August 20, 2015
What's new for 2015 season?
As with every season, there are various changes occurring for the new 2015 season. We highlight programs being added (or terminated), changes and updates in schools' membership status, conference changes, etc. There are no rules changes and clarifications to cover this year as they are only issued on a two-year cycle.
INAUGURAL SEASON FOR THE SUL ROSS STATE WOMEN'S SOCCER TEAM
Division III and American Southwest Conference (ASC) member Sul Ross State University will field a women's soccer team for the first time this season. The new program was announced in the summer of 2013 with hopes of debuting in 2014 after a year as a club sport. An extra year was required with Don Koontz being hired in June 2014 to guide the program in preparation for its inaugural season. On July 9 of this year, Marquis Muse was hired as head coach for the Lady Lobos debut season. The team will play a full ASC schedule and is immediately eligible for both the conference championship tournament and the NCAA tournament.
THE WILSON MEN'S SOCCER TEAM IS SET TO DEBUT
Similarly, the Wilson College men's program debuts in 2015. The formerly all-women institution is a Division III and North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) member. The men's team will play a full NEAC schedule and is immediately eligible for the conference tournament and an NCAA tournament berth. Caleb Davis, an assistant coach for the school's women's soccer team at the time, was hired as their first men's head coach in May of 2014.
GALLAUDET MEN'S SOCCER PROGRAM IS BACK AFTER TWO-YEAR HIATUS
Budget cuts led to the suspension of the Gallaudet University men's soccer program after the 2012 season, but after a two-year hiatus the program was reinstated. Gallaudet, the only university with programs and services specifically designed to accommodate deaf and hard of hearing students, was seeing prospective students choosing other schools in order to play soccer. This contributed to athletic director Michael Weinstock reversing his decision. Pedro Braz was named head coach in September of last year and the Bison will resume play in the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) with immediate eligibility for both the conference championship tournament and the NCAA tournament.
END OF THE ROAD FOR WIAC AND WISCONSIN-OSHKOSH MEN'S SOCCER
The University of Wisconsin-Superior has left the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC), reducing the conference to just four men's soccer teams, below the WIAC's threshold for sponsoring a championship. After six years of having a conference championship, its men's soccer teams are now fully independent again. It does not change their status for the NCAA tournament, as the WIAC never had enough men's teams to garner an automatic berth and the teams will continue to be in Pool B for tournament selection purposes. Additionally, the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh men's soccer team is being shown the ax after this fall. Decreases in state funding were cited as the reason a couple of UW-Oshkosh's sports programs needed to be cut, and men's soccer was selected, partially due to the fact that the their conference (WIAC) does not earn an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament in their sport and now doesn't even sponsor a conference championship in men's soccer. Alumni and supporters of UW-Oshkosh men's soccer are campaigning for a reversal of the decision, but to date the university has insisted the decision is final and will not be revisited.
NEW ACTIVE DIVISION III MEMBER SCHOOLS
• Sarah Lawrence College of the Skyline Conference has completed the provisional process and has been approved for active Division III membership status. Active status was achieved one year ahead of schedule when the NCAA approved the school's request to accelerate the process by combining the third and fourth years. The Gryphons are eligible for the NCAA tournament starting this year. The men's soccer program is entering its seventh season (neglecting a four-year run from 1987 to 1990), while the women's soccer team sets off on just its third campaign. Last year was the school's debut season in the Skyline Conference.
• Former NAIA school, SUNY-Canton, has achieved full Division III membership, having also completed the four-year provisional process in just three years when they were allowed to combine years three and four. The Kangaroos, who remain unaffiliated with any conference, are eligible for the NCAA tournament starting this year as Pool B candidates. SUNY-Canton pursued Division III membership after their NAIA-affiliated conference, the Sunrise Athletic Conference, disbanded in 2011. During the transition to Division III, the school also joined the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) as independents.
