(Emphasis added.) Apart from the clear "special status" of the now Power 4, which the NCAA conferred a couple of years ago, the definition favors conferences with teams at the top that are strong enough to be NCAA Tournament contenders. The Ivy League is the smallest conference and the WCC is in the next group of small conferences and they both are in the "next seven conferences group."
UMass on the move: https://www.espn.com/college-sports...umass-set-become-13th-member-mac-25-26-season
Can someone explain this? All about Football but closest school is Buffalo? The A-10 has like 8 schools closer, some real close. Can't be good for soccer.
Will be interesting to see if the mass exodus of the upper range of players continues at the youth level, because of the realignment. Who wants to play in the ACC and have to travel across multiple time zones. Impact to the UCLA's and USC's of the world are coming. Kids will realize mom and dad won't be at games as much. Getting to Happy Valley from CA will be an absolute nightmare. Would presume non-power 4 like Santa Clara will start to get better talent because of realignment.
If you scroll back and read this thread, there has been some good discussion of this. There are folks out there using words like "nightmare" but I think we will all see that for Women's Soccer, its not going to be a big adjustment for most P4 programs. a few points- -conferences are already using schedules with pods/divisions/groups and rotating games rather than play a full round-robin. Some are more public about it than others but no one in women's soccer is making several cross country trips for conf games every Fall. Even with a full RR schedule, it would be once every other year you'd play At that specific school so twice in a player's career. Some teams may only make the CC trip for a specific conf game once in a 4-year cycle. At least for the East teams going West. The former Pac12 teams may have to travel an extra weekend but we'll see. -Distances - Rutgers/MD/Penn State are already traveling to Minn/Wisconsin/Nebraska for games and vice versa. Oregon/Wash schools have been flying over 1000 miles to play AZ schools or in CO. Florida St already goes to IN/NY/MA for games and vice versa. A bit longer flights to play on the opposite coast ls not a big adjustment. With a sectional or divisional schedule, it could end up being the same number of trips, just to different towns/schools. -Some of them are already doing this! - FSU chose to go to TX for 2 games in '23. Duke hosted USC and went to Stanford while Stanford came east to play Georgetown and VCU. They will clearly not do this as much in the non-conf season and just make those kinds of trips later in the year. Yes- it will be worse and not better on the players. IMHO, it stinks overall that FB has done this to major college sports and destroyed the Pac10/12. But the reality is that they may miss a class day to two more and later in the year. Maybe you could argue timezone issues/jetlag is a factor but as I said, long conference trips and even cross country games have already been happening. We'll see when schedules are released but it's not quite a "nightmare". The sky is not falling. But I'm sure coaches outside the P4 will say it is and kids will believe that! For other sports that play more games - Baseball/Softball/Basketball - could be more of a change but their travel is already crazy too.
But for non revenue sports ... not all travel is the same. Late night bus rides and commercial air isn't as elegant as the B Ball team flying chartered. Traveling across the same time zone is definitely not even close to traveling from the East to West and then back East 3 days later. Don't disagree with the POD format (IE: Big Ten WEST / EAST). But even with that going from Iowa City to Washington and Eugene will be rough.
The West Coast Conference and Big West Conference have a chance to start getting some additional recruits by promoting local play.
Yep, that's my thinking too and my reason for starting the discussion. I think that there will be some savvy, non-Power 4 coaches who will really be able to exploit the "local play" angle to some of those elite players who are not looking to continue their careers past college soccer.
Do you really think 17 year olds will see travel as a negative though? I think they will think it is fun and exciting to be able to travel around the country. I know it will be tiring but I don't think they will understand that as a 17 year old when they make their decisions.
The issue may be more what the parents think about having to fly cross-country to see their daughters play and how that balances against the very high status (whether appropriate or not) of playing for a Power 4 team. But my overall view is that we will have to wait and see what transpires.
I suppose someone out there is going to call the Duke schedule a 'nightmare'. Looks pretty good to me. Choosing to travel for 2 BIG games early and have that one West Coast weekend.
Why UNC 2x? A very challenging schedule. OSU, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Missouri in the non-conference slate.
UNC and Duke have played a second game, which is a non-conference game for ACC standings purposes, a number of times. I guess the rationale is that it is high level competition with virtually no travel expense against a key rival. From an RPI perspective, the extra game has a slight negative effect on the other ACC teams' ratings.
Wouldn’t it also be slightly negative to both team’s conference RPI compared to playing an equally good team from out of conference?
Not part of the "big" realignment, but internet buzz says Texas RGV is moving from WAC to Southland, beginning with the 2024-25 school year.
QUOTE: ... Yep, that's my thinking too and my reason for starting the discussion. I think that there will be some savvy, non-Power 4 coaches who will really be able to exploit the "local play" angle to some of those elite players who are not looking to continue their careers past college soccer.[/QUOTE] I really think it will be just the opposite... 18 year olds will love the opportunity to travel, it's maybe two more big trips than usual. In fact, I think the Big West and especially the historic WCC teams are panicking more than ever not being in the Power 4 and the access and additional luxuries they provide... Allston Award $, COA money and the more nationwide, all expenses paid travel.
I really think it will be just the opposite... 18 year olds will love the opportunity to travel, it's maybe two more big trips than usual. In fact, I think the Big West and especially the historic WCC teams are panicking more than ever not being in the Power 4 and the access and additional luxuries they provide... Allston Award $, COA money and the more nationwide, all expenses paid travel.[/QUOTE] There is little glamorous about NCAA Women’s Soccer travel and for serious students, it’s a challenge to keep up with classes. I don’t believe added travel will be a net positive incentive.
I am not sure that 18-year olds wanting to travel is going to be that important. I think a bigger question will be whether their parents want to take multiple long distance trips a year to the places where their opponents will be located. Yes, they will be able to use the internet to watch games, but a lot of parents want to be there in person.
Saw in Hot Seats about Mercyhurst going D1 to NEC. Thought I would move it over here. I don't think the NEC is done as I heard they wanted to add 2. New Haven is another school I heard strongly linked. Know they want to go D1, but are taking there time to try to get it right (unheard of in college athletics). As for Mercyhurst, I grew up in PA and I know the PSAC (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference) quite well. Many of those schools are really struggling (groups of them have even combined in a loose collaborations where they share academic resources/majors, but keep athletic autonomy). My guess is many programs will be underfunded, but want the enrollment boost that comes with a Division 1 tag vs Division 2. I think they already play D1 in hockey.
Came out today so official. The NEC is a D1 bottom rung and is actively protecting itself by plucking D2s when it can. Kinda ugly but can you blame them? I quoted a MBB coach in the Transfer Portal thread about how college coaches used to be long-term investors but are now day-traders. Well so are many the conferences!
Definitely don't blame either side. Not a pretty time for lower division conferences, teams, and academic institutions. I know many of those PA state schools are struggling not just athletically, but financially as an institution. They are both just trying to find situations that provide some stability.