Conference changes

[gordonmann]

Corrected (I think)

Provisional Pipeline for 2019-2020
First year full members: Belhaven (confirmed)
*4th year provisional members: Brevard (confirmed), Pfeiffer (confirmed)
*3rd year provisional members:  Dean (presumed)
2nd year provisional members: SUNY-Delhi, Johnson and Wales (Col.) (confirmed)
1st year provisional members: Pratt, University of St Thomas (TX), Mississippi University for Women.
Exploratory: Bob Jones, Warren Wilson
*Games against Year 3 and 4 provisional members count the same as games against full-members for regional-ranking and tournament selection purposes

Conference Changes Starting in 2019-2020
Alfred State leaves the ACAA for the AMCC
UC-Santa Cruz joins the ACAA
Frostburg State leaves D3 for D2
Manhattanville leaves the MACF for the SKY
New Rochelle (IND) closes
Newbury (NECC) closes
Penn State-Harrisburg leaves the CAC for a return to the NEAC
Southern Vermont (NECC) closes
Staten Island leaves D3 for D2 (plays full D3 schedule. Not eligible for post-season)
Stevens leaves the E8 for the MACF
St. Elizabeth leaves the NEAC for the CSAC
Texas-Tyler leaves D3 for D2
Thomas More leaves D3 for the NAIA

Side note: Simmons discontinues its women's program

Conference Changes Starting in 2020-2021
Arcadia shifts from the MAC Commonwealth to the MAC Freedom
Eastern shifts from the MAC Freedom to the MAC Commonwealth
Franciscan leaves the AMCC for the Presidents' Athletic Conference
Keuka leaves the NEAC for the E8
Lycoming shifts from the MAC Commonwealth to the MAC Freedom
Suffolk leaves the GNAC for the CCC
SUNY Dehli leaves the ACAA for the NAC
Valley Forge leaves the ACAA for the CSAC
York (Pa.) leaves the CAC for the MAC Commonwealth

Conference Changes Starting in 2021-2022
St. Norbert leaves the MWC for the NACC
St. Thomas involuntarily removed from MIAC, will go to

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Pfeiffer has a press release saying they'll be Year Four provisional this year.  Did they get that wrong?

[gordonmann]

No, I got it wrong. Thanks for the correction. I fixed it below.

[Caz Bombers]

No, I got it wrong. Thanks for the correction. I fixed it below.

and then in the 20-21 column as noted last week, Dean from NECC to GNAC.

[Christan Shirk]

The ACAA just keeps on trying to make fetch happen. It's not gonna happen, guys.

The ACAA still allows a school to have Player of the Week, All-Conference and All-Academic awards.

They're getting close to AQs in a few sports.  I think they'll probably keep plugging away.

Apparently not everyone is OK with an AQ going to a conference with an arrangement like the ACAA (and the GSAC in its latter years) where there is no conference regular season schedule, just an end-of-season conference tournament.  The Conference Automatic Qualification Requirements Working Group of the Division III Championships Committee looked at this issue and the potential for some sort of a conference regular season requirement and they ended up recommending that teams should be required to play regular season games against at least 70% of their conference opponents in order to be eligible to earn the conference's automatic berth.  The Championships Committee supported the concept, but wouldn't endorse a specific percentage, wanting feedback from the Division III Conference Commissioners Association concerning what percentage of conference opponents teams currently play in other conferences.

[Sources:
http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/diii-championships-committee-shifts-approach-regional-realignment (at the end)
https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/committees/d3/champs/Jun2019D3CC_Report.pdf (see item 10)

Now, I note that the recommendation as described does not speak to conference eligibility for an automatic berth, but rather team eligibility to earn that automatic berth. But despite the difference, the effect could be the same in the end.  Some of the incentive (i.e. a chance at an automatic berth) to join a geographically scattered conference with only a conference tournament would be lost, and with reduced incentive it could become even harder to recruit enough schools to gain the automatic berth in the first place.  Sure, there's still the incentive to have a chance at a conference championship and conference awards/honors.



Another change in the works that could impact (and in this case help) a conference like the ACAA is a proposal to allow schools in Years 3 and 4 of provision/reclassifying membership to count toward a conference's minimum of seven teams during the 2-year waiting period following a successful application for an automatic berth.  The conference would need seven full/active D-III members to apply for and receive the AQ, but if during the 2-year waiting period, a team(s) would leave the conference, teams in the final two years of the transition to D-III could be used to make up the numbers and not lose the AQ.

