College Sports Realignment Roundup for March 11, 2025

There were several college realignment news items for Tuesday, March 11, 2025, including sports being added, sports being cut, and sports teams moving conferences. Let’s start with Bethany’s news…

Bethany Adds Men’s Wrestling

Bethany College (Bethany, West Virginia) will add men’s wrestling beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. Bethany is a primary member of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC), which is where the men’s wrestling team will compete. The PAC now has six men’s wrestling members: Bethany, Hiram, Saint Vincent, Thiel, Washington & Jefferson, and Waynesburg with Chatham scheduled to join in 2026-27. At the end of February, Bethany announced it will add women’s flag football beginning with the 2025-26 academic year as a club team and become a varsity team in 2026-27.

MSOE Moves Swimming & Diving Programs

The Milwaukee School of Engineering (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) will join the Midwest Conference for men’s and women’s swimming and diving beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. MSOE spent the 2024-25 season as a member of the Liberal Arts Conference (LAC). MSOE is a primary member of the NCAA Division 3 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC). MSOE will push the membership total to 9 schools for both men’s and women’s swimming & diving. All 9 schools sponsor both men’s and women’s programs with MSOE (red) and St. Norbert (Orange) showing as associate members in the map below.

Walsh Cuts Sprint Football

Walsh University (North Canton, Ohio) will discontinue its sprint football team beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. Walsh is an NCAA Division 2 member that competed in the Midwest Sprint Football League (MSFL). Despite Walsh being a D2 school, the two sprint football leagues - the Collegiate Sprint Football League and Midwest Sprint Football League - feature teams across all three NCAA divisions and the NAIA. Sprint football imposes weight and body fat limits, with a focus on agility and speed.

Walsh has a tackle football program that started in 1995 when the school was a member of the NAIA. The Cavaliers were far more successful in the NAIA, finishing with winning records in 14 of its 17 seasons. Walsh moved to NCAA Division 2 beginning with the 2012-13 academic year and spent the first five years in the GLIAC before joining the G-MAC in 2018. Walsh has yet to post a winning record as a member of the NCAA and its best season was last year in 2024 when the school finished with a 5-6 record.

Wingate Adds Three Sports

Wingate University (Wingate, North Carolina) added a trio of sports for the 2025-26 academic year: men’s beach volleyball, men’s rugby, and women’s flag football. Men’s beach volleyball will be a club team while men's rugby will compete in one of the two collegiate rugby associations - National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) or USA Rugby. Women’s flag football will compete in the Conference Carolinas (D2) beginning in 2025-26, which now has 9 teams.

Back to men’s beach volleyball for a second, according to Wingate’s press release, there are 10 men’s beach volleyball teams in the country. Liberty (D1), Erskine (D2), Lincoln Memorial (D2), Tusulum (D2), Wingate (D2), Stevenson (D3), Park University Gilbert (NAIA), Reinhardt (NAIA), Webber International NAIA), and Westcliff (NAIA) make up the entirety of men’s beach volleyball club teams. The sport has seen much higher support at the women’s level with 101 varsity programs competing in a single NCAA Division. Two more schools - South Florida and West Georgia - will add the sport in 2025-26.