While the path to high school football in the state of Texas is now clear, for colleges the answers are still unknown.

For Howard Payne, the uncertainty is even more frustrating as the Yellow Jackets look to build on their best season since 2006 following a 5-5 campaign.

After finishing the 2019 campaign with three consecutive victories to post a .500 overall record, Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine picked Howard Payne to finish fourth in the American Southwest Conference behind only Mary Hardin-Baylor, Hardin-Simmons and Texas Lutheran.

“Obviously we’re excited about that,” said HPU fourth-year head coach Braxton Harris. “When we got here there wasn’t anybody below us in those things. For outside people to see the progress we’ve been able to make, that’s exciting to be able to see. For years we’ve been talking process over results, process over results, so it’s reaffirming for our kids to see those results are coming because we have focused on those processes. It’s a lot of fun to see your name up there with some really good football teams in this conference.”

In effort to further promote the football program, the HPU Sports Information produced their own version of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine that highlights the Yellow Jackets’ improvement.

“One of our young guys was able to put that together to just try and emphasize that (information),” Harris said.

The American Southwest Conference announced Wednesday that Texas Lutheran and Southwestern, members of the ASC in football, will not compete this year. The other fall sports for TLU and Southwestern were postponed by the SCAC last week.

With Texas Lutheran out, that would leave just two league teams picked to have a better season than the Yellow Jackets, but it also throws the ASC season into jeopardy.

“Do I think it’ll look like every football season we’ve ever played? No, but I’m confidently optimistic that we’ll play football this fall,” Harris said. “I don’t think it will be a 10-game season, I think it will be less, but I don’t know as far as what that number will turnout to be exactly.

“We’re fortunate with Dr. Hines and Hunter Sims, both those guys want us to play football and they understand the importance of football not only to our kids but to our university. We’re fortunate to have those guys in the leadership roles they’re in. My directive that I’ve been given is get your team ready to play a football season.”

Harris stated the status of American Southwest Conference sports rests in the hands of the league.

“At our level the only thing the NCAA controls is the playoffs,” Harris said. “If our conference presidents all get together and decide we want to play football, the NCAA really can’t stop you from doing that. The good thing with that is you have your own choice, and the bad thing is each institution has their own choice if they are going to play or not going to play. A lot of that has to be sorted out.”

Despite the COVID-19 outbreak, Harris stated recruiting and retention have gone well during the offseason.

“Our coaches have done a fantastic job,” Harris said. “Our numbers aren’t going to sway any different from what they’ve been in years past. We haven’t lost any kids in those spots, and we feel like we’re going to bring in a good class. There are a lot more people listening and paying attention to Howard Payne after this past football season.”

The Yellow Jackets’ regular season is slated to begin Sept. 5 at Gordon Wood Stadium against Austin College, with the ASC slate set to start Sept. 12 at Texas Lutheran. Those plans will obviously be changing, but what the future schedule looks like remains to be seen.