Yes, exactly.

It's not clear to me what benefit the ACAA members get from this, beyond they technically have access to AQs.

That's not an immediate benefit to Pratt, which is just entering the first year of the four-year process now. That's not a benefit to Pine Manor who's going away entirely in a year.  I don't know about other sports, but that's not a meaningful benefit for Mills, Finlandia or Mount Mary in basketball because they either don't have the sport or aren't competitive in it.

Other than the very occasional UC Santa Cruz team who has been good enough to compete a Pool B bid, do these schools have a lot of teams that are missing NCAA playoffs in other sports but arguably good enough in them to compete if they could just get access? How much of a recruiting tool is it if you have access to a bid that you have very little chance of earning?

The other reasons that apply to conference membership -- ease of scheduling, travel to markets where you want to promote your school,  working with like-minded institutions -- don't apply to this move.  Finlandia's quote cites the benefit of "increasing the recruiting region for their programs." So Finlandia will now recruit more students from the Virginia Beach, Delmarva or Washington DC markets because a couple teams play in that area on a random basis once or twice a year? How will sending their women's hoops team to  Virginia Beach so they can lose by 45 in the first round of a four-team tournament help recruiting more than, say, spending money on a billboard would?

In some cases, I think the merger will give the ACAA members less access to the benefits of conference membership. One of Thomas More's reasons for joining the ACAA was it would allow their players to be eligible for all-conference honors. So all those awards went to Madison Temple or another TMC player for that season, instead of the traditional ACAA members. Similarly merging with the CAC just makes it less likely that those awards will go to ACAA members.

Mathematically, having more conference members, a cluster of which are within driving distance of each other, will make it less likely that the ACAA members will host postseason events, right?

Ha. True.

Bumping this forward with very little confirmed in a land where uncertainty is king. Feel free to correct or confirm.

Provisional Pipeline for 2020-21
First year full members: Brevard, Dean, Pfeiffer
*3rd year provisional members: SUNY Delhi, Johnson and Wales (Colo.)
2nd year provisional members: Pratt, University of St Thomas (Texas), Mississippi University for Women.
1st year provisional members: Bob Jones, Warren Wilson (confirmed)
Exploratory: Manor College (confirmed)
*Games against Year 3 and 4 provisional members count the same as games against full-members for regional-ranking and tournament selection purposes

MacMurray (SLIAC) closes its doors.
Pine Manor (ACAA) will merge with Boston College after a two-year "teach out" period, though no word on athletics for 2020-21 season

Conference Changes Starting in 2020-2021
Arcadia shifts from the MAC Commonwealth to the MAC Freedom
Cazenovia leaves the NEAC for the NAC
Eastern shifts from the MAC Freedom to the MAC Commonwealth
Dean leaves the NECC for the GNAC
Franciscan leaves the AMCC for the Presidents' Athletic Conference
Keuka leaves the NEAC for the E8
Lycoming shifts from the MAC Commonwealth to the MAC Freedom
Suffolk leaves the GNAC for the CCC
SUNY Cobleskill leaves the NEAC for the NAC
SUNY Delhi leaves the ACAA for the NAC
SUNY Poly leaves the NEAC for the NAC
Valley Forge leaves the ACAA for the CSAC
York (Pa.) leaves the CAC for the MAC Commonwealth

Conference Changes Starting in 2021-2022
Mary Baldwin will add men's program, begin play in the USA South (tentative)
Southern Virginia leaves the CAC for the USA South
St. Mary's (Md.) leaves the CAC for the NEAC
St. Norbert leaves the MWC for the NACC
St. Thomas involuntarily removed from MIAC, will go to

Yeah, Pat asked what the status of athletics will be at PMC. We don't know if they will immediately halt or the school will compete for a year or two until the merger is completed, like Polytechnic did with NYU.

Also, depending on how you classify it, PMC is the second D3 school, following MacMurray in Illinois (not McMurry in Texas).

That's fair, regarding someone playing themselves off the Mount. This is even more subjective but winning in the NCAC is easier than winning in the CCIW, right? What if the argument was Grey Giovanine versus Steve Moore?

Fun topic!

Mount Rushmore has very few spots. I think you'd have to limit it to someone who:

(a) Spent most of their career at the Division III level. Coaches who won a lot of games at the NAIA or Division I/II level wouldn't count unless their D3 careers alone qualify them (so maybe Bo Ryan still makes it)
(b) Won a Division III title as a head coach. At least one.
(c) Reached the Division III national semifinals more than once. Not sure if the minimum would be two or three, but more than one definitely.
(c) Won more than X games with X being north of 600 wins. Let's say 700?
(d) Has won at least X conference titles. Let's say at least five titles

Who makes the cut based on that?