BROWNWOOD, Texas – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor football team earned a 65-9 win over Howard Payne University Saturday in Brownwood, giving the Cru a share of the 2025 American Southwest Conference Championship title. UMHB beat the Yellow Jackets 65-9 in the regular-season finale.
 
UMHB opened the game with a scoring drive. Michaux hit a pair of 17-yard completions before finding Will McClintock for a 40-yard touchdown giving the Cru a 7-0 lead. Howard Payne responded on the next drive but UMHB answered again with Asa Osbourn and Michaux teaming up the whole way, driving 66 yards on nine plays with Osbourn rushing eight yards for the score.
 
The Cru tacked on another score in the second with Michaux finding Luke Vidal for a 24-yard scoring pass, giving the Cru a 20-6 lead with 11:20 to go in the half. Howard Payne drove down to the Cru's seven-yard line but a quarterback hurry from Te'Ron Brown and an incompletion forced the Yellow Jackets to settle for a field goal. UMHB answered with Michaux finding McClintock for a 30—yard completion on fourth and eight and Osbourn punching in a wildcat-formation score from the one, giving UMHB a 27-9 lead after the first two frames.  
 
UMHB generated 242 yards of offense in the first half with Osbourn rushing for 65 . McClintock also tallied 70 yards of offense as the Cru held Howard Payne to just 193 yards.
 
Osbourn rushed 24 yards up the middle for another Crusader score in the third quarter. Jack Hight followed with a field goal at 7:10 to give UMHB a 37-9 lead. The Cru forced a fumble on the next possession and followed with a 16-yard completion from Michaux to Osbourn, putting UMHB up 44-9. The Cru added one more score to end the third off a 46-yard completion from Michaux to BJ Stewart for a 51-9 margin with 39 seconds left in the third.
 
UMHB tacked on two more scores in the fourth with an 11-yard rush from Daunte Blake and a 14-yard rush from Seth Mouser. 
 
Michaux finished with 14 completions for 232 yards and four touchdowns while Horton added three completions for 32 yards. BJ Stewart caught three passes for 70 yards and a score while Will McClintock, Luke Vidal and Asa Osbourn also added receiving touchdowns. Osbourn also rushed for 109 yards and three scores with Blake and Mouser each adding a score on the ground.
 
Defensively, Izeal Jones led the Cru with six tackles, followed by Samuel Steffe and Brandon McGruder with five each. McGruder also led the team with two tackles for loss with he, Lynford Noriego and Devon Freitag all recording sacks.
 
UMHB will await its fate in the 2025 NCAA Division III Football Playoff Bracket. The new NPI system does not account for strength of schedule and only counts Division III opponents in its standings, giving the Cru just a 5-2 record in the system. The Cru also earned wins over top NAIA opponents Bethel and Texas Wesleyan this season but those victories will not count toward standings in the NPI rankings. Hardin-Simmons also won a share of the ASC title and will earn the league's automatic bid with the advantage against UMHB in the point-differential tiebreaker.