Utah Tech kicker Connor Brooksby (43) celebrates after kicking a 47-yard discipline aim, placing his group up 3-0 over BYU, through the recreation at LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday, Nov. 19, 2022. Spenser Heaps, Deseret Information
Presently, there are 131 soccer applications on the FBS stage, divided amongst 10 conferences — the Energy 5 and the Group of 5.
The variety of colleges taking part in school soccer within the FBS might quickly develop to 141, and the variety of conferences to 11.
In accordance with a report Friday morning by ESPN’s Pete Thamel, 10 present FCS applications — within the Atlantic Solar Convention and the WAC — have agreed to create a brand new convention with the categorical objective of shifting it to the FBS stage.
Sources: Ten colleges have come to an settlement to type a brand new football-only convention with the said aim of shifting from FCS to FBS “on the earliest practicable date.” https://t.co/GBEfuuW8VH
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 9, 2022
It will likely be a football-only convention, sources advised Thamel, and would transfer to the FBS ranks as quickly as it's viable.
Per Thamel, the founding paperwork for the league state the group means to maneuver “from what's at present generally known as FCS soccer to what's at present generally known as FBS soccer on the earliest practicable date.”
The faculties embody:
- Stephen F. Austin (WAC)
- Abilene Christian (WAC)
- Utah Tech (WAC)
- Southern Utah (WAC)
- Tarleton State (WAC)
- Austin Peay (Atlantic Solar)
- Jap Kentucky (Atlantic Solar)
- Central Arkansas (Atlantic Solar)
- North Alabama (Atlantic Solar)
UT Rio Grande Valley, which simply began a soccer program, will be a part of the newly shaped convention in 2025 because the tenth member (the opposite 9 colleges are anticipated to type the brand new convention beginning in 2024).
The precise means of shifting a whole convention to the FBS stage is unknown, Thamel reported — there's a moratorium in Division 1 on single sport conferences — however ESPN sources expressed optimism that the transfer will work and be supported by the NCAA.
The newly proposed convention doesn’t but have a reputation — documentation refers to it as “ASUN-WAC Soccer,” Thamel wrote — and there have been no discussions about how the convention would match throughout the School Soccer Playoff, which is able to increase to 12 groups in 2024 and embody the best ranked Group of 5 champion.
Present NCAA guidelines mandate that there be a two-year transition for FCS applications shifting to the FBS stage, one other wrinkle within the course of that has but to be sorted out.