Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference (C2C)

[Kuiper]

Living in VA, I've often wondered why UMW and CNU don't join a better conference than the C2C. They are both very good programs, I'm sure there would be offers. Anybody have insights on this?

I don't know the specific story, but the C2C has recently been a place for schools that had trouble finding a conference that would have them.  In the recent past, the C2C members have included UMW, CNU, UCSC, Wisconsin-Platteville, and Wisconsin Whitewater, among others.  The common denominator for these schools is that they are all state schools with larger enrollments than most D3 schools.  It's sometimes hard for schools like that to find conferences because most schools want to be grouped with schools that are similarly situated to them in terms of size and resources.

[eaglesoccerdad]

The C2C was pulled together with old members of the Capital Athletic Conference that over a couple of years saw defections - Frostburg to D2, PSU Harrisburg to NEAC, York to the MAC, St Marys to UEC. This left Salisbury, CNU & UMW needing more schools in order to get AC status. I guess fortunately there were enough other orphaned schools out there UCSC & the UW schools looking for partners. Once the schools from around the country were brought in the CAC was rebranded to the C2C.
CNU & UMW are a little larger (3500-4000) than most ODAC schools (1500-3000) but not by much.

[Gregory Sager]

The C2C was pulled together with old members of the Capital Athletic Conference that over a couple of years saw defections - Frostburg to D2, PSU Harrisburg to NEAC, York to the MAC, St Marys to UEC. This left Salisbury, CNU & UMW needing more schools in order to get AC status. I guess fortunately there were enough other orphaned schools out there UCSC & the UW schools looking for partners. Once the schools from around the country were brought in the CAC was rebranded to the C2C.
CNU & UMW are a little larger (3500-4000) than most ODAC schools (1500-3000) but not by much.

Based upon conversations I've read over the years on D3boards, I think that in this case public vs. private is regarded as a more important issue than enrollment size when it comes to conference affiliations in MD/VA/NC and southern PA.

[stlawus]

The ODAC's charter specifically states that members have to be private universities.