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 2019. In addition, I'll be listing schools closing, and schools adding or dropping men's soccer teams. I'm not doing the 2020 changes in this thread. That's a whole another kettle of fish, and it's too early to tell who's moving yet. (Be patient with me, folks. This is a big undertaking, and will probably take me a week or so to get them all in.) NCAA Division 1: The New Mexico Lobos dropped men's soccer (and three other sports teams) this past school year due to monetary issues. This will knock Conference USA down to six full members and two affiliates offering men's soccer. The Central Arkansas Bears, who were an affiliate member in the Missouri Valley Conference, will become an affiliate in the Sun Belt Conference this fall. This move saves Sun Belt Conference soccer, as they only had four full members and one affiliate last year. In Division 1 men's soccer, you need six members sponsoring the sport to get and keep an automatic tournament bid. Merrimack College Warriors (Mass.) will be moving all their sports teams up from the Northeast-10 Conference in Division 2 to the Northeast Conference this fall.
NCAA Division 2: Long Island University is merging the athletic departments of their two branches: Brooklyn and Post. LIU-Brooklyn was in the Division 1 Northeast Conference. LIU-Post Pioneers were in the Division 2 East Coast Conference. The combined Long Island University (no nickname yet) will remain in the Division 1 Northeast Conference. The College of Staten Island Dolphins are moving up from the Division 3 CUNYAC to the East Coast Conference. Frostburg State Bobcats (Maryland) are moving up from the Division 3 Capital Athletic Conference to the Mountain East Conference. University of Texas at Tyler Patriots are also making the jump from D3 to D2, moving from the American Southwest Conference to the Lone Star Conference this summer. The LSC doesn't currently sponsor men's soccer, but this is going to change due to the other schools joining the LSC. The Lone Star Conference has poached seven schools from the Heartland Conference, killing the HC this summer. Six of the seven Heartland schools play men's soccer: Dallas Baptist Patriots, Lubbock Christian Chaparrals, Oklahoma Christian Eagles, St. Edward's Hilltoppers, St. Mary's Rattlers, and Texas A&M International Dustdevils. Four schools from the Lone Star Conference were men's soccer affiliates in the Heartland Conference last season: Eastern New Mexico Greyhounds, Midwestern State Mustangs, University of Texas of the Permian Basin Falcons and West Texas A&M Buffaloes. By my count, this fall there will be eleven schools competing in Lone Star Conference men's soccer. I haven't been able to find an official press release about it though. The two Heartland Conference schools that didn't join the LSC will instead join the Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletic Association this summer: Rogers State Hillcats (Oklahoma) and Newman Jets (Kansas). Lindenwood Lions and Southwest Baptist Bobcats (both Missouri) are leaving the MIAA to join the Great Lakes Valley Conference. This move will make 16 men's soccer teams in the GLVC. Davis & Elkins Senators (West Va.) are leaving the Great Midwest Athletic Conference are joining their ex-West Virginia Conference buddies in the Mountain East Conference. Shepherd University Rams (West Va.) are leaving the MEC to join the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. The Rams will be the first full member college from outside of Pennsylvania in the 68-year history of the PSAC.
Not sure I understand this move, but Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky will transition from DII to DI for the 2020 year. https://www.wdrb.com/sports/crawfor...cle_de0303a6-90f8-11e9-8b20-372ae2c7e255.html Bellarmine will move into the ASUN. I suspect that is a temporary move, just like their former DII foe Northern Kentucky University did. A $1.6m application fee surely is absurd. Just over 2,500 undergrad students, Bellarmine has to be one of the smallest to play in DI. They are already spending a hefty fee in DII:
The University of Missouri-Kansas City is leaving the WAC and will rejoin the Summit League in July 2020. They were previously in the Summit from 1994 to 2013 http://www.thesummitleague.org/general/2018-19/releases/20190620sts1tx
How many teams are left in D1 soccer? If Bellarmine funds the program at all, the path to being relevant is not difficult. However if they don't....
A much better fit for them and, quite frankly, for the WAC. Those Western teams didn't need to schlep that far East.
This sucks. I'm not surprised at the monetary issues, but the Lobos are a fairly successful team. It sucks that soccer - where the school is actually successful - is the team that gets cut.
