Future of Division III

[Ron Boerger]

Damn. Looks like I jinxed the SAA.

Naw, just bad timing. The SCAC has picked off schools from the ASC for literal decades.  When the ASC finally struck back it created a vacuum which forced the SCAC to pinch from the SAA - who really started this whole mess when they themselves split from the SCAC in 2011.  Three conferences fighting over a limited number of schools ends up looking like this.

[WUPHF]

Mary Baldwin University has been placed on probation by their accrediting body.

https://www.newsleader.com/story/news/education/2026/06/30/mary-baldwin-probation-what-it-means-for-accreditation/90746332007/?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

[CNU85]

I posted this on the SAA football board, but it probably fits better here.

Check out this realignment now. We can actually make some real regional conferences in the south if people want to make it make sense.

Start with how weird the SAA looks now. You've got Berry, Maryville, Oglethorpe, and Sewanee holding down a pretty simple 200 mile line on the east side. And then it turns into a disaster. Centre, Rhodes, Southwestern, Trinity.

If I was the 4 on the east side, I might try and pick up Huntingdon, Brevard, Covenant, LaGrange, Piedmont and Agnes Scott and make a conference that makes geographic sense. All eastern TN (yeah Brevard is NC, but it's right there), GA and AL. Farthest trip would be Brevard to Huntingdon? Less than 6 hours for teams that have some monsters in their current conferences. That gives you 6 for football and more than that in most other common sports.

It would free up Trinity and Southwestern to go back to the SCAC. Belhaven as well with Millsaps as a travel partner. Rhodes maybe as well? Making the SCAC a cherry conference and ending all the issues with poaching between the two Texas conferences.

That ends the SAA, basically, and we deal with the rest of the USA South, which is now all in NC and VA. Pull in Christopher Newport, who needs a home and now fits the footprint and was once a member, and Gallaudet, who needs a home, and you have 6 for football and more for most common sports.

Centre and Asbury are really the only two left out from the SAA, CCS, USA South, and SCAC. Given they are both in Kentucky, they'd probably need to sniff around the midwest for new homes. But there are a lot more conferences that direction and since Asbury doesn't need a football home that makes it easier for them. Centre is a well known and generally strong school in many sports, you'd think someone would be happy to take them on.

All of a sudden, the southern conferences actually start to make sense for D3.

Interesting. What about Mary Washington and Salisbury? Any thoughts for them?

[MCScots2013]

Mary Baldwin University has been placed on probation by their accrediting body.

https://www.newsleader.com/story/news/education/2026/06/30/mary-baldwin-probation-what-it-means-for-accreditation/90746332007/?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Trying times for schools in this general area.  Lynchburg is/was(?) on warning, E&H and Guilford were just removed from probation over finances and the saga continues in Danville for Averett.  Ferrum has been in the red 4 years running.  Marymount (Arlington) is holding on by a thread and has had its run-ins with accreditors.  There's a D2 school in East Tennessee, Tusculum, that isn't in the greatest shape either which is sad because Tusculum is the oldest college in Tennessee (1794). King University in Bristol is another one facing immediate challenges.

[jknezek]

I posted this on the SAA football board, but it probably fits better here.

Check out this realignment now. We can actually make some real regional conferences in the south if people want to make it make sense.

Start with how weird the SAA looks now. You've got Berry, Maryville, Oglethorpe, and Sewanee holding down a pretty simple 200 mile line on the east side. And then it turns into a disaster. Centre, Rhodes, Southwestern, Trinity.

If I was the 4 on the east side, I might try and pick up Huntingdon, Brevard, Covenant, LaGrange, Piedmont and Agnes Scott and make a conference that makes geographic sense. All eastern TN (yeah Brevard is NC, but it's right there), GA and AL. Farthest trip would be Brevard to Huntingdon? Less than 6 hours for teams that have some monsters in their current conferences. That gives you 6 for football and more than that in most other common sports.

It would free up Trinity and Southwestern to go back to the SCAC. Belhaven as well with Millsaps as a travel partner. Rhodes maybe as well? Making the SCAC a cherry conference and ending all the issues with poaching between the two Texas conferences.

That ends the SAA, basically, and we deal with the rest of the USA South, which is now all in NC and VA. Pull in Christopher Newport, who needs a home and now fits the footprint and was once a member, and Gallaudet, who needs a home, and you have 6 for football and more for most common sports.

