With the flurry of conference realignment again taking over college athletics - it's interesting to see how men's soccer will be impacted: American Athletic Conference: UCF - Exiting for Big 12 Tulsa Memphis USF SMU Temple UAB - Entering from CUSA FAU - Entering from CUSA Charlotte - Entering from CUSA *Current future number of teams = 8 Sun Belt (Currently not sponsoring men's soccer): Georgia Southern - Currently playing in the MAC as an auxiliary member Georgia State - Currently playing in the MAC as an auxiliary member Coastal Carolina - Currently playing in CUSA as an auxiliary member JMU - Entering from CAA Marshall - Entering from CUSA ODU - Entering from CUSA *Current future number of teams = 6 (Return of an automatic bid) CUSA: FIU Kentucky - Auxiliary member from SEC South Carolina - Auxiliary member from SEC Coastal Carolina - Returning to Sun Belt Charlotte - Leaving for AAC FAU - Leaving for AAC UAB - Leaving for AAC Marshall - Leaving for Sun Belt ODU - Leaving for Sun Belt West Virginia - Supposed to join as auxiliary member in '22 *Current future number of teams = ? MAC: Bowling Green N Illinois Akron Western Michigan West Virginia - Announced to leave for CUSA Georgia Southern - Returning to Sun Belt Georgia State - Returning to Sun Belt *Current future number of teams = 4-5? Many questions exist to be answered: -Where does UCF play men's soccer? -Where do West Virginia, Kentucky, and South Carolina play? -What do remaining full members of the MAC and CUSA do? Of course - let's see what additional moves may still happen!
Is 6 the minimum number of teams to be recognized as a conference with an auto-bid by the NCAA? (I know that's the case in lacrosse, where the 5-team ACC does not get an autobid, despite being the strongest conference in that sport ...)
Yes... although a conference will get a waiver for a year to sort things out if they have another team joining the next year.
So, will it stay at 6 teams, or who else will enter? I would assume that WVU, UK, and/or South Carolina will look to enter. Surely...
Not sure if anyone has seen this yet but seems quite ridiculous. JMU informed its athletes tonight that the CAA will not allow its teams to compete for league championships this year if it announces its move to the Sun Belt. JMU's appeal to league presidents was denied.https://t.co/o7swzHI4h1— Mike Barber (@RTD_MikeBarber) November 4, 2021
I know there are a ton of comments on it, but one is pretty strong that JMU has also voted the same way in the past? I don't know all the ins and outs on the situation, but it seems like it's been consistent with what the CAA has done. Sucks. But, if only there were a "leader" in the system that would have set a standard for this (cough, cough...NCAA).
http://wrvc.com/paul-swann/ Marshall soccer coach Chris Grassie was interviewed yesterday evening on the Paul Swann radio sports talk show. Listen to the 11/3 show and Grassie's interview starts at the 9:00 mark, starts talking Sun Belt at the 15:00 mark. - Confirms UK, WVU, USC, and UCF have received affiliate invites to the SBC. - Says he's been sending calculations to the affiliate coaches showing it would be the 2nd strongest conference in the country. - Coastal's coach has been communicating the governance of the sport was stronger in SBC than C-USA, the soccer programs get to make soccer decisions. - Later in interview he somewhat disagrees next C-USA season would be bittersweet because most of the rivalries are going with us to the Belt.
Rumor here: Queens University (Charlotte, NC) and Lincoln Memorial University (Harrogate, TN) are both making the jump from DII to DI. I heard that LMU will be making the announcement in spring and plan the jump for Fall 2022. Add in University of Southern Indiana, that is three DII schools (that I know of) that are potentially making the move in the near-future. Both Queens and LMU are looking into the OVC, which doesn't have men's soccer.
ThePonchat is as usual right on. The rumor mill does have a number of D2's moving. I would expect more coaxing as the ripples of the realignment emerge. There are always 4 phases in these cases. In this one, Texas and Oklahoma went to the SEC. The Big 12 goes and gets 3 to stay viable, and the SunBelt strikes leaving Conference USA scrabbling to stay alive and viable. Then other impacted conferences look to schools to fill voids and canalize lower conferences. These conferences go into panic and coax D2 schools into their conference to stay alive. The real change will hit in January with the new NCAA constitution and convention. Right now people may be jostling but if the rumor of a 4th division for NCAA is valid. It may be more D2 schools move up to form that new D2 with the demotion or reorganization of the lower D1's. Then the D2 would be D3 and D 3 would be D4. To be fair this is all conjecture until the NCAA meets What is true is: CUSA soccer is on life support. MAC is looking for options for a 6th team. UCF, UK, USC and WVU are looking at either Sunbelt or AAC. FIU may have look at ASUN CAA will strike soon and I speculate they will try to raid the SOCON and BIG South. The Socon will raid the ASUN and BIG South. Big South and ASUN will take any movers up to survive. But the real crux will be who is Football and who are basketball schools that move up. This will be the challenge for navigation for those that jump, and if they jump will the jump be lateral.
I knew that I had seen LMU play. Originally, I was thinking that James Thorpe (GK DCU draft pick). played there. I had to go back and look at my VHS/DVD library. Thorpe played for Franklin-Pierce against LMU for the D2 final in 2007. Memory is not what it used to be.
Maybe I missed that, I saw they just put up a big Twitter graphic on Friday. Thought it was something new. Honestly, I forget UIW is even DI. Whoops. Their men’s soccer has been WAC, but now the athletic department is fully WAC.
That’s how I missed it. It popped across Twitter and I thought it was men’s soccer. Turns out, there are other sports. Who knew?!
Is there a list of schools whose men's soccer teams play in different conferences than the conference in which the school is officially aligned? Off the top of my head I can think of two -- SDSU: Mountain West -> Pac12 Sac State: Mountain West -> Big West
West Virginia: MAC (CUSA future, maybe) -> Big 12 UK: CUSA (for now) -> SEC South Carolina: CUSA (for now) -> SEC Those are mine off the top of my head. I'm sure there's some others.
Go to each conference's Wiki page and it has a good list of current and former members as well as affiliate, sport-specific members.
This is all just so silly. I mean, I get it, but at the same time, it's ridiculous that non-revenue sports travel halfway across the country to play "conference" games. How is that in the best interest of the kids?