Saturday marks the official transition date for the nearly 20 programs that move from one conference to the next. In a few cases, teams leave Division One altogether.
News of the conference’s reorganization was an annual ritual of speculation and rumor-mongering—often with results that validated said speculation. Now that we’re halfway through 2023, let’s recap and summarize how the tectonic plates have changed for college sports.
Here are our top five tips for college basketball conference changes across Division I. Below that, we have a list of all the school swaps for 2023 and the schools that will take place in the future.
1. The Big 12 goes to 14 teams for one season only
A year from now, Texas and Oklahoma’s long-awaited transition from the Big 12 to the SEC will be official. But for the 2023-24 season, they’ll take one last run around the league they’ve built before joining the 16-team Southeastern Conference. The Big 12 has been a 10-team league for the past twelve years; It’s jumped by four this season, due to streaming Houston, Cincinnati, UCF And BYU. in soccer, This will make for an interesting crowd of teams It competes to qualify for the College Football Playoff in the final iteration of being a four-team event. In basketball, the question would be: Can the sport’s best 12 still be a league after blowing to 14? Houston has been one of the top programs in college hoops for the past half decade, but usually, the bigger the conference, the weaker it is from top to bottom.
The Big 12 is still a speculative market going forward. Commissioner Brett Yormark has been flirting with Pac-12 programs, Plus Gonzaga and UConn. In a year, the Big 12 will actually be—that’s a new concept—at 12 teams. How long will it stay like this?
2. AAC downgraded – but added a Final Four school
The American Athletic Conference has been around since 2013-2014. Over the past decade, it has had a legitimate standing of being what has been called the “Big Seven” conference. UConn won the national title in its first All-American season. Houston made their Final Four while representing the league. Memphis has been an event for most of the past ten years. Cincinnati and Wichita were often viable players.
But there is no getting around this cut. The USA’s Houston, Sensei, and UCF lose to the Big 12. It has made up for those losses by adding mid-major programs (in large part to take a “bigger is better” approach to football).
who is coming? It may take you a year or five to remember the formation of the teams in this league. New in AAC, All Conference USA Abandon at Once: Charlotte, FAU, North Texas, Rice, UAB, UTSA. Six schools, but at a good time, the conference is adding the Owls of FAU group, who bring back every major roster piece (who qualifies) from last season’s four-season squad. This means that the conference must enter the basketball season with a top 10 preseason team.
The MLS will be made up of 14 teams and will be among the toughest in terms of travel. The conference will stretch from South Florida to Philadelphia to Dallas to the Carolinas and throughout Texas. It is no longer a conference of power, but an above average level. I call this: a multi-bid league. The American will be on par in college hoops such as the Mountain West, West Coast Conference and Atlantic 10.
3. CONFERENCE USA CONTINUES WITH CHANGE OF WAYS
This was once a league that bordered on a high profile during the 2000s. Those days are gone forever. CUSA (PSA: The hyphen is nothing more) loses six programs (all programs in favor of the American program) and adds four alternatives. Boarding: Jacksonville State, Liberty State, New Mexico And Sam Houston.
Liberty has been a relevant program lately. Those on the football team believe the school is poised to continue being a threat to win about 10 games a year for seasons to come. In men’s basketball, Liberty has won 21 or more games in seven consecutive seasons under Richie McKay, and has won the ASUN title in three of the previous four seasons. New Mexico State has been similarly dominant at the mid-major level, although the men’s basketball program is currently in rebuilding mode and with first-year head coach Jason Hutten (coincident: Sam Houston leaving to take the NMSU job) after multiple scandals forced the Aggies to close the program mid Last season.
CUSA will likely continue to be a one-bid-in-hoops association, with its geographic presence stretching from New Mexico to Florida.
4. Hello: Le Moyne is joining NEC
One of the most controversial incidents this past March—and one that led to one of the biggest stories in sports—was an NCAA rule that prevented Merrimack (in her final year moving up to Division I) from competing in the NCAA tournament despite winning the NEC championship. (That allowed Fairleigh Dickinson to field a 68, and we know what happened next.)
Previously, for the first two years of NEC membership, Merrimack was not allowed to compete in the NEC Championship.
Section I Newcomer Le Moine You will not encounter this problem. The NEC allows all nine of its members to play in the league championship. The Dolphins, as well as Stonehill, who moved to DI last season, will be able to play in the NEC class in 2024. It’s an obvious decision. Now, what happens if we have another situation like the year 2023?
Here’s the league’s protocol: “If a reclassified organization wins the NEC Tournament, the tournament runner-up will advance to the NCAA Tournament as the NEC automatic qualifier in accordance with current policy. In cases where two reclassified members reach the NEC final… the NEC will organize An “AQ Qualifier” game between the two teams not advancing in the semi-finals. This will be the deciding game to determine which team secures NEC’s spot in the NCAA Tournament.”
5. Goodbye Hartford and St. Francis Brooklyn
The first section is already shrinking this year. Le Moyne joins, but Hartford and St. Francis Brooklyn are gone. Hartford officially dropped out of Division One and moved into Division Three. Kind of wild how the school made it to the 2021 NCAA Men’s Championship, only to have its president snatch it from the DI ranks after its first March Madness showing.
And at St. Francis, the school drops all sports due to mounting debts in its athletic department. He was a member of the NEC, but is now dissolved. The program was born in 1896—one of the first college basketball programs to be formed—and has lasted 127 years.
St. Francis expires without having made the NCAA tournament, one of only four programs to fail to do so despite competing for the NCAA tournament since its freshman year in 1939. The other three schools: Army, The Citadel, and William & Mary.