Conference changes

[Gregory Sager]

Division III Athletic Directors should change their job title to "Conference Affiliation Determination Director". They seem to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure this out.

I'm sure that nobody is happier than my alma mater's AD about the fact that our conference has kept a core membership of the same eight schools (including my alma mater) intact for 57 years.

[y_jack_lok]

We've learned that Cabrini will be closing after the upcoming 2023-24 academic year:

https://d3sports.com/notables/2023/06/cabrini-university-to-be-sold

Thanks to this website and these boards I first started following D3 sports somewhat closely about 20 years ago. It's been fun and interesting, even when the news is about the closure of an institution. It seems to me that the number of D3 institutions that have closed, will be closing, or are in danger of closing (e.g. Birmingham Southern, which has had to appeal to the Alabama legislature for a loan to help it survive) has grown considerably in the past five to six years. Is that an accurate observation? (Certainly this wasn't a topic of conversation 10-15 years ago.) If so, are there factors in our society at large that are contributing to this? I think someone mentioned declining birth rates since 2008 which will affect enrollment nationwide. Are there other factors? Has anyone been tracking the closures and when they have been occurring that could confirm or refute my sense that this is a growing phenomenon?

[CNU85]

Division III Athletic Directors should change their job title to "Conference Affiliation Determination Director". They seem to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure this out.

I'm sure that nobody is happier than my alma mater's AD about the fact that our conference has kept a core membership of the same eight schools (including my alma mater) intact for 57 years.

Stability is a happy place to be! Wouldn't it be nice to focus on Athletics!? CNU was a member of the Dixie/USA South conference for 41 years.

[WashingtonWiz99]

We've learned that Cabrini will be closing after the upcoming 2023-24 academic year:

https://d3sports.com/notables/2023/06/cabrini-university-to-be-sold

Thanks to this website and these boards I first started following D3 sports somewhat closely about 20 years ago. It's been fun and interesting, even when the news is about the closure of an institution. It seems to me that the number of D3 institutions that have closed, will be closing, or are in danger of closing (e.g. Birmingham Southern, which has had to appeal to the Alabama legislature for a loan to help it survive) has grown considerably in the past five to six years. Is that an accurate observation? (Certainly this wasn't a topic of conversation 10-15 years ago.) If so, are there factors in our society at large that are contributing to this? I think someone mentioned declining birth rates since 2008 which will affect enrollment nationwide. Are there other factors? Has anyone been tracking the closures and when they have been occurring that could confirm or refute my sense that this is a growing phenomenon?

This is going to be the trend for the next 3-5 years. Small tuition dependent schools are gonna have tough time keeping doors open. Low enrollment. No money. Declining populations of people. Loan debt. Is a college degree really worth it? Facilities that are outdated.

[WUPHF]

Thanks to this website and these boards I first started following D3 sports somewhat closely about 20 years ago. It's been fun and interesting, even when the news is about the closure of an institution. It seems to me that the number of D3 institutions that have closed, will be closing, or are in danger of closing (e.g. Birmingham Southern, which has had to appeal to the Alabama legislature for a loan to help it survive) has grown considerably in the past five to six years. Is that an accurate observation? (Certainly this wasn't a topic of conversation 10-15 years ago.) If so, are there factors in our society at large that are contributing to this? I think someone mentioned declining birth rates since 2008 which will affect enrollment nationwide. Are there other factors? Has anyone been tracking the closures and when they have been occurring that could confirm or refute my sense that this is a growing phenomenon?

This is going to be the trend for the next 3-5 years. Small tuition dependent schools are gonna have tough time keeping doors open. Low enrollment. No money. Declining populations of people. Loan debt. Is a college degree really worth it? Facilities that are outdated.

Demographics are the biggest problem, though this will last longer than 3-5 years.  There are other challenges.  For example, the decline in the part-time, adult, professional education market.  For many small colleges, those were big revenue generators.

Or the change in enrollment strategy the the institutions who are able to grow their populations.  For the most part, every institution that can increase their enrollment (i.e. big universities) is doing so to the detriment of smaller colleges and universities.

Other challenges vary from institution to institution and region to region.

But yes, definitely an uptick over the last few years.

[KnightSlappy]

Pratt to join the Atlantic East in 2024. https://atlanticeast.com/news/2023/6/22/general-pratt-institute-to-join-the-atlantic-east-in-2024-25.aspx

That would drop C2C men's basketball to 5 teams and into Pool B for the 2026-27 season. Any women's sports AQs they had are all safe because Mount Mary exists; volleyball would be dropping to 5 except for the fact Warren Wilson is adding VB and will directly replace Pratt when they go. The only other men's sports Pratt has in the C2C are soccer (AQ safe) and tennis (didn't have an AQ to begin with).

