Schools changing conferences 2018

This is a catchall thread for men's college teams that are changing conferences/leagues or moving to new governing bodies (NCAA, NAIA, USCAA, NJCAA) this fall 2018.

The NAIA announced eight new schools will start the transition to NAIA associate members, seven of those this fall.
http://www.victorysportsnetwork.com/Clip/news/naia-approves-eight-new-members.htm

Of these eight schools, the following seven schools will have men's soccer teams:
Columbia International University (S.C.)
Florida National University
Green Mountain College (Vt.)
Lincoln College (Ill.)
Ottawa University (Ariz.)
Pennsylvania State University--Schuylkill and
Thomas More College (Ky.--joining in 2018-19).

Columbia Intl. will join the Appalachian Athletic Conference.
Thomas More will join the Mid-South Conference.
Ottawa will join the Golden State Athletic Conference.
Green Mountain will join the Northeastern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (NIAC), a hybrid USCAA/NAIA conference.
The other schools will play men's soccer in the Association of Independent Institutions (AII).

 

Changes to NCAA Division 1 conferences this fall:

Belmont Bruins will change from being affiliated with the Horizon League to an affiliation with the Southern Conference.

Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers (Maryland) will start up a brand new men's soccer program, and will compete in the Northeast Conference, where they are already a full member.

Hartwick College Hawks will drop down to NCAA Div. 3, where the rest of its sports teams already reside in the Empire 8 Conference, leaving the Sun Belt Conference with only 5 soccer playing schools.

USC Upstate Spartans will move all sports from the Atlantic Sun to the Big South Conference.

California Baptist Lancers will move all sports up from the PacWest Conference (Div. 2) to the Western Athletic Conference.

 

NCAA Division 2 changes:

Tiffin University Dragons (Ohio) are moving from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.

West Liberty University (W. Va.) Hilltoppers are changing from a club team to a fully sanctioned varsity team and will be in the Mountain East Conference, where the rest of its programs already compete.

Dixie State University (Utah) Trailblazers are moving from the PacWest Conference to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.

This listing is incomplete, as the NCAA hasn't released a list of the schools that are joining Division 2 this fall. If you know of any schools that i missed, feel free to add to this thread.

 

Another change to NCAA Division 2:

University of Wisconsin-Parkside Rangers will move their sports from the Great Lakes Valley Conference to the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

 

NCAA Division 3. There are a LOT of changes this fall, with two schools closing, a new conference forming, and two other conferences losing 4 and 5 members respectively. And a bunch of dominoes fall because of these changes.

Mount Ida College (Mass.) will be closing over the summer. The Mustangs were part of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference.

Wheelock College (Mass.) will also be closing. The Wildcats were part of the New England Collegiate Conference.

There will be a new conference this fall. The Atlantic East Conference will have seven members, all of whom sponsor men's soccer:
Cabrini University Cavaliers (Penn.),
Gwynedd Mercy University Griffins (Penn.),
Immaculata University Mighty Macs (Penn.),
Neumann University Knights (Penn.),
Marywood University Pacers (Penn.),
Marymount University Saints (Va.)
Wesley College Wolverines (Del.).
The five Pennsylvania schools were part of the Colonial States Athletic Conference. The other two schools were members of the Capital Athletic Conference.

Because of the loss of FIVE schools, the Colonial States Athletic Conference will be poaching two Pennsylvania schools from the North Eastern Athletic Conference, the Bryn Athlyn College Lions and the Wilson College Phoenix.

The North Atlantic Conference will lose four members this fall:
Green Mountain Eagles (Vt.) are jumping to the NAIA.
Castleton Spartans (Vt.) are joining the Little East Conference.
Colby-Sawyer Chargers (N.H.) are joining the Great Northeast Athletic Conference.
New England College Pilgrims (N.H.) will join the conference they were probably destined to join, the New England Collegiate Conference.

Because of the loss of four members, the North Atlantic Conference will raid the American Collegiate Athletic Association for two new members:
University of Maine-Presque Isle Owls and
State University of New York-Canton Kangaroos.
SUNY-Canton will be the NAC's first-ever full member outside of New England.

To hold onto their slim hopes of ever being granted recognition and the automatic bid to post-season tournaments, the American Collegiate Athletic Association grabbed the Pratt Institute Cannoneers (N.Y.) from the USCAA.

In addition to New England College, the New England Collegiate Conference will be adding Eastern Nazarene College (Mass.). The Lions were part of the Commonwealth Coast Conference.

More changes to NCAA Div. 3 to come in my next post. And remember, the NCAA has not yet listed which schools it has approved to join Division 3 this fall.

 

More changes to NCAA Division 3:

As noted above, Hartwick College Hawks (N.Y.) men's soccer squad will drop from Division 1 and join the rest of the college's programs in Empire 8.

Illinois Institute of Technology Scarlet Hawks are joining the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, moving from the USCAA.

Ferrum Panthers are joining the Old Dominion Athletic Conference after jumping from the USA South Conference.

Johnson & Wales-Denver Wildcats moved from the NAIA last year and are joining the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference this season.

Brevard College Tornado (N.C.) and Pfeiffer University Falcons (N.C.) will be a part of USA South this fall. BC And Pfeiffer were ineligible for the conference championships since they were reclassifying.

 

A clarification about my NCAA Division 3 post, and some exploratory members this fall. Exploratory members keep their affiliations with their current organizations until they go for provisional membership. Sort of dipping their toes in the NCAA water to see if they like it. I'm not 100% sure on all of this, will have to wait until the NCAA announces the new members in a month or so to be sure.

Pratt Institute Cannoneers will be an exploratory member, still with the USCAA, but will join the American Collegiate Athletic Association in 2018. The ACAA hasn't been recognized by the NCAA and doesn't have automatic bids to any post-season tournaments yet, so i guess they could invite anyone regardless of affiliation, theoretically.

Other exploratory members:
Bob Jones Bruins (South Carolina) are NCCAA members.
St. Thomas Celts (Texas), currently a NAIA Red River Conference member, is planning to join the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference in 2019.
Mississippi University for Women Owls are USCAA members.

 

Thomas More College of Kentucky, which just left the Presidents' Athletic Conference, will join the NCAA Divison 3 conference American Collegiate Athletic Association effective immediately. Thomas More was supposed to join the NAIA and the Mid-South Conference in 2019, so this might be a short term fix so its teams have conference championships to play for this year.
http://goacaa.org/general/2017-18/releases/20180703y0airc

 

Here's a school changing their mind about moving from NCAA Division 3 to NCAA Division 2. Benedictine College of Illinois was a provisional member of D2 starting last month, but they've apparently changed their mind, and will remain in D3 and the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. However, as they were a provisional member of D2 (and following D2 rules and regulations), they are ineligible for NACC conference championships and D3 post-season tournaments. http://www.d3sports.com/notables/2018/09/benedictine-to-return-to-d3