FCS/Mid-Major Conference Shuffling

[ST_Lawson]

I'd seen some rumors of something like this, but it's now official for at least one school.

St. Francis (PA), currently DI of the NEC, will be transitioning down to DIII: https://sfuathletics.com/news/2025/3/25 ... etics.aspx

SFU competed in one of the first four games of the NCAA tournament this year, falling 70-68 to Alabama State.

 

One of the reasons given was the travel and specifically mentioned traveling to Chicago. Which I agree Chicago St being part of the NEC is kinda stupid.
 

I think occasional travel costs to Chicago is pretty minimal compared to what they'd have to be paying for scholarships going forwards. I do agree that the NEC is a dumb place for Chicago State, but it's hardly the only geographically dumb conference move that's happened recently.


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[meganeck]

I'd seen some rumors of something like this, but it's now official for at least one school.

St. Francis (PA), currently DI of the NEC, will be transitioning down to DIII: https://sfuathletics.com/news/2025/3/25 ... etics.aspx

SFU competed in one of the first four games of the NCAA tournament this year, falling 70-68 to Alabama State.


 

One of the reasons given was the travel and specifically mentioned traveling to Chicago. Which I agree Chicago St being part of the NEC is kinda stupid.

 

I think occasional travel costs to Chicago is pretty minimal compared to what they'd have to be paying for scholarships going forwards. I do agree that the NEC is a dumb place for Chicago State, but it's hardly the only geographically dumb conference move that's happened recently.


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I agree there are many dumb conference alignments, just seems most of that conference is in the northeast than you have Chicago St, but I'm sure the conference probably thought having the Chicago market would help the conference out. The release I read mentioned the "student athletes" missing class time due to traveling to Chicago. Not sure if money was mentioned but what stuck out to me was the athletes missing classroom due to travel
 

[Western_101]

I think the Chicago State to NEC was born out of mutual desperation. Both entities are just barely hanging on in the D-I sphere.

[may know]

The NEC added Chicago St because the NEC needed another full D1 member to stay compliant with NCAA regulations requiring a minimum number of full D1 members. The NEC had 3 transitioning schools who didn’t count as full members, and Chicago St was the only full D1 member willing to join.

Adding Chicago St was entirely about survival as a D1 conference. 
 

[ST_Lawson]

William and Mary will be following Richmond in moving their football from the CAA to the Patriot League.

Current Patriot League Football members are: Bucknell, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayett, Lehigh, Fordham, Georgetown, and soon to be Richmond. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_L ... er_schools
CAA Football (a seperate legal entity from the CAA) is a pretty wide-ranging conference covering Maine down to schools in North Carolina: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastal_A ... Conference

W&M will be keeping their other sports in the CAA for now. Like I said, the CAA is a seperate legal entity from CAA Football (similar to the difference between the MVC and MVFC).