PROVISIONAL/RECLASSIFYING UPDATES
• Having successfully completed the prerequisite exploratory year, Belhaven University has been accepted to begin the four-year provisional membership process into Division III. Before the school began the transition to the NCAA, their men's soccer team made the NAIA tournament four straight years from 2010 through 2013 and were NAIA champions in 2012. The Blazers begin play in the American Southwest Conference (ASC) this fall but are ineligible for the conference championship tournament. Belhaven is expected to become an active D-III member for the 2019-20 school year at which time they will be eligible for the NCAA tournament. In the meantime, they will declare for the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) tournament. Games against the Blazers are not considered as "in-region" Division III games until the school reaches year three of provisional membership.
• Six schools have been approved to advance to year two of the provisional membership process: Alfred State–SUNY College of Technology, Berea College, Bryn Athyn College, Illinois Institute of Technology (aka Illinois Tech), McMurry University and Pennsylvania College of Technology (aka Penn College). They join Iowa Wesleyan University (formerly College)who is being required to repeat year two. These schools are on schedule to become active D-III members and eligible for the NCAA tournament beginning with the 2018-19 season. Contests against them are still not considered as "in-region" games until next year.
• No schools are in year three of the provisional membership process because Alfred State and Illinois Tech were required to repeat year one last year and now this year Iowa Wesleyan is being required to repeat year two.
• Three schools have been approved to enter their fourth and final year of provisional membership: Houghton College of the Empire 8 Conference, Southern Virginia University of the Capital Athletic Conference (CAC), and independent Valley Forge University. These programs are scheduled to be eligible for NCAA tournament participation starting next season and games against them are considered “in-region” again this season.
CONFERENCE AFFILIATION UPDATES
It's another relatively quiet year with respect to conference affiliations. In fact, for the second straight year there is just one conference switch to report, but there are a number of independents and/or newcomers finding a conference to call home and a couple departing for independent status.
• University of Wisconsin-Superior joins the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) this year having left the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) with just four men’s teams resulting in the end of WIAC's men's soccer competition after just six years. The addition puts the UMAC at nine total schools, all of which field men's and women's soccer teams. UW-Superior men's team will compete for an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament for the first time.
• The Skyline Conference welcomes St. Joseph's College, Brooklyn Campus to its fold beginning this fall. The Brooklyn campus teams join their counterparts from the school's Long Island campus in the conference which now consists of eleven members. St. Joseph's (Bklyn.) achieved full active Division III member status in 2012 and its teams are immediately eligible for Skyline and NCAA postseason play. The college had previously competed in the non-NCAA-affiliated Hudson Valley Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (HVIAC) which made them an independent for NCAA Division III purposes. Additionally, the Yeshiva University women's team will also make the switch from the HVIAC to the Skyline, joining many of the school's other athletic teams who have a long history in the Skyline.
• The American Southwest Conference (ASC) is adding two men's soccer teams and three women's soccer teams to its schedules this year increasing the conference to 12 and 13 teams, respectively, in the sport. Belhaven University, the former NAIA school who is entering the first year of provisional D-III membership, has been accepted into the conference and their men's and women's soccer teams will play full conference schedules but not be eligible for the conference tournament. McMurry University, who a year ago did a 180° two years into their transition to Division II and returned to Division III and the ASC, will also play full conference schedules this year without eligibility for the conference tournament. Only after completing the four-year provisional/reclassification process and being granted active Division III membership will Belhaven and McMurry be allowed to participate in the ASC post-season tournament for a chance at an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament. Finally, Sul Ross State University has added a women's soccer team that starts play this fall. They are immediately eligible for the conference tournament and the NCAA tournament.
• The vastly spread-out Great South Athletic Conference (GSAC) has doubled-down on its extensive footprint with the additions of Mount Mary University and the University of California, Santa Cruz, giving the all-women's conference a pair of California schools and a couple hailing from the western Great Lakes region. UC Santa Cruz, whose women's soccer, volleyball, basketball, tennis teams will compete for GSAC championships, joins Mills College just 71 miles to the north as the closest adversaries in the conference. Findlandia gets some company up north from women-only Mount Mary, located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, whose teams will challenge for GSAC titles in soccer, volleyball, basketball, and softball. The two additions offset the departures of Trinity University (D.C.) and the University of Maine at Presque Isle whose women's teams will return to independent status. The GSAC will compete with eight teams this season and no regular season schedule; a season-ending tournament will determine the champion and representative in the NCAA tournament.
