Today’s announcement of a new league being formed is just the first of what is likely to be many changes in conferences over the next year or so. Legislation is on the table at the upcoming NCAA convention to allow conferences to change membership without resulting in the loss of an automatic bid. (Currently, even if the members remain at seven each year, there’s a danger of losing the automatic bid if the number of consistent members from year to year falls below a certain level.)
The three MAC football expatriates, who will be playing football in the Liberty League or Centennial Conference and everything else in the “Interstate Eight” — we can call it that for now — got it started by leaving the MAC back in October, ending a period of speculation that had teams moving to the Presidents’ Athletic Conference, to the Centennial, from the Capital and the like.
Villa Julie to the CAC is a lock, just waiting to dot the I’s and cross the T’s. Hood is a natural, although the MAC is pursuing them as well. Wesley is going to be a strong CAC candidate as well, after getting turned down some years back. Frostburg State is locked into position in the AMCC until the summer, when the school will be looking for a new president, but could be a candidate, if the private schools in the league are willing to consent to take on another state school.
The MAC has to be worried. It sent out feelers to six schools and two of them must have football. Even Gallaudet, whose football program is club status, is getting looks because of that, and Misericordia has expressed an interest in adding the sport as well. Some say three schools from the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference are on the six-school list, though sources disagree on which ones aside from Misericordia.
Even the Atlantic Women’s Colleges Conference, which I had given up for dead about six months ago, seems to be breathing. The conference watched Hood and Chestnut Hill add men and saw Mary Baldwin latch up with the USA South and did nothing with its membership for more than a year, putting it in danger of losing its automatic bid (and it still could, for a year or more). But salvation might come in the form of St. Elizabeth, an all-women’s school in New Jersey, and New Rochelle, in New York. That’s a mission worth saving, and with a little more action a year ago the conference would be in better shape now.
There’s already shuffling in the Northeast, with Western New England talking about moving out of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference. The Commonwealth Coast Conference, North Atlantic Conference and GNAC could all see changes in membership since they are large enough to spawn other leagues and gobble up more automatic bids.
Beware.
In the Southeast there is talk of a new league forming involving Maryville (Tenn.), LaGrange, Piedmont, Huntingdon, Mississippi College, Louisiana College, and Oglethorpe. (Someone also told us Trinity (Texas) was looking at this league as well, but we took that with a grain of salt, as did our source.)
While we haven’t heard much rumbling from other parts of the country, the SCAC still has a stated mission of expansion on the table, after Rose-Hulman announced its pending departure for the HCAC this offseason and Austin College came in. Much of that movement could be football-related.
We’re in for an interesting few months. This “Interstate Eight” deal came together in a month or so. More will follow.
Pat,
I may have missed any previous discussion on d3hoops of forming new leagues;was there any discussion or are you releasing these thoughts for the first time?
This new league isn’t any different from the CAC, Freedom, or Commonwealth conferences from whence they came unless the partner weekend scheduling is their main reason for forming and wouldn’t be accomodated in their former leagues.
The new southeastern conference is interesting for several reasons. The travel for Mississippi College and Louisiana College would be as hard in the new conference. Mississippi College is just as distant from the GSAC schools as they are from the ASC-East. They wouldn’t have to play the West schools in crossover games and face getting beaten badly in football by the ASC-West powers. However, if the alumni base sees the new conference as overlapping the D-1 SEC, whose distances are quite familiar, then it might generate some alumni appeal.
The question for LC is similar, but they are farther west and don’t have Interstate 20 running past their campus. LC is only an easy 150 miles (2 hours) down I-49 from ETBU. They would bring value as another football school to the new southeastern conference.
At various times we have seen speculation about Oglethorpe playing football. Maryville, Huntingdon, LaGrange, Miss Coll, and LaCollege make five. Would Piedmont and Oglethorpe add football to get the AQ? What about Fisk? Might Fisk be excluded if Football became the deal-maker/breaker? Fisk might be compelled to resume football to stay in a new football conference.
The other dynamic in the GSAC is the number of women’s colleges. They are up to 8 full members in 2006-07. If LaCollege and MC join, then it might make sense to split into divisions for the women. The GA schools, Agnes Scott, Wesleyan, Spelman, Piedmont and LaGrange, are a nice conference. Maybe even Oglethorpe would jump to this new for travel considerations. That would leave Maryville, Huntingdon, MissColl, LaColl and possibly a Fisk.
Would Ozarks peel off the ASC-East as well? They don’t play football and I have heard no plans to add it in Clarksville AR. So, they don’t have that to add to a new southeastern conference. With the loss of their travel partner, Austin College, to the SCAC, they are even more isolated. However, Ozarks IS a charter member of the ASC, and so I don’t think they want to move.
I got the impression that Fisk being excluded from the list was not an accident. I do not know if the women’s schools are part of this setup or not.
Ronk, there’s been mostly behind the scenes discussion of this. I hadn’t begun to dig into it because I figured it wouldn’t come out until the voting at the NCAA convention.
I was wrong. 🙂
If a bunch of relatively non-competitive teams get together to form a new conference and no one notices, did it really happen?
From a men’s perspective…it should be called…
“That league Catholic is in and always wins”
Yes. And none of those schools will ever win another volleyball title.
If Juniata volleyball “goes Interstate,” then whoever’s left in the MAC finally has a chance at a conference championship in this millenium …. 🙂
When it comes to volleyball and soccer Stevens will perform very well.
Yeah, but they ain’t the Juniata ladies, ‘stalker.
From today’s Baltimore Sun, Villa Julie College has accepted an invitation from the Capital Athletic Conference to join the league in 16 of VJC’s 21 sports. The VJC field hockey and women’s lacrosse teams will begin CAC play in 2006-2007, while the other teams will join in 2007-2008.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/bal-sp.digest16dec16,1,3124997.column