College Sports Realignment Roundup for April 8, 2025

Housekeeping note: This newsletter will move to a twice-a-week format.

The second week of April began with NCAA schools announcing new sports and two schools officially joining the NAIA. Let’s start in NCAA Division 2 with the new sports programs that will debut next academic year.

Newberry College Adds Men’s Volleyball

Newberry College (Newberry, South Carolina) announced it will add men’s volleyball beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. Newberry is a member of the NCAA Division 2 South Atlantic Conference (SAC) but the conference doesn’t sponsor men’s volleyball. Three other SAC schools offer men’s volleyball - Coker University (SC), Lincoln Memorial (TN), and Tusculum (TN) - with all three competing as independents.

Pitt-Johnstown Adds 3 Sports

Staying in NCAA Division 2, Pittsburgh at Johnstown (Johnstown, Pennsylvania) is adding three sports beginning with the 2025-26 academic year: men’s and women’s swimming and women’s wrestling. The swimming programs will compete in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC), giving the PSAC 8 men’s programs and 13 women’s teams.

As for women’s wrestling, the PSAC doesn’t sponsor the sport, leaving Johnstown as an independent for the time being. Five PSAC schools sponsor women’s wrestling - East Stroudsburg, Gannon, Lock Haven, Pitt-Johnstown, and West Chester - and it wouldn’t be surprising to see at least one school join the PSAC as an associate member and lead to the PSAC sponsoring the sport in 2025-26.

NAIA Adds 2 Schools

The NAIA added two full members beginning with the 2025-26 academic year: Stanton University (Garden Grove, California) and Hesston College (Hesston, Kansas). Stanton’s move to the NAIA was announced in December 2024 when the California Pacific Conference announced it was working with the school to bring them on as a full member. Stanton will become a member of the Cal Pac in 2025-26 after competing in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA). 

Stanton joining the Cal Pac is only a partial help to a conference hit hard in realignment. Cal Maritime (leaving NAIA and integrating with Cal Poly), La Sierra (GSAC), Soka (GSAC), and UC Merced (NCAA D2 CCAA) are all departing with the 2025-26 academic year. In March, Providence Christian announced it was cutting 4 sports teams due to financial issues, and this was from a school that already didn’t sponsor basketball. There has to be some worry about PCC’s athletic future. Below is a map of the Cal Pac starting in 2025-26 with Stanton and future affiliate member Northern New Mexico.

Hesston College will move from the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) to the NAIA while also competing in the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) as well. Hesston will join the Continental Athletic Conference, which is made up of independent NAIA institutions. Hesston has 16 varsity sports and 12 of them are sponsored by the CAC. Competitive Dance, Esports, flag football, and Powerlifting will compete outside the CAC. It would make sense if the flag football team ends up in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference as an associate member next year.

The CAC is truly an all-encompassing conference of independent teams. It stretches from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast and from the Pacific Northwest to the Southern tip of Florida. There’s even a Canadian university (Victoria in British Columbia) in the membership. Don’t be surprised if Hesston eventually moves to one of the more geographically friendly conferences such as the GPAC, HAAC, or KCAC.