Centre and Asbury are really the only two left out from the SAA, CCS, USA South, and SCAC. Given they are both in Kentucky, they'd probably need to sniff around the midwest for new homes. But there are a lot more conferences that direction and since Asbury doesn't need a football home that makes it easier for them. Centre is a well known and generally strong school in many sports, you'd think someone would be happy to take them on.

All of a sudden, the southern conferences actually start to make sense for D3.

Interesting. What about Mary Washington and Salisbury? Any thoughts for them?

Well... MW has no football program so you can't sub them for Galaudet, but you could make them travel partners for everything else. Salisbury is just too inconvenient for anyone I think. No idea what to do with them in D3.

[Kuiper]

Given the growth of the C2C in Virginia/North Carolina with the additions of J&W Charlotte and Regent (once the latter fully transitions), I wouldn't be too surprised if they ditch UC Santa Cruz and Alverno and just form a conference of their own.  It's too bad because UCSC doesn't have a lot of options for conferences that would take them given their size and public status.  They likely would have to go independent, but they play as an independent for regular season scheduling already.  Alverno is only restarting athletics and has a lot of nearby options if they can get somewhat competitive.

[Gregory Sager]

Given the growth of the C2C in Virginia/North Carolina with the additions of J&W Charlotte and Regent (once the latter fully transitions), I wouldn't be too surprised if they ditch UC Santa Cruz and Alverno and just form a conference of their own.  It's too bad because UCSC doesn't have a lot of options for conferences that would take them given their size and public status.  They likely would have to go independent, but they play as an independent for regular season scheduling already.  Alverno is only restarting athletics and has a lot of nearby options if they can get somewhat competitive.

Sadly, I'm pretty sure that Alverno will cease to exist within the next few years, making a quest for a new conference affiliation a moot point. If somehow the school beats the odds and manages to survive, it's likely to be without athletics. The Inferno have mostly been awful across the board when it comes to sports in the quarter-century-plus that they've been D3, and I don't think that they were any better when they were NAIA before that. More to the point, fielding full rosters has been a chronic problem for them over the years, so it doesn't seem like the school has ever tried to use athletic recruiting as an admissions tool.

[ziggy]

Given the growth of the C2C in Virginia/North Carolina with the additions of J&W Charlotte and Regent (once the latter fully transitions), I wouldn't be too surprised if they ditch UC Santa Cruz and Alverno and just form a conference of their own.  It's too bad because UCSC doesn't have a lot of options for conferences that would take them given their size and public status.  They likely would have to go independent, but they play as an independent for regular season scheduling already.  Alverno is only restarting athletics and has a lot of nearby options if they can get somewhat competitive.

Sadly, I'm pretty sure that Alverno will cease to exist within the next few years, making a quest for a new conference affiliation a moot point. If somehow the school beats the odds and manages to survive, it's likely to be without athletics. The Inferno have mostly been awful across the board when it comes to sports in the quarter-century-plus that they've been D3, and I don't think that they were any better when they were NAIA before that. More to the point, fielding full rosters has been a chronic problem for them over the years, so it doesn't seem like the school has ever tried to use athletic recruiting as an admissions tool.

It seems to me Alverno only serves as a matter of short-term convenience for the C2C anyway as it allows them to retain at least retain their AQs for women's sports. The men's side has exhausted their grace period and now has to wait until Regent and JWU Charlotte are fully countable. It may sound callous but Alverno's status is rather superfluous to the league at that point.

I know the C2C is controversial but I'm glad it exists as it does to at least provide some kind of option of last resort. It would be a shame to see Santa Cruz kicked to the curb. If that does happen, maybe they would be an interesting travel partner with Colorado College in the SCAC?

[MCScots2013]

Mary Baldwin University has been placed on probation by their accrediting body.

https://www.newsleader.com/story/news/education/2026/06/30/mary-baldwin-probation-what-it-means-for-accreditation/90746332007/?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Trying times for schools in this general area.  Lynchburg is/was(?) on warning, E&H and Guilford were just removed from probation over finances and the saga continues in Danville for Averett.  Ferrum has been in the red 4 years running.  Marymount (Arlington) is holding on by a thread and has had its run-ins with accreditors.  There's a D2 school in East Tennessee, Tusculum, that isn't in the greatest shape either which is sad because Tusculum is the oldest college in Tennessee (1794). King University in Bristol is another one facing immediate challenges.

Correcting myself.  King is removed from Warning with the recent June 2026 Accreditation Actions and Public Disclosure Statements. Found here

[Ralph Turner]

Thanks for the correction.