Quote from: Ralph Turner on May 29, 2026, 02:26:47 PMI am curious about the Castleton move... one public school dominant conference to another in New England. Can anyone analyze the plusses and minuses of the move and the impact of the move other than the number of full members in each conference? Thanks

LEC is too tough for Castleton, MASCAC is significantly weaker across the board. Probably slightly/somewhat better travel cutting out trips to Southern Maine, Plymouth State, RIC, etc.

Quote from: WUPHF on May 27, 2026, 08:25:11 PMWittenberg provost: University not closing soon, making improvements.

https://www.daytondailynews.com/local/wittenberg-provost-university-not-closing-soon-making-improvements/article_edaf0911-47ad-5b23-abf1-d4126ebde348.html

"my Wittenberg University Not Closing Soon, Making Improvements t-shirt is raising a lot of questions best answered by the t-shirt"

the music part of Fredonia's cuts is surprising, that's one of their top programs. A friend of mine growing up went to Fredonia to study music and he's now a music teacher in our hometown school district.

Quote from: Jonny Utah on May 23, 2026, 01:09:10 PMSo I live near the Curry campus and drive by their field 1-2 times a week.  After graduation 2 weeks ago they have now peeled the turf back and are putting in that purple drank turf we all know and love. 

Ithaca lacrosse had a good year ending up losing to the Dutchmen in the playoffs.  Oh no, not the Union College Dutchman though, the Hope College Dutchman.  (Ithaca actually did lose to Union in the LL tourney though).  LL probably the 2nd best lax league in the country behind the NESCAC.

Hobart baseball also made the tourney and has brought a new program to great heights this year. 

Hobart's hockey team got upset in the National Championship game though, losing 2-1 to Hamilton. It was Hobart's only loss of the year.  Hobart is 116-6-2 over the past 4 years with 3 national championships in that time.

RIT men's lacrosse playing for another national championship tomorrow against mighty Tufts as well.

Quote from: stlawus on May 03, 2026, 06:28:38 PMLL championship will be RPI, RIT, Hobart and SLU. I believe RPI will be hosting due to the better league record.

Not only does SLU make the playoffs for the first time since 2013, their best of 3 sweep at Union gives them their first playoff wins since 2011.

RIT has a better LL winning percentage than RPI and will be hosting the 4 team double elimination tournament, as far as I know. Sidearm websites seem to be down at the moment so I can't verify.

more than a men's soccer topic, but Merchant Marine in the Skyline Conference (and increasingly Cortland in the SUNYAC) are other examples of schools that are eating at the kiddie table when they should be taking their meals with the grownups.

I think we all know that at the very least Hopkins should be in the UAA, they left for the Centennial in 2001 - I would have to assume they cited travel and missed class time as their reasoning. The CC is a very strong D3 conference, again as we all know, but not strong enough to contain them.

Kinda goofy to still pretend in 2026 Johns Hopkins is strongly aligned with Ursinus, Washington College, and Bryn Mawr, but not with Emory and NYU. I don't think the Dickinson student-athlete author is really in the wrong here.

Quote from: Patrick Coleman on April 17, 2026, 02:56:15 PM

Quote from: Caz Bombers on April 17, 2026, 10:18:56 AMperhaps tangential to this discussion, I have found a disappointing number of D3 schools that "sponsor" women's golf without having enough student-athletes to score as a team in any events. Some of these have an online roster of 1-3 student-athletes, or even 0. Still shows up on their athletic websites as a sport they sponsor. I believe such schools are supposed to get written up by the Membership Committee, yet I can't say I've ever seen it reflected in those reports.

I think this only happens if the sport is needed to meet the requirement of one sport per gender per season (fall/winter/spring) or for the minimum number of total sports for D-III membership. I've definitely seen it in those meeting minutes, though.

I meant I've never seen it for golf specifically, sorry. I have seen it in the minutes for other sports, usually cross country I feel like?

perhaps tangential to this discussion, I have found a disappointing number of D3 schools that "sponsor" women's golf without having enough student-athletes to score as a team in any events. Some of these have an online roster of 1-3 student-athletes, or even 0. Still shows up on their athletic websites as a sport they sponsor. I believe such schools are supposed to get written up by the Membership Committee, yet I can't say I've ever seen it reflected in those reports.

Quote from: Ralph Turner on March 18, 2026, 04:15:26 PMAs I ran the sponsored sports by member institutions, the Atlantic East does not have Men's or Women's Volleyball, Indoor Track and Field (M & W), Women's Flag Football or Men's golf.

The United East does not have M & W Swimming / Diving.

The AEC only has 5 teams for M & W Tennis, the UEC, 8 & 7.

The AEC has 6 M & W LAX. The UEC has 4 Men's LAX members plus 1 associate; they have 4 women's LAX teams.

Field Hockey - Immaculata, Gwynedd Mercy, and Manhattanville probably just going to affiliate with the UEC going forward.

M/W soccer, women's volleyball, M/W basketball won't lose their AQs until 2029-30 and the remaining 5 will probably affiliate with the UEC at that time.

Baseball and softball won't lose the AQ until 2028-29 and the remaining 5 will probably affiliate with the UEC at that time.

Men's lacrosse likely to go the other way with the United East teams going under the AEC banner. The UEC's 2-year AQ grace period expires after this season.

UEC women's lax I believe has already had their grace period expire and they won't have an AQ to the 2026 NCAA tournament. Their remaining programs definitely need to hop on board with the AEC.

Atlantic East hasn't had men's or women's tennis AQs in a number of years and their remaining members should probably just go over to the UEC as soon as possible. The men's champion plays the AMCC champion for what is technically the AMCC's auto bid.

**down the line, sometime around 2030, maybe the Atlantic East will re-classify itself as a single sport conference for lacrosse (men's and women's). Of course many institutions may close or re-classify or re-align between now and then.

Division I absolutely does not reseed the Final 4. Never has. Division II has reseeded the Elite 8 or whatever they call it for a number of years now, in all sports (semifinals for soccer and I think football).

I've never known any D3 conference to re-seed. It's probably more convenient for everybody involved to know who they're scouting and what their travel arrangements will be.

Ithaca has to beat Vassar to get in, Hobart couldn't lose to Bard even if they suited up the soccer team instead.

I also don't think it would be good for D3 to have a sudden influx of perhaps 100 or more schools that don't really want to be here, either institutionally or from their fan base perspective.

Quote from: Patrick Coleman on February 03, 2026, 03:38:15 PMNJCU will no longer be joining the CUNYAC. In fact, there will be no Division III athletics at New Jersey City University following the end of this academic year.
https://d3sports.com/notables/2026/01/kean-to-absorb-njcu-athletics

what in the uncanny valley is going on with those AI models in your linked story, those are TERRIFYING