Re: Conference changes and impact on college baseball

On Fri, 14 Nov 2003 12:18:12 -0500, Rick R. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

Oh, sure, where were you earlier in the week?  My column for this week is
on this subject at
http://www.boydsworld.com/breadcrumbs/new_conferences.html

These are definite:

>2004 Season:
>Birmingham-Southern no longer provisional, joins Big South
>Centenary no longer independent, joins Mid-Continent
>Drexel drops baseball
>Elon no longer Big South, joins Southern
>Jacksonville State leaves Atlantic Sun, joins Ohio Valley
>Lipscomb no longer provisional, joins Atlantic Sun
>Maryland-Baltimore County leaves NEC, joins America East
>Morris Brown no longer accredited Division I institution, no baseball
>Samford leaves Atlantic Sun, joins Ohio Valley
>Virginia Military leaves Southern, joins Big South

These are presumed certain:

>Boston College, will move from Big East to Atlantic Coast
>Central Florida, will move from Atlantic Sun to Conference USA
>Charlotte, will move from Conference USA to Atlantic 10
>Cincinnati, will move from Conference USA to Big East
>Louisville, will move from Conference USA to Big East
>Marshall, will move from Mid-American to Conference USA
>Miami (Florida) will no longer be independent, will join Atlantic Coast
>Rice, will move from Western Athletic to Conference USA
>Saint Louis, will move from Conference USA to Atlantic 10
>South Florida, will move from Conference USA to Big East
>Virginia Tech, will move from Big East to Atlantic Coast

I missed it in the column, but found a Web reference:

>East Tennessee State, will move from Southern to Atlantic Sun
>New Mexico State, will move from Sun Belt to Western Athletic
>Troy State, will move from Atlantic Sun to Sun Belt

These are probable, but moves to D1 are always shaky:

>Cal-Davis, moves up from Division II to Big West
>Florida A&M, will leave Mid-Eastern, no conference affiliation yet
>Longwood, moves up from Division II, no conference affiliation yet
>North Dakota State, moves up from Division II, no conference affiliation yet
>Northern Colorado, moves up from Division II, no conference affiliation yet
>(schedule to be included in 2004 D-I RPI)
>South Dakota State, moves up from Division II, no conference affiliation yet

According to Jim Wright, Northern Colorado will not be counted for 2004.
There was an earlier question of how many Division I opponents they could
schedule; apparently they didn't get enough.

Unsure:

>Dallas Baptist, moves up from Division II, no conference affiliation yet
>(baseball only)

They've threatened to before and didn't follow through.  Currently, I
can't find a reference to it, although I do have a note that the
volleyball team is moving up.

One team moving up that you've missed is Utah Valley State (www.uvsc.edu),
unless that whole school Web site turns out to be an elaborate prank played
on me by my readers.

That's all that I'm aware of, and, as usual, you're ahead of me on this.
There are still some open negotiations, with TCU being courted by the 
Mountain West as the most notorious.

-- 
Boyd Nation                                      [EMAIL PROTECTED]
College Baseball Columns, Links, and Ratings:     http://www.boydsworld.com