While baseball fans may celebrate July 1 as “Bobby Bonilla Day,” it also marks the start of the new academic year for colleges across the country. And, as has been the case every year since Division I football split to two distinct classifications for the 1978 season, there has been conference realignment.
Some years, such as the dissolution of the Southwest Conference in 1995, saw 34 schools change conferences, move divisions or, in the case of Pacific, drop football altogether.
Other years, such as 2019, saw no conference movement at the FBS level, while just five schools changed conferences. Two joining the FCS ranks, while Savannah State ended its 18-year stint in Division I by returning to the SIAC in Division II.
Syndicate Sports is presenting a five-part series introducing readers to the teams changing conferences. This article focuses on single-sport moves made because a school’s primary conference does not sponsor that sport. While some moves have been in the works for at least a year, others were announced only recently.
Coastal Athletic Association
The conference first began sponsoring field hockey in 1991, and the sport was dominated during its first three seasons by Old Dominion. The Monarchs went undefeated in conference play from 1991-93 and won two national championships.
William & Mary is the only remaining CAA field hockey member that competed during the conference’s inaugural season. Between Old Dominion and Delaware, the two schools combined to win 27 of the 35 conference championships awarded.
Fairfield has been an affiliate member of the Northeast Conference since 2019, when its primary conference, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, dropped the sport after the 2018 season and the NEC effectively took over sponsorship.
The Stags, who fielded their first team in 1983, have made seven NCAA Tournament appearances, including each of the past two seasons. This past season, Fairfield recorded its second NCAA Tournament victory, defeating Patriot League champion Boston University 1-0 in the opening round. The Stags fell to No. 2 seed Princeton in the second round.
Mountain West Conference
With UC Davis joining the conference from the Big West in all sports except football, the Mountain West had five current or future members that offered men’s soccer.
With the WAC’S rebranding to the United Athletic Conference, many of its non-football members moved to new conferences, creating an opportunity for the Mountain West to add an affiliate member and begin sponsoring the sport.
Utah Tech and Southern Utah both left for the Big Sky Conference, which does not sponsor men’s soccer, but only Utah Tech fields a men’s soccer program.
The school first fielded a team in 2008 at the Division II level and has only made one postseason appearance, falling in overtime to Western Washington in the NCAA D-II West Regional in 2016. Since joining the Division I in 2020, the Trailblazers have posted one non-losing season, going 9-9 in 2023. The 2025 campaign marked their first winning season in conference play at the Division I level.
Air Force, Grand Canyon, San Jose State and UNLV will bring their programs over from the WAC. Only Grand Canyon had previously competed in the conference in men’s soccer, first joining when the league sponsored the sport in 1996 and again when it reinstated the sport in 2013.
National Collegiate Hockey Conference
This conference was formed as part of the realignment that followed the Big Ten’s announcement that it would begin sponsoring men’s ice hockey in the 2013-14 season. It was effectively a merger of programs from the Western Collegiate Hockey Association and Central Collegiate Hockey Association.
St. Thomas, which made the unprecedented leap from Division III to Division I in 2021, is moving to the CCHA, which was relaunched in 2021. Last season, the Tommies went 21-12-5 but failed to reach the postseason.
The NCHC, meanwhile, sent four teams to the NCAA Tournament field, including eventual national champion Denver and Frozen Four participant North Dakota.
Northeast Conference
Quinnipiac returns to the Northeast Conference for the first time since leaving to join the MAAC in 2013. After spending three seasons in the MAAC, the Bobcats joined the Big East as an affiliate member in 2016.
In the 10 seasons in the Big East, Quinnipiac finished no higher than sixth in conference play. During that span, UConn made three trips to the national semifinals and won the 2017 national championship over Maryland.
No NEC representative has advanced past the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
Ohio Valley Conference
The conference will be losing one of its affiliate members and replace it with a team from Texas.
UT Rio Grande Valley originally sponsored men’s soccer from 1987-97, including six seasons in the Sun Belt Conference as UT Pan American.
The program returned in 2015 and finished in the top three of the WAC twice but failed to reach the NCAA Tournament.
With the conference’s re-branding, the school will join fellow Southland Conference members Houston Christian and Incarnate Word as members of the Ohio Valley Conference.
Pac-12 Conference
When the Pac-12 effectively collapsed on July 1, 2024, because of multiple realignment moves, the conference had seven men’s soccer members and had most recently seen Oregon State advance to the 2023 Men’s College Cup Semifinals as an unseeded team.
Only two of the seven schools joining the Pac-12 sponsor men’s soccer: Gonzaga and San Diego State.
To maintain its automatic qualification for the NCAA Men’s Soccer Tournament, the Pac-12 announced a unique agreement with the Big West.
California Baptist, Cal Poly, UC Riverside and UC San Diego will become affiliate members of the Pac-12, while the Big West will retain its remaining seven members.
California Baptist first fielded a Division I team in 2018 and won WAC championships in back-to-back seasons in 2022 and 2023. The Lancers previously won back-to-back NCCAA championships in 2011 and 2012 before moving to Division I.
Cal Poly has competed in the Big West since the conference resumed sponsoring men’s soccer in 2001. In just its second season at the Division I level, the Mustangs went undefeated in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation and advanced to the NCAA Tournament before falling to UCLA in the first round.
UC Riverside moved to Division I in 2001 and has made the NCAA Tournament only twice, falling in the first round in both 2018 and 2022. The 2022 season marked the Highlanders’ only Big West regular-season title.
UC San Diego joined the Big West in 2021 and has not posted a winning record since moving to Division I. The Tritons did win three DIII National championships between 1988 and 1993.
Among the new all-sports members, Gonzaga has not reached the NCAA Tournament since 2007 and has recorded just one non-losing season since 2013, going 8-8-2 in 2016. San Diego State returns to the Pac-12, where it competed as an affiliate member of from 2005-23. Since falling to Clemson in the 1987 College Cup finals, the Aztecs have made only five NCAA Tournament appearances, most recently in 2016.
The conference also will add five affiliate member’s to its wrestling lineup after losing Arizona State and Stanford. Air Force, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, Northern Illinois and South Dakota State will join in 2026, increasing membership to nine institutions.
Southern Conference
Membership in the Southern Conference’s men’s soccer league remains at six despite Belmont’s departure to the Missouri Valley Conference as a full member.
When Liberty left the Atlantic Sun Conference for Conference USA ahead of the 2023 season, the Flames needed a home for men’s soccer because Conference USA sponsored only women’s soccer. Liberty joined the Ohio Valley Conference as an affiliate member.
After three seasons, the Flames announced they would join the Southern Conference as an affiliate member. Geography appears to have played a role, as annual trips to Illinois and Texas will be replaced by bus rides to fellow Virginia school VMI and UNC Greensboro. The longest trip will be to Mercer, a journey made only once every other season.
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