Division. Hardin-Simmons, Howard Payne, McMurry, Sul Ross State and TLU will be in the West Division.
The ASC’s fall sport 2020-21 schedules are subject to change and contingent upon health and safety guidelines of the NCAA and local, state, and federal entities.
Regular-season division play begins February 6 and runs five weeks with eight teams in action each week. Start times are to be determined.
The ASC football playoffs are scheduled March 13 with the game location predetermined. The winner of the game between the two number one seeded teams will be named the 2020-21 ASC champion.
TLU’s 2020-21 Football Schedule for the spring semester (Home games at Bulldog Stadium in bold):
Feb. 6 At Howard Payne (time TBA)
Feb. 13 vs. McMurry (time TBA)
Feb. 20 Bye Week
Feb. 27 vs Sul Ross State (time TBA)
March 6 At Hardin-Simmons (time TBA)
March 13 ASC playoff game vs. corresponding cross-division seed (time TBA)
On Aug. 6, the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III championships in fall sports for 2020-21 were canceled.
With the health and safety of the division’s student-athletes, coaches, athletics administrators and communities as its priority, the Division III Presidents Council made the decision to cancel the championships due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related administrative and financial challenges.
The DIII Presidents Council’s decision affected the TLU sports of football, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, women’s cross country, men’s cross country, and women’s volleyball. These sports will not have NCAA Division III National Championship possibilities in the 2020-21 academic year.
TLU and the two conferences (the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and the ASC) in which it has membership are committed to holding fall sports seasons and conference championship opportunities in the spring semester of the 2020-21 academic year, even without national championship possibilities.
Winter and spring sports for TLU will join the Bulldogs’ fall sports in contesting seasons in the spring semester of 2020-21. The winter sports at TLU include men’s and women’s basketball and men’s and women’s indoor track & field. The spring sports TLU offers are: baseball, softball, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s golf, women’s golf, men’s outdoor track & field, and women’s outdoor track & field.
The NCAA Board of Governors directed each division (Division I, II, and III) to make a decision on its fall sport championships.
The Board of Governors suggests all member institutions apply the resocialization principles to fall sports and set a 50 percent sponsorship threshold for a fall sport championship to be conducted.
Prior to the NCAA DIII Presidents Council announcement on fall sports championships, the SCAC Presidents Council announced that all NCAA competition within the conference will be delayed until January due to ongoing health and safety concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. The SCAC’s Presidents Council agreed to meet in September and October to reassess the landscape of college athletics to see if adjustments to the sports schedules should be considered.
TLU has four “winter” sports out of its 18 intercollegiate programs. The four winter sports at TLU are men’s and women’s basketball and men’s and women’s indoor track & field.
Two of those winter sports, men’s and women’s basketball, play in the SCAC. TLU’s women’s indoor track & field and men’s indoor track & field programs compete as independents. The SCAC does not sponsor men’s and women’s indoor track & field as conference sports.
On July 16, the SCAC announced with its Presidents Council that NCAA intercollegiate competition would not occur during Fall 2020 due to health and safety concerns stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. The July 16 statement addressed the SCAC’s fall sports of men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball and the sports of men’s and women’s golf and men’s and women’s tennis that utilize the fall for non-traditional activities.
Fifteen of TLU’s 18 intercollegiate sports programs play in the SCAC. Football plays in the American Southwest Conference, and again TLU’s men’s and women’s indoor track & field programs compete as independents.
On July 22, Southwestern University and TLU, affiliate football members of the ASC, jointly announced that both universities were suspending their intercollegiate football competitive seasons for the fall of 2020 due to ongoing health and safety concerns arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
On July 24, the ASC’s Council of Presidents delayed conference-scheduled competition and championship events for fall championship sports with anticipation of resuming ASC competition and tournaments in spring 2021.