[hickory_cornhusker]

The ACAA just keeps on trying to make fetch happen. It's not gonna happen, guys.

The ACAA still allows a school to have Player of the Week, All-Conference and All-Academic awards.

They're getting close to AQs in a few sports.  I think they'll probably keep plugging away.

Apparently not everyone is OK with an AQ going to a conference with an arrangement like the ACAA (and the GSAC in its latter years) where there is no conference regular season schedule, just an end-of-season conference tournament.  The Conference Automatic Qualification Requirements Working Group of the Division III Championships Committee looked at this issue and the potential for some sort of a conference regular season requirement and they ended up recommending that teams should be required to play regular season games against at least 70% of their conference opponents in order to be eligible to earn the conference's automatic berth.  The Championships Committee supported the concept, but wouldn't endorse a specific percentage, wanting feedback from the Division III Conference Commissioners Association concerning what percentage of conference opponents teams currently play in other conferences.

[Sources:
http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/diii-championships-committee-shifts-approach-regional-realignment (at the end)
https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/committees/d3/champs/Jun2019D3CC_Report.pdf (see item 10)

Now, I note that the recommendation as described does not speak to conference eligibility for an automatic berth, but rather team eligibility to earn that automatic berth. But despite the difference, the effect could be the same in the end.  Some of the incentive (i.e. a chance at an automatic berth) to join a geographically scattered conference with only a conference tournament would be lost, and with reduced incentive it could become even harder to recruit enough schools to gain the automatic berth in the first place.  Sure, there's still the incentive to have a chance at a conference championship and conference awards/honors.



Another change in the works that could impact (and in this case help) a conference like the ACAA is a proposal to allow schools in Years 3 and 4 of provision/reclassifying membership to count toward a conference's minimum of seven teams during the 2-year waiting period following a successful application for an automatic berth.  The conference would need seven full/active D-III members to apply for and receive the AQ, but if during the 2-year waiting period, a team(s) would leave the conference, teams in the final two years of the transition to D-III could be used to make up the numbers and not lose the AQ.

Question about the 70% rule though with St. Norbert leaving the MWC it's likely to be a moot point at least for now. They had 12 teams for football (two 6 team divisions). You played your division (5) and crossover and played two teams for the other division (2). Then there was the championship at the end (1st vs 1st, 2nd vs 2nd, etc). It is possible you could play a team you met in the crossover and would end up playing 7 of 11 conference teams for 63.6% of the conference. Is this possibly why the percentage to use was thrown into question?

[Flying Weasel]

The ACAA just keeps on trying to make fetch happen. It's not gonna happen, guys.

The ACAA still allows a school to have Player of the Week, All-Conference and All-Academic awards.

They're getting close to AQs in a few sports.  I think they'll probably keep plugging away.

Apparently not everyone is OK with an AQ going to a conference with an arrangement like the ACAA (and the GSAC in its latter years) where there is no conference regular season schedule, just an end-of-season conference tournament.  The Conference Automatic Qualification Requirements Working Group of the Division III Championships Committee looked at this issue and the potential for some sort of a conference regular season requirement and they ended up recommending that teams should be required to play regular season games against at least 70% of their conference opponents in order to be eligible to earn the conference's automatic berth.  The Championships Committee supported the concept, but wouldn't endorse a specific percentage, wanting feedback from the Division III Conference Commissioners Association concerning what percentage of conference opponents teams currently play in other conferences.

[Sources:
http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/diii-championships-committee-shifts-approach-regional-realignment (at the end)
https://ncaaorg.s3.amazonaws.com/committees/d3/champs/Jun2019D3CC_Report.pdf (see item 10)

Now, I note that the recommendation as described does not speak to conference eligibility for an automatic berth, but rather team eligibility to earn that automatic berth. But despite the difference, the effect could be the same in the end.  Some of the incentive (i.e. a chance at an automatic berth) to join a geographically scattered conference with only a conference tournament would be lost, and with reduced incentive it could become even harder to recruit enough schools to gain the automatic berth in the first place.  Sure, there's still the incentive to have a chance at a conference championship and conference awards/honors.



