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Some news on Conference Realignment

North Dakota State joins the Mountain West for football only. Their football program, which has been dominant in the FCS division, will jump to the FBS division-
www.cbssports.com

North Dakota State joins Mountain West: FCS powerhouse moving up to FBS league in 2026

The move marks one of the most significant FCS-to-FBS transitions in recent history and comes amid major realignment shifts inside the Mountain West
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com

Will others like Illinois State, South Dakota, and South Dakota State follow?
 
Da Coach said:
North Dakota State joins the Mountain West for football only. Their football program, which has been dominant in the FCS division, will jump to the FBS division-
www.cbssports.com

North Dakota State joins Mountain West: FCS powerhouse moving up to FBS league in 2026

The move marks one of the most significant FCS-to-FBS transitions in recent history and comes amid major realignment shifts inside the Mountain West
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com

Will others like Illinois State, South Dakota, and South Dakota State follow?
Click to expand...
I hear Ill.St. to the Mac makes more sense.
 
basketball nut said:
Northern Illinois left the MAC so Illinois State taking their place wouldn't be a big surprise
Click to expand...
I saw yesterday, on fbschedules.com, that Sacramento State and the MAC might be interested in each other, now that NIU is in the MWC. Cal, Stanford, SMU, and the ACC teams can afford to fly to each other's locations, even though these three in the ACC is a bit of a head scratcher. Not the same for the MAC and Sac State, however.
 
64NIT said:
I saw yesterday, on fbschedules.com, that Sacramento State and the MAC might be interested in each other, now that NIU is in the MWC. Cal, Stanford, SMU, and the ACC teams can afford to fly to each other's locations, even though these three in the ACC is a bit of a head scratcher. Not the same for the MAC and Sac State, however.
Click to expand...
That is a shocker. With the exception of 3 seasons from 2019-2022 (the 2020 season was cancelled), they have been perpetually mediocre.
Here is Sacramento State's history-

Football Year-by-Year Results - Sacramento State

hornetsports.com hornetsports.com
 
Sac State is paying $23 million ($18 million to MAC, $5 million to NCAA) and foregoing media revenue.
 
Mikovio said:
Sac State is paying $23 million ($18 million to MAC, $5 million to NCAA) and foregoing media revenue.
Click to expand...
Yep, just for the "luxury" of flying to the eastern time zone four times during football season to play MAC road games, while four MAC teams will fly just once each to play at Sac State.
 
NCAA Division I just shrunk by one member.....

Saint Francis Red Flashes (of Pennsylvania)- a member of the Northeast Conference (NEC) had already announced that beginning in 2026-27
they were dropping down to Division III.
But just a few minutes ago, they lost their final regular season game and their record does NOT qualify them for their
post-season tournament - thus their current season has ended, and they will no longer play in DI.

They joined Division I in 1955 (then termed University Division) so their 78 year run in DI has ended.
They won their tournament last year (2025) with a losing record, and made just their 2nd ever NCAA Tourney appearance (also made it in 1991)

Currently there are four schools that are in various stages of transitioning up to Division I. They are already considered DI and playing
other DI schools but during the transition period, they are not eligible for post-season play. (Mercyhurst, Univ of West Georgia, Univ of New Haven, LeMoyne) Lemoyne's transition is complete in a few weeks at the end of the 2025-26 season, and they will become full DI members
with the beginning of the 2026-27 season.
 
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yoda said:
Utah Valley has failed to comply with the agreements, thus they will be excluded from the conference tournaments...
...LINK
Click to expand...
The agreement that Utah Valley has not complied with called for a $1 million exit fee, which they were to put in escrow pending their exit from the WAC.
 
this year there are potentially two schools exiting Division I

St Francis of Pennsylvania will drop down to DIII, citing the "complexity based on realities like the transfer portal, pay-for-play,
and other shifts that move athletics away from love of the game".

and Queens University will merge with Elon, and their proposal as submitted to NCAA is to continue to operate their
athletic programs separately & independently. However, there's speculation that NCAA may not allow that any more than
they would allow Bradley or any other school to have two separate DI teams playing basketball. It all waits to be seen...
 
Fairfield was one of the founding members of the the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), which is changing it's name to the Metro Conference on July 1st. Fairfield has been a member of the MAAC for 45 years. They are leaving to join the Coastal Athletic Conference (formerly the Colonial Athletic Association). The change takes effect for the 2027-28 season. They will be the 14th member of the CAA.
www.nhregister.com

Fairfield University athletics to leave The Metro for full-time membership in Coastal

Fairfield University was a charter member of the MAAC, starting in 1981.
www.nhregister.com www.nhregister.com
 
wonder what that's about....they're both east coast 1-bid leagues, altho CAA is definitley a bit stronger-
...and the move will definitly not save on travel...
Fairfield has been kinda mediocre - above .500 in the MAAC only twice in the past decade...
and even tho they had a rare 20-win season, they still had an NET of 240 which is better than only a couple of CAA teams.

btw- former Fairfield head coach Sydney Johnson was interviewed for the Bradley head coaching job back in 2011 but left and declined.
He is now the head coach of the WNBA Washington Mystics.
 
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The CAA is a better conference than the MAAC, and ithere is more money involved. The CAA has a national media with CBS Sports and Flo Sports, while the Metro Conference doesn't have anything like it. They get a few select conference games on regional cable systems SNY and NESN.
Also, Fairfield already competes as an associate member in the CAA in some sports because the Metro doesn't sponsor all their sports. This move puts all their sports together in the same conference.
And though their men's basketball program has not been very strong in most recent years, nearly all of their other programs have dominated the MAAC. Women's basketball program has gone 67-2 against the MAAC competition over the last 3 seasons and won 3 straight championships. Fairfield also won MAAC Championships in 2025-26 in volleyball, men’s swimming & diving, women’s swimming & diving, Esports (Valorant), and women’s lacrosse. And they have dominated the conference in recent years in volleyball (won the last 7 championships), lacrosse (17 regular season championships), women's soccer (10 regular season championships) and men's soccer (5 tournament championships).
Their overall athletic program has been the best in the MAAC and they have won the MAAC's overall sports trophy the last 3 years.
 
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