Southland Conference Forces Stephen F. Austin to Forfeit

What is going on in the Southland Conference? Either they are really bad at memos and emails or their members are not listening.

A day after the conference made Oral Roberts forfeit two games for scheduling too many non-Division I opponents, the Southland laid down the law to Stephen F. Austin today due to a exhibition game against Arkansas Tech. The Lumberjacks will now forfeit their February 1 game against Incarnate Word.

This is a pretty wide known rule and I personally have heard coaches talk about it, so why is this striking the Southland so hard? An even better question is why would the Southland subject their members to scheduling Incarnate Word and Abilene Christian a year before the two schools count as a Division I opponent?

We did an audit of all of the Southland Conference school, and everyone that hasn't already been hammered by the conference is teetering on the edge with four non-Division I games, except Houston Baptist. The conspiracy theory that ties into this is that almost all the teams, including Stephen F. Austin, no longer have their exhibitions present on their 2013-14 schedules. So determining who may have broken the rule is close to impossible now.

A source within the Southland has told Mid-Major Madness that up to six teams could end up forfeiting games, but it's unclear if those forfeits include teams from both the men's and women's ranks.