Mary Hardin-Baylor has been on top of the American Southwest Conference for most of the past decade. UMHB by Joe Fusco, d3photography.com; HSU by Scott Burkhalter

Jesse Burleson has seen the full arc of Mary Hardin-Baylor, the kind of program it began as and has since grown into. It’s just that he has seen it from the other side of the field.

Burleson, a graduate of Hardin-Simmons, was a senior on the Cowboys football team that lined up against a startup Mary Hardin-Baylor squad in 1998. HSU was establishing itself as the dominant force in the ASC going into the 2000s, and that first outing was a decisive 56-9 Cowboys win.

Having now spent a decade coaching for Hardin-Simmons, including his fifth season at the helm, he sees things differently than he did as student lining up against that fledgling Crusaders team.

“Coming back as a coach, it’s neat to see the evolution of the two programs that have such great battles year after year after year,” Burleson said.

Only twice has a team not named Hardin-Simmons or Mary Hardin-Baylor won the conference’s automatic bid to the postseason.

“This game long decided who the conference champion is going to be, so a lot of folks know what it’s going to look like,” Burleson said. “The great thing about this year is that we’ve both taken care of business to get to this point. There’s a lot riding on it.”

It’s the first time since 2004 that these two teams have met so late in the season and still been undefeated. They are each 7-0, with UMHB ranked third nationally and HSU sitting at No. 13.

For those who know their history, that 2004 season was a pivotal one for the conference. HSU won the regular-season matchup 49-22, helping to set up the Cowboys’ first conference title since 2001.

“They did something that we really thought we took great pride in: being physical. And they just beat us up,” Crusaders coach Pete Fredenburg said of the game that season. “We had a real heart-to-heart, not just the coaches but also the coaches and the players. We decided that for us to do what we wanted to do, we had to develop a new mentality and a physicality, and that’s what we did.”

Most notably that season, it happened quickly for the Cru. UMHB turned the tables on their conference rival in the second round of the playoffs, earning a 42-28 victory. UMHB’s success continued, and the team became the first of only two Pool C teams to ever make it to the Division III national championship game in Salem.

“There’s been quite a rivalry created with us, so there’s a lot of significance. When you put a playoff bid in the middle of it, it just makes it even more compelling,” said Fredenburg, who has coached the team since its inception.

This year’s playoff stakes are unlike any other, however. With the departure of Mississippi College and Texas Lutheran after the 2012 season, the ASC dropped below the seven-team threshold for an automatic qualifying bid. There was a two-year grace period, and two provisional programs have since been added, but the conference has been pushed into the Pool B grouping, where 13 teams are fighting for one bid.

Earlier this season, HSU knocked off TLU, which is also a team contending for the Pool B bid. UMHB followed suit, toppling TLU last weekend.

“We knew the game last week had a lot of implications, but you have a lot of implications when you play another Division III team in Texas, especially ones like TLU or Hardin-Simmons that have continuously improved,” Fredenburg said.

The fact that both HSU and UMHB have beaten their toughest playoff contender outside of the conference all but guarantees that the winner this coming weekend will earn its way into the postseason via Pool B.

That said, a Pool C bid, the true at-large bids, for the losing squad isn’t out of the question. Both teams have reasons to be excited about where they stand this season.

Hardin-Simmons is having its best year since 2010, harnessing the experience of its veteran players. More than 20 athletes on the two-deep of offense, defense and special teams are seniors. The success was bound to come, if the players and coaches could be patient.

“Anytime you have that many seniors who are playing such an important role, their leadership will affect the rest of the team in a positive way,” Burleson said.

“We’ve stuck to the plan; we’ve stuck to the process,” he said. “We knew that it might take us a little while to get where we wanted to be as a team and as a program.”

Hardin-Simmons leads the nation in passing efficiency and is one of the best in total offense. The team is also in the top quarter statistically in defense.

Getting to this point meant that Burleson had to fill big shoes after the retirement of Jimmie Keeling, HSU’s winningest coach ever. Burleson not only served as an assistant coach under Keeling, but he also played under him.

“When you follow a legend like that, you don’t ever want to try to be exactly like him. There’s only going to be one of him,” Burleson said. “I think the biggest thing for me to figure out was that there are certain things you want to keep, certain traits and foundations and things he did for the program. But you want to put your own stamp on it.”

For its part, Mary Hardin-Baylor is excelling in all facets of play, but it’s perhaps the defensive line that is providing some of the best stability. The team is second nationally in rushing defense and has 43 sacks this season (including two players who are Top 4 nationally). The Crusaders are also plus-11 on the season in turnover margin.

The merits of these 2015 teams enhance the already simmering rivalry that has loomed for almost a generation.

“This dates back years and years. When we came and started this program, the team we had to beat to get into the playoffs and win the ASC championship was Hardin-Simmons,” Fredenburg said. “We never lost that fervor. It continues, especially now that they are doing so well.”

Dedicated to veterans

It didn’t matter how Hobart played on the field on Saturday, the winners were going to be military veterans.

For the third year in a row, the Statesmen raised money for Honor Flight Rochester, a program that provides free transportation to America's veterans to Washington, D.C., to visit the monuments dedicated to their service.

Coach Mike Cragg instituted the program at Hobart in 2013 after his father-in-law, Ed Smaldone, a U.S. Army veteran, went on an Honor Flight and visited the World War II Memorial, as well as other Washington landmarks.

"It was a great privilege this past summer to watch my father-in-law with many other World War II vets come back from spending a couple of days in Washington, D.C., on an Honor Flight," Cragg said back in 2013. "Just to see the smiles on everyone faces as they thanked the greatest generation for everything they have done for us. This is a chance for our fans to give that experience to someone else, to pay it forward."

Smaldone fought in the European theater, and his 69th Infantry Division met up with the Soviet army at the Elbe River on April 25, 1945. The forces are credited with hastening the arrival of Victory in Europe Day.

On Saturday, ticket sales from the Hobart-RPI game were donated to the Honor Flight program, and student-athletes helped to collect more donations from fans. Representatives of Honor Flight Rochester as well as WWII veterans were honored guests at the pregame ceremonies.