Conference Realignment

I hadn't thought about that as a factor, but living in Illinois you see this routinely in college football and men's basketball. Getting sideways with high school coaches and club coaches in basketball in greater Chicago can hamstring your program.

 

UMass to the MAC. I wonder what that does for soccer. Still short of six teams but where does UMass stay in A10 for soccer?

 

The 2024 autumn college sports season will be weird.

 

Weird is the new normal in college sports.

 

⚽️ 𝓦𝓮𝓵𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓮 𝓑𝓵𝓾𝓮 𝓗𝓮𝓷𝓼 ⚽️

The Summit League and University of Delaware jointly announced the addition of the Blue Hens as an affiliate member for men's soccer starting in the fall of 2025

🗞️: https://t.co/tPsxDmxbhJ#ReachTheSummit x #SummitMSOC pic.twitter.com/jNXZhTP7jL

— The Summit League (@TheSummitLeague) April 4, 2024

 

Mercyhurst moving to Northeast Conference, Division I.

Mercyhurst University marks new era in athletics with move to Division I

📝: https://t.co/qGMPja634G#HurstAthletics pic.twitter.com/jP3pQZctYg

— Mercyhurst Lakers (@HurstAthletics) April 4, 2024

 

Wow. Travel budget going crazy in Delaware. I'm kind of happy to see Denver, UNO and maybe ORU. I've seen these play live in previous years, but it's cheaper for us East Coast fans.

 

I expect Delaware to get better over the next few years. Tommy is an excellent coach.

 

Delaware was significantly better in 2023 than they have been for awhile (in my opinion).

 

Seattle and Grand Canyon from the WAC to the WCC starting Fall 2025. The WAC would drop from 9 to 7 men's soccer teams and the WCC jumps from 8 to 10. Makes some geographical sense for Seattle and UTRGV not to be in the same conference. It now joins Portland and Gonzaga as natural Pacific Northwest rivals

Conference realignment news: Grand Canyon and Seattle U will be joining the WCC, source confirmed to CBS Sports. @GoodmanHoops was the first to report. They'll join July 1, 2025. Grand Canyon to the WCC has been in the works for a very long time.

— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) May 10, 2024

 

Missouri State to CUSA.

 

CUSA quit sponsoring soccer when 6 took off for the AAC and 3 took off to the Sun Belt.

Could UMASS be the magic 6th school for the MAC to start sponsoring soccer again. I gotta think Akron would throw a fit since they took off to the Big East.

 

I obviously meant Missouri State, that's what ya get for posting at 2:30 in the morning.

 

That is two in and two out for the WAC. GCU and Seattle out. Both Faith based schools joining a Faith based conference. SDSU and OSU join the WAC. Which conference got better? Seems even event to me.

 

I so hope that an eventual byproduct of all this conference realignment is different conferences for the revenue sports and the non-revenue ones.

For football, if UCLA wants to fly to Rutgers for a conference game, well, they generate more than enough money to pay for that and the game is a bid enough deal to justify it. (Though I personally can't imagine thinking "UCLA at Rutgers? Get me to the couch, stat!")

But for soccer and all of the other welfare sports living off the football/basketball teet, let's go back to regionalizing these conference affiliations in ways that make both geographic and competitive sense.

 

Or, does Missouri State jump into the OVC? But, MVC could very well just allow them to stay.

 

OSU will be in the WCC on a two-year agreement.

 

Opps did not have my reading glasses on. C looked like an a

 

Don't disagree, although...

UCLA has played Rutgers the last two years and I think it was a great experience for both teams.

From what I hear, this season the Bruins will make three trips East, playing two opponents each trip. Not that dissimilar from past schedules where they'd make a Bay Area trip for Stanford and Cal and a Pacific NW trip for UW and OSU, albeit with longer flights.

 

Beyond the longer flights, the time difference is the biggest change from those northern two game trips. It takes a full day to travel east and the jet lag can be real when they play. Nothing they haven't done before on occasion, but it can mess with your internal clock if you have to do it repeatedly over a season, especially if you don't sleep well on a plane.