After six seasons as a member of the Central States Football League, Haskell Indian Nations University will operate as an independent this fall.

“Part of it was because we were looking for greener grass,” fifth-year HINU football coach Eric Brock said.

Haskell’s record against CSFL teams was 4-28.

Eventually, Brock said, the school would like to join the 10-member Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference because of the geography factor.

“The minute we get in the KCAC,” Brock said, “we would save eight or nine thousand dollars in travel expenses.”

Haskell will play three KCAC schools this fall – St. Mary, Friends and Southwestern. The Fightin’ Indians will also clash with three CSFL schools – Peru State, Southern Nazarene and Bacone.

CSFL schools dropped were Northwestern Oklahoma State, Langston and Texas College. Meanwhile, Haskell was dropped by Trinity Bible College, a school the Indians waxed, 55-0, last year.

The four new schools on the Tribe’s schedule are Principia, Briar Cliff, Southwestern and Avila. All four of those games will be at Haskell Stadium.

“Most independent teams have a problem with scheduling,” Brock said, “but that was not a problem for us. We turned away some schools that wanted to play us.”

Haskell will be playing teams from Illinois (Principia), Iowa (Briar Cliff), South Dakota (Tech), Nebraska (Peru State), Oklahoma (Bacone, Southern Nazarene) and Texas (SAGU), in addition to four Kansas schools.

“We’ll get our name into more areas,” Brock said, “and hopefully earn a little more notoriety.”