NAME CHANGES
• In April of this year, Baptist Bible College announced its decision to change its name to Summit University of Pennsylvania. The school's athletic teams will continue to use the "Defenders" moniker with no change to their visual identity. Summit competes in the Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC).
• Though not nearly as drastic, three other institutions have attained university status. Castleton State College has become Castleton University by unanimous vote of the Vermont State Colleges Board of Trustees. Castleton is a member of the North Atlantic Conference (NAC). Richard Stockton College, whose change in status was approved by both the New Jersey Presidents' Council and the state's secretary of higher education, is also dropping "Richard" from its new name: Stockton University. The New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) member was known as Stockton State College before adding "Richard" in 1993. Finally, Iowa Wesleyan College's board of trustees decided to change to Iowa Wesleyan University, a name it previous held from 1855 until 1912. Iowa Wesleyan competes in the St. Louis Intecollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) and is in year two of provisional Division III membership.
Now, looking ahead to future seasons . . .
CHANGES (AND POTENTIAL CHANGES) ON THE HORIZON
• Bryn Athyn College of the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) has added a women's soccer program that will begin play in 2016. Bill O'Neill was hired as their first head women's soccer coach. Their inclusion will bring the NEAC to 14 women's teams. As a school, Bryn Athyn has progressed to year two of the four-year provisional Division III membership process and all their sports teams are expected to be eligible for post-season play starting with the 2018/19 school year.
• This year will be Carroll University’s twenty-fourth and last in the Midwest Conference (MWC) as they move back to the Collegiate Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) next year. With the switch, the MWC will drop to 10 schools while the CCIW will grow to 9 schools. Carroll was previously a member of the CCIW from 1955 to 1992.
• The United States Merchant Marine Academy is on its way back to the Skyline Conference after this school year. Merchant Marine was a charter member of the Skyline where they competed until leaving to become a charter member of the Landmark Conference in 2007. Their men's soccer team dominated the Skyline Conference winning nine of the first eleven championships from 1992 to 2002 before the emergence of Stevens Tech In the Landmark, Merchant Marine was competitive and finally won a title in the conference's fifth year, but have struggled the past three seasons. Their addition will push the number of men's soccer teams in the Skyline Conference to twelve while the Landmark will drop to eight men's teams.
• Three all-female schools, Agnes Scott College, Salem College and Wesleyan College (Ga.), will leave the Great South Atlantic Conference (GSAC) to join the USA South Athletic Conference next year. The switch will swell the USA South to sixteen women's programs, half (eight) of which will be defectors from the GSAC. The GSAC will be left with five members, two short of the minimum required for an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament. If the conference fails to add a pair of teams by next season, it will enter a two-year grace period before losing their automatic berth. The departures also represent the loss of a presence in the region that supplied the conference its five charter members and next six added members. All that is left for the formerly dual-gender and now misnamed conference are the women's teams added since 2012 from outside the Tennessee-Alabama-Georgia-North Carolina nexus in an effort to cobble together enough teams to maintain an automatic tournament berth.
• Nebraska Wesleyan University has accepted an invitation to join the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) starting in 2016-17, becoming the conference's first ever member from outside the state of Iowa. Affiliated with both NCAA Division III and the NAIA—the only school in the country with dual affiliation—Nebraska Wesleyan is currently a member of the NAIA's Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) with independent status within Division III. With the switch of conference, Nebraska Wesleyan will end its NAIA affiliation and increase the IIAC's membership list to nine schools.
