One of the articles that, unfortunately, was pulled from this year’s magazine was the Non-Conference games that we have circled to watch! These are simply some of the games, that as of now, look like some of the best non-conference games, and/or a non-conference matchup that could end up carrying a lot of weight on the selection committee later on down the road! As of right now, we don’t have an official Top 25 ranking out (That will come later this week), but this will at least give a good guide of some of the best games to watch, especially early on!
We also added in the schedules from three of the BIG 4 Classics across the NAIA. The only one we don’t have a full schedule on is the Cactus Classic in December. The big classics in the NAIA have really blossomed into some big time Classics. Starting with the Abe Lemmons Classic the opening weekend of the season. Coach Berokoff and staff has really built up the Abe Lemmons Classic to where we should have at least three of the eight teams in the field ranked in next weeks Coaches Poll. Four of the teams in the field made last year’s NAIA National Tournament field. The Classic’s premier matchup will be Saturday at 1pm when Langston and The Master’s meet up in what could end up being a Top 10 matchup depending on what the polls come up with next week!
The next big classic will be the NAIA The Show. Coach Ken French of Oakland City does a great job with The Show and has 22 men’s teams playing in late November! There are a lot of very juicy matchups too and teams are sure to boost their RPI over the late Thanksgiving weekend classic! It should be another great year this year with plenty of teams who will most likely be in this years NAIA National Championship Tournament Field.
Rumor has it that this may be the final season of The Battle at the Beach. Which is really unfortunate, because not only have we had some great battles, but Faulkner also does such a great job hosting and the game production and announcing is top notch! Either way, we get two more great days of action this year with teams from the Sun, SSAC, Mid-South and GSAC all represented in the six-team field. All six teams have qualified for the NAIA National Tourney at least once over the past few seasons with both FHU and Loyola each winning a National Title and Arizona Christian reaching a Fab Four over the past four seasons. Add in the fact that Florida Memorial head coach, Delano Thomas, won a National Title with Shawnee State in that span as well, and you have three of the four Head Coaches who have won a National Title since the merger ALL coaching in once classic! Just a really fun classic that you won’t want to miss out on this year!
Finally, and I apologize for not having the full schedule yet, but the Cactus Classic is always a fun one out West as well. It will be played in mid-December and is hosted by Rocky Mountain, although played in Chandler, AZ. While most of the teams are from the Frontier and the GSAC, there are occasionally a team from the Midwest that will find their way down as well. This year, I do know we get one heck of a game on December 15th between Arizona Christian and Montana Tech! We will have our normal write up on the classic as it gets closer as well, but, like the other big three, it’s fun to see these bigger classics get to host so many of the great non-conference games that we see across the country!