I think C2C will be entering their 2-year grace period this next season in 2023-24 for MBB.

Finlandia has closed and Warren Wilson will not be a full member until 2024-25. I believe they will be at 5 full members in 2023-24 and 5 again in 2024-25 (add Warren Wilson, lose Pratt). If they don't add another they'll lose their Pool A in 2025-26.

There could be something I'm not considering here.

[KnightSlappy]

Any chance we lose a tournament bid and go down to a 63-team tournament in 2023-24? By my count we'll be at 412 teams (down one from 413) and, if I recall, the access ratio is 6.5.

412/6.5 = 63.38
413/6.5 = 63.54

Do they round down?

My guess is we stay at 64 since the chatter, even in D3, is about expanding tournament field access.

[Inkblot]

Pratt to join the Atlantic East in 2024. https://atlanticeast.com/news/2023/6/22/general-pratt-institute-to-join-the-atlantic-east-in-2024-25.aspx

That would drop C2C men's basketball to 5 teams and into Pool B for the 2026-27 season. Any women's sports AQs they had are all safe because Mount Mary exists; volleyball would be dropping to 5 except for the fact Warren Wilson is adding VB and will directly replace Pratt when they go. The only other men's sports Pratt has in the C2C are soccer (AQ safe) and tennis (didn't have an AQ to begin with).

I think C2C will be entering their 2-year grace period this next season in 2023-24 for MBB.

Finlandia has closed and Warren Wilson will not be a full member until 2024-25. I believe they will be at 5 full members in 2023-24 and 5 again in 2024-25 (add Warren Wilson, lose Pratt). If they don't add another they'll lose their Pool A in 2025-26.

There could be something I'm not considering here.

Don't year-3 provisional members count towards the minimum, or am I misremembering?

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

Year 3 schools do count. I'm not sure how they count single sex schools, though, when it comes to conference members.

[KnightSlappy]

Ok, thanks. I know year 3 schools count for record and SOS for opponents but didn't know if they counted towards conference numbers. Makes sense.

[KnightSlappy]

Any chance we lose a tournament bid and go down to a 63-team tournament in 2023-24? By my count we'll be at 412 teams (down one from 413) and, if I recall, the access ratio is 6.5.

412/6.5 = 63.38
413/6.5 = 63.54

Do they round down?

My guess is we stay at 64 since the chatter, even in D3, is about expanding tournament field access.

Scratch this. My count was missing Bob Jones becoming a full member, so I now have us staying at 413 tournament-eligible members in 2023-24.

MBB loses Sul Ross State, Finlandia, Cazenovia
MBB gains Notre Dame (MD), Bob Jones, MUW

[FCGrizzliesGrad]

Any chance we lose a tournament bid and go down to a 63-team tournament in 2023-24? By my count we'll be at 412 teams (down one from 413) and, if I recall, the access ratio is 6.5.

412/6.5 = 63.38
413/6.5 = 63.54

Do they round down?

My guess is we stay at 64 since the chatter, even in D3, is about expanding tournament field access.

Scratch this. My count was missing Bob Jones becoming a full member, so I now have us staying at 413 tournament-eligible members in 2023-24.

MBB loses Sul Ross State, Finlandia, Cazenovia
MBB gains Notre Dame (MD), Bob Jones, MUW

Also losing Medaille and gaining (assuming accepted for year 3) Asbury and Warren Wilson

[KnightSlappy]

Any chance we lose a tournament bid and go down to a 63-team tournament in 2023-24? By my count we'll be at 412 teams (down one from 413) and, if I recall, the access ratio is 6.5.

412/6.5 = 63.38
413/6.5 = 63.54

Do they round down?

My guess is we stay at 64 since the chatter, even in D3, is about expanding tournament field access.

Scratch this. My count was missing Bob Jones becoming a full member, so I now have us staying at 413 tournament-eligible members in 2023-24.

MBB loses Sul Ross State, Finlandia, Cazenovia
MBB gains Notre Dame (MD), Bob Jones, MUW

Also losing Medaille and gaining (assuming accepted for year 3) Asbury and Warren Wilson

Correct on Medaille! Back down to 412 tournament-eligible teams.

[Caz Bombers]

Scrap Bob Jones, they're not going forward with their D3 reclassification anymore.

...and nothing of value was lost.

[Ralph Turner]

Scrap Bob Jones, they're not going forward with their D3 reclassification anymore.

...and nothing of value was lost.

Just guessing, but I have always thought that NCCAA was their best option.
This still leaves the men in the CCS in a tight spot.

I wonder if William Carey in Hattiesburg MS has ever thought about D-3. They could be a travel partner for Belhaven. No football but they would help with everything else.