What July 1st Means for College Softball Realignment

While Thursday’s news of USC and UCLA’s future membership in the Big 10 dominated sports headlines, the arrival of July 1st on Friday signaled the official moves for a number of previously-known conference realignments.

A total of 22 college softball programs are joining new leagues on Friday, all as part of moves made by their entire athletic departments. Of that number, five are moving from Division 2 up to Division 1 membership.

In addition to the 22 softball-playing schools that are changing leagues, a handful of others that do no sponsor softball programs are also realigning on Friday; we haven’t included those non-softball schools in the statistics below.

Lindenwood, Queens, Southern Indiana, Stonehill, and Texas A&M-Commerce are the five programs moving up to the D1 level. As with previous moves across divisions, the schools will each have to undergo a reclassification period before being fully eligible for D1 postseason play.

The Colonial Athletic Association leads all conferences with a +3 net gain through Friday’s moves; the CAA lost James Madison as a member, but gains four new programs (Hampton, Monmouth, North Carolina A&T, Stony Brook).

Other leagues with positive net gains via the July 1st realignments include the ASun (+2 softball programs), the Missouri Valley (+2 net, gains three new teams), Sun Belt (+2 net, gains three new teams), WAC (+2), Southland (+1), and the A10 (+1).

A full list of softball programs realigning on July 1st, including each team’s new league, is below. Teams noted with an * are moving from Division 2 to D1.

• Austin Peay –> ASun
• Belmont –> Missouri Valley
• Bryant –> America East
• Hampton –> CAA
• Hartford –> Independent (eventually moving to D3)
• Illinois-Chicago –> Missouri Valley
• James Madison –> Sun Belt
• Lindenwood* –> Ohio Valley
• Loyola Chicago –>A10
• Marshall –> Sun Belt
• Monmouth –> CAA
• Mount St. Mary’s –> MAAC
• Murray State –> Missouri Valley
• North Carolina A&T –> CAA
• Queens* –> ASun
• Southern Indiana* –> Ohio Valley
• Southern Miss –> Sun Belt
• Southern Utah –> WAC
• Stonehill* –> Northeast
• Stony Brook –> CAA
• Texas A&M-Commerce* –> Southland
• UT Arlington –> WAC