• Brevard College announced earlier this year its intention to reclassify to Division III from Division II with provisional membership expected to start in 2017-18. The Tornados will continue competing in Division II and the South Atlantic Conference for the next two years during which the school will complete the prerequisite exploratory year for entering the four-year reclassification process. This timetable allows the school to honor all athletic scholarships awarded through to this year's incoming freshmen, because it is only by year three of Division III provisional membership that scholarships must be eliminated. Brevard is also eyeing membership in the USA South Athletic Conference which is open to the addition when the school starts provisional membership. If all goes as planned, Brevard will be eligible for USA South post-season play in 2019-20 and for the NCAA tournament in 2021-22.
• Starting next year, 2016-17, the weighted Strength of Schedule (SOS) multiplier currently in effect for men's soccer will be implemented for women's soccer. The multiplier gives more weight for away games and less weight to home games in the calculation of the opponents' average winning percentage (OWP) and opponents' opponents' average winning percentage (OOWP). The value of home games are reduced by 15% while the value of away games are increased by 25%, meaning away games are worth almost one and one-half times home games (i.e. 50% more).
• After another year being hosted by the Kansas City Sports Commission and Foundation at Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City, Mo., the men's and women's joint Final Four will return to Greensboro, NC, where the first two pre-determined host site Final Fours were held in 2004 and 2005 as well as again in 2008. Greensboro Sports Commission will be the host in 2016 and 2017 with games to be played in 3,500-plus capacity UNC-Greensboro soccer stadium. This is a different venue from the one that hosted the previous Final Fours, that being McPherson Stadium in the Bryant Park Soccer Complex northeast of Greensboro. UNC-Greensboro, it should be remembered, was a dominant force in Division III soccer in the 80’s, winning five titles in six years before moving up to Division I.
• The men's and women's Division III soccer Championships Committees are recommending separate men's and women's Final Fours sites beginning in 2018. With only four teams and three games to host, it is believed that this would greatly increase the number of venues, and particularly on-campus facilities, that could host a Final Four. The expectation is that more bids would be received to host the Final Fours within the Division III geographical footprint and on campus as opposed to recent and future awarded sites like those in San Antonio, Kansas City and Greensboro that were off campus with very few proximate Division III schools. Improved location can reasonably be expected to increase attendance, providing improved atmosphere and contributing to the financial success of the championships. An even greater financial impact can be expected to come from minimal to non-existent facility rental and personnel outsourcing expenses if hosted on-campus and from an estimated 50% reduction in the number of teams requiring flights to travel to the host site*. On-campus single-gender Final Fours should also mean more adequate facilities and amenities for participants who have sometimes had to deal temporary or make-shift locker and training rooms and for fans who have faced limited concessions and restrooms. (* - in the pre-determined, joint-site era started in 2004, 84% of teams have required flights to travel to the Final Four; in the previous nine years with separate, participant-hosted sites only 43% of teams required flights.)
• The men's and women's Division III soccer Championships Committees are considering a change to the application of the "Results versus Ranked Opponents" criteria for tournament selections. At present, only results versus opponents ranked at the time of selection can be considered, i.e. versus teams ranked in the third weekly regional rankings. It has been recommended to expand the criteria to allow consideration of the data used in both the third published rankings and the final, unpublished rankings, i.e. records versus teams ranked in the second and third rankings. In the two years under the current criteria, significant fluctuations have occurred from the second to the third to the final unpublished rankings, ultimately resulting in some surprising omissions from the at-large selections for the NCAA tournament. The prime example is John Carroll last year who after winning 14 games in a row and being ranked No. 2 in all three published Great Lakes rankings was overlooked for an at-large berth after losing their conference final because previous opponents had dropped out of the third weekly rankings resulting in John Carroll's impressive 3-1-0 and 4-0-0 record versus ranked opponents in the second and third weekly rankings, respectively, evaporating to a mere 0-1-0 record in the final, unpublished rankings used for tournament selections.
• It has been suggested that non-conference Strength of Schedule (SOS) should be tracked and used as a championship selection criteria. The issue is on the agenda for discussion.
Comments or feedback for the author? Email Christan Shirk.
