Category Archives: Mid-Atlantic shuffle

More conference dominoes fall

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With the loss of Bard and Polytechnic to the Skyline, the North Eastern Athletic Conference is digging further down to fill the gap. The league announced this week it was adding Penn State-Harrisburg, Wells and Wilson.

Penn State-Harrisburg will apparently begin its provisional four-year period in Division III in the fall of 2007. Wells and Wilson are already Division III members and are refugees of the Atlantic Women’s Colleges Conference. Wells has started admitting men and will add basketball in 2008-09, for both genders. Wells was one of the few schools in Division III without basketball. Wilson remains women-only.

The NEAC will be losing Bard, Chestnut Hill, Polytechnic, SUNY-Purchase and Villa Julie at the conclusion of this academic year. So for those who have lost track (and let’s be honest, that’s gotta be most of us), here’s the NEAC 2007-08 lineup:
Baptist Bible, Cazenovia, D’Youville, Keuka, Keystone, Penn State-Berks, Penn State-Harrisbug, Philadelphia Biblical, Wells and Wilson.

Unfortunately, this group will get an automatic bid.

It’s hard to imagine this group won’t change again. They’re all over the map, geographically and philosophically.

The next phase of conference shuffling

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We’re told to expect some more conference shuffling today, as the SCAC made the foregone-conclusion addition of Birmingham-Southern official on Thursday afternoon.

Today, we’re expecting to see Centenary and Notre Dame (Md.) added to the increasingly misnomered Pennsylvania Athletic Conference. Notre Dame is effectively an independent with the breakup of the Atlantic Women’s Colleges Conference. But Centenary becomes the fourth team to leave the Skyline in nine months, joining Stevens (which left two conferences in that time), Kings Point and Manhattanville.

Oh, sorry, Kings Point has finally decided between its two interchangeable names and wants to be known as the United States Merchant Marine Academy. We’ll settle for Merchant Marine.

Remember, Manhattanville joined the MAC Freedom, Stevens the Interstate 8, then the Empire 8, and Kings Point the Interstate 8.

We’re expecting a name for the Interstate 8 … which is currently 7 … but not an eighth school. That’s yet to come. The only word we’ve heard around namewise for this league contains “Chesapeake.” That would be interesting for Drew and Merchant Marine, since I am reminded every time I drive north on 95 (the Interstate, remember?) that the Chesapeake Bay watershed terminates significantly south of Northern Jersey.

I still like my name better.

But the question remains over the future of the Skyline. They’d be down to seven teams in men’s. Having Russell Sage on board (still no word) would help the women’s side, though with SUNY-Maritime struggling to field a women’s basketball team there isn’t much of a buffer. And the league wouldn’t have too many automatic bids outside of basketball. What’s next? Raid the NEAC? They’re at 10 teams and falling for 2007-08 after losing Villa Julie (CAC) and Chestnut Hill (moving down to Division II). Polytechnic and Bard are in the Skyline’s footprint. Perhaps the Skyline could be absorbed by the NEAC (or vice versa) and form a “super” conference.

I use the term loosely.

The dominoes are still falling.

Conference shake-ups continue

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With more conferences changes in the Mid-Atlantic and Atlantic regions, this seems like a good time to summarize where everyone stands…at least for now. Below is a listing of who will be where in 2007-2008 (new members in bold).

I hypothesized on Hoopsville that, when all the moves are finished, the little conferences will hurt the most. The Interstate 8 (now 7) pulled members from the CAC, MAC Commonwealth and Freedom and Skyline. As those conferences scramble to fill spots and protect their AQs, they are pulling members from the PAC, NEAC and Skyline.

The PAC lost Wesley to the CAC and Arcadia to the MAC-Commonwealth. The Reading Eagle reports that Alvernia could also move soon.

I don’t think the PAC will approach the same endangered status as the AWCC. But the Skyline could be in trouble, at least for the women’s AQ. They lost King’s Point, Manhattanville and Stevens Tech, leaving just 7 members. And SUNY-Maritime is struggling as a program after dropping out of conference play for last season.

The Reading Eagle article cited above also says the MAC is immediately considering four teams – Arcadia, Alvernia, Manhattanville and a mystery team. Alvernia might be a natural fit for the MAC Commonwealth since it’s very close to current member Albright. Perhaps the fourth team has football, which is a concern given the departure of Juniata, Moravian and Susquehanna.

AWCC (Lost 4)

Notre Dame
Trinity (DC)
Wilson

Chatham will join the Presidents Athletic Conference. Mary-Baldwin will join the USAC.

CAC (Added 3, lost 2)

Gallaudet
Hood
Marymount
Mary Washington
Salisbury
St. Mary’s (Md.)
Villa Julie
York (Pa.)
Wesley

Hood men will join the CAC in 2006 since they are independent.

Interstate 7 (Added 8, lost 1)

Drew
Catholic
Goucher
Juniata
King’s Point
Moravian
Susquehanna

Stevens Tech ducked out of this new entity to join the Empire 8.

MAC-Commonwealth (Added 1, lost 3)

Albright
Elizabethtown
Lebanon Valley
Lycoming
Messiah
Widener

MAC-Freedom (Added 2, lost 2)

Arcadia
Delaware Valley
DeSales
FDU-Florham
King’s
Manhattanville
Scranton
Wilkes

PAC (Lost 2)

Alvernia
Cabrini
Cedar Crest (Women’s only)
Eastern
Gwynedd-Mercy
Immaculata
Marywod
Misericordia
Neumann
Rosemont (Women’s only)

NEAC (Added Chestnut Hill women, lost 1)

Baptist Bible
Bard
Cazenovia
Chestnut Hill (Women added)
D’Youville
Keuka
Keystone
Penn State-Berks
Philadelphia Bible
Polytechnic
SUNY-Purchase

Skyline (Lost 3)

Centenary
Mount St. Mary
Mt. St. Vincent
St.Joseph’s (L.I.)
SUNY-Farmingdale
SUNY-Maritime (Men only?)
SUNY-Old Westbury

The SUNY-Maritime women did not compete in the Skyline Conference last season.

The Northern Athletic Conference speaks!

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The Northern Athletic Conference is, indeed, alive! A story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel talks to actual people involved in the process, which has been pretty silent over the past year.

For those who haven’t heard of the league, and I’m sure there are many, the NathCon (sorry, NAC is already taken in D-III) consists of Alverno, Aurora, Benedictine, Concordia (Ill.), Concordia (Wis.), Dominican, Edgewood, Lakeland, Maranatha Baptist, Marian, Rockford and Wisconsin Lutheran.

Oh yeah, that’s why you haven’t heard of it. If a conference forms, and no schools issue press releases, does it make a sound?

The sound being made in today’s paper is from Milwaukee School of Engineering, which found itself on the outside looking in on its attempt to enter the Midwest Conference. Clarke is also trying to get into the NathCon.

It’s the end of the Lake Michigan Conference and the Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference. It might result in an extra Pool B bid for the next two seasons, while the NathCon goes through its waiting period.

Another new conference we have no news on is the Interstate 8. Stevens dropped out of the newly formed conference earlier this year to join the Empire 8. Rumors immediately flew that Elizabethtown was to replace them and bring the league back up to eight, but there has been no official word.

Where will the pieces fall?

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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.