Another change in the works that could impact (and in this case help) a conference like the ACAA is a proposal to allow schools in Years 3 and 4 of provision/reclassifying membership to count toward a conference's minimum of seven teams during the 2-year waiting period following a successful application for an automatic berth.  The conference would need seven full/active D-III members to apply for and receive the AQ, but if during the 2-year waiting period, a team(s) would leave the conference, teams in the final two years of the transition to D-III could be used to make up the numbers and not lose the AQ.

Question about the 70% rule though with St. Norbert leaving the MWC it's likely to be a moot point at least for now. They had 12 teams for football (two 6 team divisions). You played your division (5) and crossover and played two teams for the other division (2). Then there was the championship at the end (1st vs 1st, 2nd vs 2nd, etc). It is possible you could play a team you met in the crossover and would end up playing 7 of 11 conference teams for 63.6% of the conference. Is this possibly why the percentage to use was thrown into question?

Like you, I assume when the NCAA refers to "regular season" that includes the conference tournaments (basically, from the NCAA perspective, everything pre-NCAA tournament is regular season).  But as you point out, there's not always a guarantee that you face different conference opponents in the conference tournament.  So, is this additional encouragement to keep conferences from getting so big?

I think there are two key questions in settling on a threshold percentage:
(1) What to do with the larger conferences that have two divisions?  Whatever percentage threshold that's settled on would be easier to meet in a smaller, single-division conference than in a large, two-division conference.
(2) How difficult do they want to make it for a conference just trying to give a home to geographically-dispersed independents?

[Caz Bombers]

Dean College is the third school in the provisional pipeline. I don't know if they got a waiver, but they did get a new conference.

http://www.deanbulldogs.com/general/2019-20/releases/20190710exsvv3

This reverses GNAC's loss of Suffolk but it also drops the NECC below seven teams for men's basketball. Pending future changes (which are almost a given at this point), the Conference will have seven members but only six men's teams starting in 2020-21 because Bay Path doesn't have men's sports.

impacts on the NECC...

field hockey/men's lacrosse - already combined with the NAC for 1 auto bid**; men's golf - already Pool B anyway; M/W XC-T&F - non-auto bid sports

WBB, WSOC, women's VB, softball - down to 7 teams but hang on to Pool A by their fingernails for now

MSOC, MBB, baseball - grace period begins fall 2020; will be Pool B starting in 2022-23 if no other additions

men's volleyball - grace period starts this fall anyway, Pool B in 2022 season. Only 3 core NECC remaining members will sponsor MVB (Elms, ENC, Lesley), without that number getting up to at least 4 they can never get the auto bid back once they lose it.

women's lacrosse - grace period was already starting 2019-20 due to only 6 remaining teams, that will become 5. B in 2022.

**when Dean leaves, it looks like the combined NECC/NAC FH will only have 6 teams, thus starting the clock to be Pool B in fall 2022. I imagine the 3 remaining NECC men's lacrosse teams (NEC, Becker, Mitchell) will just be absorbed into the 7-team NAC, although Mitchell is a long drive.

going to correct myself on a couple points about the NECC...I think.

Field hockey will keep Pool A because they added Manhattanville as an affiliate member. The league standings page lists Bay Path for 2019 after not playing in 2018, but they discontinued the sport.

Men's soccer, men's hoops and baseball - grace period should actually start this year not next because although they have 7 teams, one of them (Dean) is not yet postseason eligible. So Pool B in 2021-22. (This is probably the only one of my three points truly relevant to this board)

Women's lacrosse - grace period should have already started with 7 teams/6 eligible in spring '19. Pool B in spring '21.

[Inkblot]

going to correct myself on a couple points about the NECC...I think.

Field hockey will keep Pool A because they added Manhattanville as an affiliate member. The league standings page lists Bay Path for 2019 after not playing in 2018, but they discontinued the sport.

Men's soccer, men's hoops and baseball - grace period should actually start this year not next because although they have 7 teams, one of them (Dean) is not yet postseason eligible. So Pool B in 2021-22. (This is probably the only one of my three points truly relevant to this board)

Women's lacrosse - grace period should have already started with 7 teams/6 eligible in spring '19. Pool B in spring '21.

