Denver does seem a better fit for the MVC than Summit. If Belmont goes, that would make three conferences in a very short peoriod of time for them, and it would also give their men's soccer a home as the OVC does not sponsor soccer. The article also mentioned Loyola-Ill and Oral Roberts as longer shots.
Geographically I'd say Oral Roberts makes for a better fit in the Missouri Valley than Denver does. Denver also has the lack of baseball and softball working against them. That said, Denver is in a major market and any conference who has them (MVC, Big West, WCC, WAC, Summit) will be better off for it.
ESPN reporting that next week Butler,Xavier & Creighton joining new Big East conference for next season. Those 3 make this a very good soccer conference.
Here are some hits I feel they will take: 1. If you take the end of season NSCAA poll, the Big East will lose 4 of its Top 20 teams while picking up 1. Throw in USF and Rutgers and you have 2 others that have flirted and been in the top 25 or so in recent years. If you look at the Big East Blue/Red standings of last year only one of the Top 3 on each side remains. This is significant. 2. On an academic front, with the exception of G'Town ( and maybe VNova) I don't feel that selling academics is something that the conference can sell as a whole to families or recruits and the whole "judge me by the friends I keep" maxim will be an issue for some. 3. From a facility perspective, they pick up an excellent one in Creighton, but Xavier is average and Butler plays on a Football field (all 3 are Fieldturf I believe). They join Seton Hall, Providence, DePaul, St. Johns on turf. This leaves only 3 grass fields in the entire conference. Villanova which is a place I have visited many times and is no better than a HS stadium at the moment and a big part of them not making the NCAA in the last 30 years. 4. Based on point 3, I feel scheduling will now become an issue for this conference with respect to getting ACC/ Big Ten and Pac-12 home games (G'Town the exception with their new stadium and grass field). For those readers involved in scheduling they will know how this aspect of college soccer is becoming frustratingly a difficult one, manipulated by the "haves" against the "have-nots". The Big East no longer wields the big scheduling stick. 5. Because the conference absent of Football and for those of us that have recruited at Big Football schools, this can make a difference to kids. Taking them down on the field on a recruiting trip in the Fall can be a huge sell for some programs and seeing a Fall dominated by Football schools on TV, repetitiously can certainly sway kids, whereas the out of sigh/out of mind Big East is at a disadvantage. Whether we like it or not, the Football conferences have already monopolized the national conversation and will be the headline of college athletics as we venture forward. By extension their soccer teams will sell the same and might as well have a well known Peter Gabriel song as their recruiting theme. While I agree with my esteemed colleague Bid&Offer on the conference being a good soccer conference, my feeling is that it has been relegated to a very good mid-major conference.
Formality to the new Big East, their members and their TV deal. http://msn.foxsports.com/collegebas...-multi-platform-media-rights-agreement-032013
Official word from Creighton http://www.gocreighton.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID =206832060&DB_OEM_ID=1000 Official word from Xavier http://www.goxavier.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/0 32013aaa.html Official word from Butler http://www.butlersports.com/releases/big-east-official
George Mason to the A10 as of this summer. https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status/315967108469108736
http://www.herald-dispatch.com/spor...w-out-Hurricane-in-C-USA#.UU353VHamLw.twitter Tulsa seems ready to finally pull the trigger and leave the C-USA for the America 12.
*sigh* Considering that there STILL don't seem to be any end to all the conference changes, I think I'll wait until late June to update the *&%$ list.
Good idea. App. State and Ga. Southern to the Sun Belt. (That puts them in D-I for football.) Is Sun Belt going to add soccer and, if not, where do these programs play?
After App State and Ga. Southern, who else in the Belt has men's soccer? They need at least four full members who play to be able to add affiliates, and six teams overall to sponsor it. Maybe UT Arlington will add soccer to help?
Here's the official announcement for George Mason http://www.gomason.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=25200&ATCLID=206914662
Florida Atlantic and Florida International are currently Sun Belt members who play soccer in Conference USA. I have no idea if either of those schools have committed to leave for another conference. And Georgia State is joining the Sun Belt and is playing as an independent next year. If - and the way all this is going down, it's a big if - FIU and FAU are staying in the Sun Belt, that would give them 5 men's soccer schools. Meanwhile, with Charleston already leaving for the CAA, the latest SoCon defections will leave them with just 5 soccer members: UNC Greensboro, Elon, Furman, Wofford and Davidson.
I caught this thread after I posted elsewhere. I honestly see Appalachian State and Georgia Southern dropping men's soccer. No one will add it. Since Appalachian State and Georgia Southern are moving from FCS to FBS, they will have to make up scholarships, funding, and opportunities elsewhere -- i.e., either dropping a men's sport (or more) OR adding a women's sport (or more). So...there has to be something accounted for this move. Unlike other "realignments," this is two teams moving divisions which ultimately changes the scenery of the whole athletic department. As I mentioned elsewhere too, Western Kentucky dropped men's soccer because of their affiliation with the Sun Belt...I do not see them picking it back up. If any of the institutions were to institute men's soccer, they would probably have to add a women's sport at the same time. Probably some decent opportunities for some of these institutions to add lacrosse then.
I just saw that Georgia State also has men's soccer. So with App State and Georgia Southern, that's three Sun Belt schools with the sport. They need one more full member or will have to scramble to find affiliate membership elsewhere. Why would they drop men's soccer and replace it with lacrosse when they're not rich to begin with, and lacrosse would take up even more scholarships than soccer would?
There is a possible solution. UT Arlington is moving to the Sun Belt next year and they don't have football. Maybe they start up men's and women's soccer?
If they just added women's lacrosse, it could offset their increase in football. With lacrosse being an emerging sport, it is a move that many institutions are going to. There are numerous DII, DIII, and NAIA schools that are adding lacrosse to gain enrollment numbers AND be ahead of the DI's who haven't added it yet.
Nothing about lacrosse being added in the next couple years at Georgia Southern, Georgia State or App State, yet. USC added women's lacrosse this year (but not men's). However, they still could revive men's soccer in the future by bringing in softball as well. http://www.uslacrosse.org/TopNav/NewsandMedia/MediaInformation/NewVarsityPrograms.aspx
More on Tulsa to the conference formerly known as Big East. http://espn.go.com/college-sports/s...den-hurricane-join-big-east-according-sources
Only mildly interested, I will wait until July to make out a conference realignment scorecard. Seriously. This is ridiculous. There has always been movement, but I cannot remember it ever like this.
FAU actually plays in the MAC for men's soccer. FIU and FAU are joining Conference USA together. Presumably both of those programs will move to CUSA. Conference USA will be back down to nine members with Tulsa leaving. No idea if Appalachian State or either of the GSUs would consider affiliating with them.
Odds are that the Southern Conference allows App State and Georgia Southern to remain as affiliates; with Charleston moving to the Colonial, they would be down to five teams without the Sun Belt duo. Georgia State might even join them. Oral Roberts, Central Arkansas, Houston Baptist and Incarnate Word gives the Southland conference four soccer-playing schools. They could sponsor the sport and add Georgia Southern and App State as affiliates.
I think the Southern Conference route is the better one. Georgia/NC would be a bit of travel from the other Texas/Arkansas/Oklahoma schools. I bet Ga State would love to have its home in the Southern Conference.