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New Men’s NCAA Regional Alignments for 2009
7 Comments · Posted by Jim Matson in Uncategorized
While the news about the realignment of the NCAA regions was released in 2008, many fans are still asking about the details behind the new regional alignments. As there have been some fairly significant changes to the regions, including a brand new North Region, we thought that a complete list would help fans sort out the changes. How will the new alignments affect your school? Let us know.
North Region (new): IIAC, Midwest, and the MIAC. Pool B includes the WIAC conference (no AQ), and Nebraska Wesleyan. Also included are Bethany Lutheran, Crown, Martin Luther, North Central University, Minn-Morris, Northwestern College (MN), and St. Scholastica.
West Region: SCIAC, Northwest, American Southwest, and 5 in the SCAC – Austin, Colorado, Hendrix, Trinity, and Southwestern. Pool B includes Cal State East Bay, UC-Santa Cruz, and Chapman. La Sierra is provisional this season.
Central Region: SLIAC, MIAA, CCIW, NAC, 2 from the UAA – Chicago and Washington University, and 1 from the North Eastern Athletics Conference – University of Dallas.
Great Lakes Region: NCAC, Allegheny Mountain Conference, OAC, Heartland, PAC, 2 from the UAA – Carnegie Mellon and Case Western, and 2 from the SCAC – DePauw and Centre.
Mid-Atlantic Region: Colonial States, Commonwealth, Landmark, Centennial, Freedom, and 3 from the North Eastern Athletics Conference – Penn State Abington (provisional), Penn State Harrisburg (provisional), and Penn State Berks College. The Pool B candidate is Lancaster Bible (provisional).
South Atlantic Region: ODAC, Capital Athletic Conference, USA South, NJAC, 5 from the SCAC – Millsaps, Oglethorpe, Rhodes, University of the South, and Birmingham-Southern (provisional), and 1 from the UAC – Emory. The Pool B programs are Rust College, and the Great South Athletic Conference – Huntington, La Grange, Maryville (Tenn.), and Piedmont.
East Region: Liberty League, SUNYAC, Empire 8, CUNYAC, Skyline, 2 from the UAA – NYU and Rochester, 5 from the North Eastern Athletic Conference – Cazenovia, Keuka, SUNY-Utica/Rome, Wells, and SUNY-Cobleskill (provisional), and 3 from the Allegheny Mountain Conference – Hilbert, D’Youville, and Medaille.
New England Region: Little East, Commonwealth Coast, NESCAC, North Atlantic Conference, NEWMAC, Great Northeast, MSCAC, and 1 from the UAA – Brandeis. The Pool B programs are Elms, Lesley, Becker, Daniel Webster, University of Main-Presque Isle, Southern Vermont, Newbury, and Mitchell (provisional).
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Author comment by hickory_cornhusker · August 17, 2009 at 10:32 am
I like them. It makes sense to have 8 regions like most of the other sports. I would however move the MIAA to the Great Lakes and place the HCAC into the Central. The HCAC is with those schools in the Midwest for basketball while the MIAA is in the Great Lakes. Besides which state is more of a Great Lakes state than Michigan. Although the Midwest Conference isn’t in the Midwest Region for baseball.
Author comment by Pat Coleman · August 17, 2009 at 11:00 am
If Susquehanna is listed as a Pool B team somewhere, that listing is in error. Susquehanna is in the Landmark.
Author comment by Jim Matson · August 17, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Good call, Pat. Susquehanna is listed but obviously they are part of the Landmark. I made the adjustment so as not to scare any of our Crusader friends!
Author comment by Flying Weasel · August 25, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Good summary of the realignment. A couple comments/suggestions.
In the new North Region it might make sense to just list the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) which now has an automatic bid instead of the individual schools (Bethany Lutheran, Crown, Martin Luther, Minn-Morris, Northwestern College (MN), Presentation and St. Scholastica). They are listed almost as if independents that would be in Pool B.
In the New England region, all the Pool B schools except Maine-Pesque Isle are part of the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) which does not have an automatic bid at this point in time.
And a question. Is it confirmed that U.S Merhcant Marine will be in the Mid-Atlantic due to its membership in the Landmark Conference? They had been in the old Metro region and geographically would have moved to the East region (formerly Northeast) with the other non-NJAC school of the old Metro region. It would make sense for them to be in the Mid-Atlantic to keep the Landmark together, but that PDF summary release from the NCAA (http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/bff449804e0baa0fa20bf21ad6fc8b25/MensFinal+Realignment+for+2009-10.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=bff449804e0baa0fa20bf21ad6fc8b25) didn’t have them listed at all that I could tell. So I just wondered if there was confirmation of this or is it just a logical assumption?
Author comment by Jim Matson · August 25, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Flying Weasel, your reputation precedes you – welcome to D3soccer.com!
Good suggestions. I wanted to provide a large does of clarity, but it would be more efficient to just focus on conferences – after all, it is all going that direction anyway.
As best I can discover, USMM will be in the Mid-atlantic. If I find out anything new, I’ll post it here.
Your thoughts on the alignment? So far, the overall feedback has been positive.
Author comment by northernsoccer · August 31, 2009 at 9:48 pm
FYI – THe UMAC does not recieve an AQ until the 2010 season. For 2009 the eight teams in the confernce will be considered for Pool B.
Author comment by Flying Weasel · September 1, 2009 at 5:26 am
Upon further review, yes, you are correct. UMAC only gets the AQ in 2010. The 2008 D-III men’s soccer championship handbook said it was in 2009, but that just adds to the list or errors and/or typos found in that and other NCAA publications. Thanks for the correction