Huge news came out of the Linfield camp yesterday as the ‘Cats and defending SCIAC champion, Occidental, have agreed to a 1-year deal for the 2009 season. The game will be played at Oxy on September 19th. As a result, Linfield and Western Oregon have parted ways and will not be playing next season or anytime in the foreseeable future. That means that Linfield will have 8 Division III games in 2009 (Southern Oregon will remain the only non-DIII game for a total of 9 regular season games).While this is great news for Linfield and its fan base, it also means a brutal travel schedule for the ‘Cats next season. The ‘Cats will open the year at home on September 12th vs Hardin-Simmons, and then have a brutal one-month stretch were the ‘Cats will be at Occidental, at Southern Oregon, at Menlo, and then wrap the extended roadie at Whitworth.
So the ‘Cats open up with two teams coming off playoff qualifying seasons (where they both dropped close games), an NAIA team that have battled the ‘Cats tooth and nail the past three years, visit an improving Menlo program, and then at Whitworth. That’s a hell of a way to start the season and if the ‘Cats want to get back to the playoffs, then Linfield is going to earn it.
Overall, I love this move and I’m excited we are moving closer to a pure DIII schedule. If the ‘Cats can start the season by overcoming two talented teams in HSU and Oxy then that will be a great boost in building a case for a post season bid. Of course, the ‘Cats will want to leave no doubt and capture the NWC crown but these non-conference games will be marquee match-ups in the Division III landscape.
I have to applaud the great work that AD Carnahan and Coach Joe Smith have put in with regards to getting this done and for the changes coming in 2010-2011.
2009 is shaping up to be another challenging but exciting season.
-Wildcat11
5 comments:
I have to applaud the great work that AD Carnahan and Coach Joe Smith have put in with regards to getting this done and for the changes coming in 2010-2011, and I'd especially like to thank all the squeaky wheels on this blog and d3football.com for speeding up the process. Without every important person at both institutions reading your whining and *itching the status quo would have been endless.
It has been a long time since a SCIAC team has had the guts to play us in the regular season. I hope we can continue to dominate the SoCal teams like the late '90s and early 2000s before Redlands turned yellow. One question though, why only one year? What if they chose not to renew.
Chargercat36,
It's my understanding that both programs were only looking for a one-year deal to act as a bridge for the 2010 season where both programs have new series in place with other programs.
Both Linfield and Oxy had a gap/need to fill just for the 2009 season and thankfully they came to an agreement.
I'm already looking for ways to get myself down to SoCal for the game.
Yeah! Two games in cali, I'm lovin' that.
SCIAC team entering into the new agreement.... I hope this would be a useful one and it works out nicely...
All the best SCIAC and Cats......
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