Not Division I, but Cincinnati Christian University (NAIA) is shutting its doors at the end of the fall 2019 semester. Announced today, that means there's 1.5 months left for those students. They played in the River States Conference. This ups my list to 97 men's programs that have been eliminated for a variety of reasons since 1971. I only have 5 programs that were cut before 1990, so that's 92 programs in nearly 30 years.
Technically they are not cutting the sport. The school is closing. I have a feeling that we'll see an increasing amount of schools this size shutting down in the coming years. The rising cost of college, the realization that most degrees result in much more debt than income (basically they are unnecessary), and the increased online offerings from large schools will make many liberal arts universities at the NAIA, NCAA D2 & D3, NCCAA, and USCAA levels obsolete.
One of the biggest challenges for schools closing is demographic of a lower number of students entering college these days. The peak was 2009 when the Children of the Baby Boomers reached an all-time high since then numbers are shrinking and will for some time. https://hechingerreport.org/college-students-predicted-to-fall-by-more-than-15-after-the-year-2025/
Was involved in a discussion about eliminated programs, now I'm working on programs that have been added -- particularly since 1990. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated! I am currently up to 28 programs.
Cal State San Marcos opened about 1990, but didn't have full enrollment until the mid-90's, and no intercollegiate athletics until 1998. Their website says 2006 was the debut year for men's soccer, and they have recently transitioned from NAIA to NCAA D2.
Most college degrees result in more debt than income? in one year that may be true...over a career that isn’t accurate.
There was a time that I would have agreed with you, but tuition prices, student loan debt, and a piss-poor job market have changed my mind.
40% of the students who graduate with a bachelors degree have no debt when they graduate. Of the total student loan debt, graduate degree students hold a disproportionate percent because they borrow so much...Doctors for instance. However, doctors tend to make a lot of money. The stories most widely distributed talk in averages or anecdotes. Dividing student debt by all students, including those who didn’t borrow, is misleading. Dividing graduate student loan debt by graduate and undergraduate students inflates the “average debt”. A lot. https://www.federalreserve.gov/publ...18-student-loans-and-other-education-debt.htm Regarding unemployment, college graduates have a 2% unemployment rate. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/u...igh-school-grads-in-august-2018.htm?view_full College grads are not only less likely to be unemployed, over their career they earn far more than those without degrees.
While all of that is true, there are at least three big things that you have to remember for society at large: Anecdotal information creates a stronger mental impression than facts and research. Heavy media coverage creates a false perception. Political campaigning influences perception. On top of that, people are generally intimidated by intelligence - real or perceived. Nobody wants to feel less intelligent (aka less powerful), so many have embraced the above three as proof that college is a waste of time and money. This is creating a cultural shift of reducing the push for everyone to go to college. That and the increase availability of online programs will naturally reduce the demand for so many smaller physical campuses. For what it's worth, I believe that college is beneficial if the degree program aligns with both the student's interest and the career field has the demand/options available. Breakdowns by degree/major would be reliable than general averages. This is anecdotal, but my wife makes $10k more with an AA in Nursing that I do with an MA in Teaching, but my younger brother with no college degree makes roughly $30k more than me with no degree as a consultant for an electric supply company. Of course my older brother with an MA in engineering makes double that, so that raises the average...
Good points. I submit I’m fully on-board with the three things to remember, evidenced in my posts. (Minus the politics...we’ve already hijacked this thread) Were your original comments designed to be provocative? I’m guessing I can’t claim that my response completely reversed your perspective
I think it had something to do with the impact of projected college closings on collegiate soccer (and other sports).
Another to add - Alliant University in San Diego dropped all intercollegiate athletics in 2007, including men's and women's soccer. Under a previous name, US International University, they had a D1 program in several sports, including ice hockey, and weren't all that bad for a small school. I think they were competing in NAIA in just a few sports when it ended. I read back then in the USIU years, in a story about a rich student's seaside house built by his parents to be his college residence, that they were a registration college for foreign students with wealthy parents. The students would in principle be registered at USIU while taking actually taking their classes at different colleges in the San Diego area. https://www.google.com/maps/place/D...0d115868ef219!8m2!3d32.9594891!4d-117.2653146