College Sports Realignment Roundup for March 21, 2025

It was a day of sporting cuts with two schools announcing a combined 8 teams would not return for the 2025-26 academic year. Let’s start with the NCAA Division 2 cuts before looking at the NAIA.

Lake Superior State Cuts 4 Sports

Lake Superior State (Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan) will discontinue 4 sports: men’s golf, men’s tennis, women’s golf, and women’s tennis. All four teams competed in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC). Men’s golf will have 9 members, men’s tennis will have 7, women’s golf will have 7, and women’s tennis will have 8 members. While the GLIAC won’t have to worry about not having the minimum number of teams for each sport to obtain access to Championships, the same can’t be said for the NAIA school that also cut four sports…

Providence Christian Discontinuing 4 Sports

Providence Christian College (Pasadena, California) announced it is cutting 4 sports teams due to financial issues. Men’s golf, men’s soccer, women’s golf, and women’s soccer will not be returning in the 2025-26 academic year, which puts PCC at only three varsity sports: men’s baseball, women’s outdoor track & field, and women’s volleyball. It’s not a great sign when more than 50% of the sports are cut. PCC is a member of the NAIA’s California Pacific Conference and this will impact the membership numbers for them.

In January 2025, I wrote that Northern New Mexico would be considered an “associate member” of the Cal Pac due to sponsoring fewer than half of the 14 conference-sponsored sports. The cuts at PCC will put them well below the Cal Pac minimum of 7 required to be a full member. Whether the Cal Pac grants a waiver or extension is unknown but Providence Christian has a much more pressing issue to deal with: staying financially solvent. Plenty of schools were already on shaky ground before COVID and recent state and federal funding changes have made things even more uncertain.

The Cal Pac Conference is set to lose four schools beginning with the 2025-26 academic year: Cal Maritime (leaving NAIA and integrating with Cal Poly), La Sierra (GSAC), Soka (GSAC), and UC Merced (NCAA D2 CCAA). Even with Stanton (USCAA) joining as a full member in 2025-26 along with affiliates Northern New Mexico and Walla Walla, the Cal Pac is underwater in every sponsored sport. The Cal Pac currently sponsors baseball (M), basketball (M & W), cross country (M & W), cross country (M & W), golf (M & W), soccer (M & W), softball (W), track & field (M & W), and volleyball (M & W). As it currently stands, no Cal Pac-sponsored sport has more than 5 members. While that is not great, the Cal Pac will likely receive a waiver from the NAIA, and in December 2024 the conference announced it hoped to add as many as four additional members.

Cuts Trend

As of March 21, 2025, there have been 55 announced cuts to individual sports teams across the NCAA and NAIA. This does not include the cuts due to closures at Fontbonne and Northland, which would put the total number closer to 85. One of the sports - Alpine skiing - would take effect in the 2026-27 academic year. Tennis has the most cuts at 12 (split evenly among genders) while golf is now second on the list with 9 (5 for women and 4 for men). Track & field has seen 7 teams cut across indoor and outdoor while swimming and/or diving is at 6. The top five sports being cut are listed below.