I didn't see this posted anywhere in the soccer boards and because it crosses over regions, I thought it made sense to start a new topic:

https://gounitedeast.com/news/2022/12/19/baseball-united-east-and-colonial-states-athletic-conference-csac-announce-intent-to-merge.aspx

https://d3sports.com/notables/2022/12/csac-uec-merger-coming

Looks like the merger of the United East Conference and the Colonial States Athletic Conference will be for all sports in Fall 2023.

Both conferences have 8 schools in men's soccer:  UEC (St, Mary's (MD), Penn State Harrisburg, Lancaster Bible, Penn State Abbington, Penn College, Morrisville State, Gaullaudet, Wells) and CSAC (Rosemont, Cairn, Keystone, Saint Elizabeth, Clark's Summit, Wilson, Bryn Athyn, and Valley Forge).

16 schools would be a pretty big conference and it would reduce automatic bids by one for these teams in men's soccer, but Wells and Morrisville State have already announced they are leaving the UEC and I'm sure they are already worried about more conference realignment and even schools dropping sports or going out of existence.

I thought this deserved it’s own thread because hazing is a potential issue at all sports programs and many of you won’t pay much attention to a post in the Go West thread.

Claremont-Mudd-Scripps announced this week they were cancelling the rest of the men’s soccer team’s season because of a hazing incident

https://www.cmsathletics.org/general/2022-23/releases/20221012xq07q7

“The investigation found that nearly all members of the team, acting as a team, violated multiple conduct standards, including organizing and carrying out an event which subjected new team members to multiple acts of hazing.”

This is a real stain on the men’s soccer program and its players.  My guess is hazing is still a pervasive problem in sports, whether D1 or D3, and they were just caught by an administration that took their policies seriously.  I’m sure the old-timers on the board can tell us whether this kind of thing has cancelled a season before.  I hope no one was hurt.

Before Summer ends and fall practices began, I thought I would raise a topic about spring practices (outside the context of the 21st Century Model proposal or anything like that).  One of the major structural distinctions between D1 and D3 soccer is the amount of time you can devote to spring practices and games.  I think D3 schools can now hold 15 practice days, one of which can include games (and many schools have multiple games on that day to get everyone playing time), as compared with something like 45 days and 5-6 games in D1.  Both of these, of course, are a sharp difference from what many of these kids are used to in their clubs, where they often play close to year-round with shorter breaks interspersed throughout rather than going large periods of time without the sport.  With field houses and futsal facilities, soccer can be year-round almost anywhere.

My understanding, however, is that NESCAC prohibits its soccer teams from playing in the Spring.  Is that just games or any coach-organized practices or games?  If the latter, do captain's practices fill the void for players who are available or does space and weather make it largely impossible to do much more than strength and conditioning + some late night futsal at some or most of the schools?  I know there are some advantages to this policy for purposes of enabling internships and study abroad opportunities, and it certainly hasn't hurt NESCAC schools in terms of competitive success in the NCAA tourney, but I'm just trying to get the lay of the land.

Do other schools/leagues refrain from any organized spring practices? 

Conversely, are some D3 schools known for having a particularly strong spring program and/or a culture and history of well-organized captain's practices when coaches cannot be there, including the facilities to support it without battling other sports?  What do those practices look like in terms of frequency/length etc?

This isn't a topic limited to men's soccer, but it certainly affects men's soccer.  I knew that there weren't many colleges participating in D3 in the western half of the U.S., but this map posted by NCAA Research really drove home the limited reach of D3 sports.  It's largely located in the east and mostly the north eastern quadrant of the U.S. with a smattering of schools in the southeast and Texas and only a few clustered around Los Angeles and Portland.



Why is that?  A couple of possible background reasons:

- Fewer schools overall in the west and fewer small liberal arts colleges, which are the traditional homes of D3 sports.  Most of the west has large land grant state colleges, while the small colleges dotting the east and upper midwest were often started by religious groups etc before much of the population shifted west and south.

- Path dependence - because there are fewer D3 schools, other small schools don't have any travel partners nearby and therefore D1, D2 or NAIA may provide more opportunities

This can't be the whole answer, though.  Although there are fewer schools in the west, there are many more schools in the west sponsoring sports in NAIA than in D3.  For example, there are 19 NAIA schools in California, including a UC state school (UC Merced), 15 in Kansas, 13 in Texas, 8 in Nebraska, 8 in Oklahoma, 7 in Oregon, 6 in Montana, 5 in Arizona, 4 in South Dakota, 4 in North Dakota, 3 in Washington. Why did they all go NAIA and not D3?

Is there anything about D3 and its rules, though, that makes it unattractive to, or difficult to obtain by, schools in the west?