Aren't provisional teams allowed to count now? At any rate, I think Dean's football team is counting for the ECFC – if it wasn't, the ECFC would have already finished the grace period and would be in Pool B this year.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

I believe third and fourth year teams count towards membership numbers.

[Caz Bombers]

this text was in a post earlier on this page:

Another change in the works that could impact (and in this case help) a conference like the ACAA is a proposal to allow schools in Years 3 and 4 of provision/reclassifying membership to count toward a conference's minimum of seven teams during the 2-year waiting period following a successful application for an automatic berth.  The conference would need seven full/active D-III members to apply for and receive the AQ, but if during the 2-year waiting period, a team(s) would leave the conference, teams in the final two years of the transition to D-III could be used to make up the numbers and not lose the AQ.

that would seem to indicate this is not currently the case and teams that haven't graduated to active status don't count towards the 7 at this time.

[Inkblot]

They don't count in the waiting period, but I think they do otherwise.

[Dave 'd-mac' McHugh]

Sorry for my absents of late ... long story.

This was announced the other day: https://www.nacathletics.com/general/2019-20/releases/20190816fziny7

This brings to the close what had become an interesting game of chess - or chicken. Long story short, the NEAC appears to have tried to save the three schools from leaving ... but they went anyway. They apparently are done with Morrisville according to multiple sources off the record. That's why Morrisville isn't part of this move, something I know was part of the plan for quite some time now.

NEAC loses three members. That will either be good or cause bigger problems. I am leaning towards the second option. I just don't see the rest of the northern part sticking, but I need to see where some other pieces are being placed before I have a better understanding.

[Caz Bombers]

Sorry for my absents of late ... long story.

This was announced the other day: https://www.nacathletics.com/general/2019-20/releases/20190816fziny7

This brings to the close what had become an interesting game of chess - or chicken. Long story short, the NEAC appears to have tried to save the three schools from leaving ... but they went anyway. They apparently are done with Morrisville according to multiple sources off the record. That's why Morrisville isn't part of this move, something I know was part of the plan for quite some time now.

NEAC loses three members. That will either be good or cause bigger problems. I am leaning towards the second option. I just don't see the rest of the northern part sticking, but I need to see where some other pieces are being placed before I have a better understanding.

Whoa. That's a big shakeup out there. Wells and the Empire 8 would be a great fit for each other. Could Mooville return to the SUNYAC? Not sure the ADs would be thrilled about going to 11, but they could make it work if they wanted to.

Looking at the impact on the NEAC from the announcement...

MBB/WBB/MSOC/WSOC/SOFT/WVB - 12 to 8. Pool B clock would only start if both Morrisville and Wells leave.

BSB - goes from 10 teams to 11 this spring with PSU Harrisburg, but down to 7 next year when Keuka, Caz, Poly, Cobleskill leave. Morrisville doesn't have baseball, but a Wells departure would make 6 and start the Pool B clock.

MGOLF - 8 to 9 this year (1 affiliate member) then down to 7; clock starts if Morrisville leaves (Wells does not sponsor)

MLAX - 9 this year (3 affiliate members) then down to 5, Pool B in 2023; if MSC and Wells also leave then basically NEAC men's lacrosse disappears.
WLAX - 10 this year (3 affiliate members) then down to 7; clock starts if either M or W also leaves. Would be <4 core members too.

MTEN/WTEN - no change. Combined championship with the NAC for a Pool A bid, none of the departing schools have tennis and neither do Wells or Morrisville State.

MVB - this gets super weird to me. They weren't Pool A until 2017, then had 2 good years, then fell to 6 last season to start the grace period. Potsdam (first year program) was added as an affiliate member for this coming season which puts them back at 7. However in '21, although none of the departing schools have Pool A conferences to definitely join (Keuka could do UVC) and they could all agree to stay together - the NEAC will have no more than 2 core members with men's volleyball and possibly only one (LBC). I guess that would restart the clock for Pool B in 2023. I have another theory on what will happen, but it's very MVB-specific and only the VolleyTalk forum would likely care.

FH - NEAC field hockey was never Pool A and will simply cease to exist after this season.

[gordonmann]

Mary Baldwin will add a men's team in 2021-22.

https://www.d3hoops.com/notables/2019/08/mary-baldwin-adds-mens-hoops