TLU's football affiliate membership with American Southwest Conference extended four years

SEGUIN, Texas -- Texas Lutheran University's football affiliate membership with the American Southwest Conference has been extended four years.

The ASC today announced the extension of affiliate membership in the sport of football for both Southwestern University and TLU.

 

Southwestern and TLU play the bulk of their athletics programs as members of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference. TLU has 18 intercollegiate programs in the NCAA Division III. Three of those programs do not have membership in the SCAC. TLU Football is an affiliate member of the ASC, and TLU Men's Indoor Track & Field and Women's Indoor Track & Field compete as independents.

 
TLU and Southwestern have played with the ASC since the 2017 season. The new affiliate agreement will run for the 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 seasons.

"We are excited to continue our affiliation with Southwestern and Texas Lutheran," said ASC Commissioner Amy Carlton. "And we look forward to the continued success both programs have brought to the league."
 
Texas Lutheran has finished among the top three in the ASC Football standings in each of the last three seasons. The Bulldogs were the 2019 conference runner-up with an 8-2 overall record and an 8-1 league mark.

Since coming over from the SCAC when the conference's football league disbanded, TLU Football has registered an ASC record of 20-7 with an overall mark of 21-9.

TLU has produced 24 ASC All-Conference players. In 2018, place-kicker Juan Ocampo was named the 2018 ASC Freshman of the Year, and recently retired head coach Carl Gustafson earned ASC Coach of the Year twice (in 2017 and 2019).

As a member of the ASC, TLU has had four All-America picks – guard Alejandro Briseno in 2017, safety James Bell in 2019, offensive lineman Garrett Garza in 2019, and defensive lineman Manny Longoria in 2019.
 
Austin College, a former football member of the ASC and the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, begins play in the 2021 season as a new football affiliate with the ASC.

TLU and Southwestern, and the rest of the ASC Football colleges and universities, each will play a five-game varsity football schedule in the spring semester of the 2020-21 academic year.

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 Feb. 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.

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 SCAC 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.

TLU's 2020-21 Football Schedule

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                                    (time TBA)