After decades of competing independently, which limited their avenues to potential NCAA playoff bids, Colorado College’s varsity athletics programs took a couple of giant strides in a new direction in April.
First, CC announced that its Division I women’s soccer team has joined Conference USA, which sent three teams to the 2006 NCAA tournament. CC will be part of that 12-team league starting this fall; it will play matches against nine of the member schools. Eleven days later, in another bombshell, CC declared that 12 of its 18 Division III sports soon would be members of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC).
The hockey team is a longtime member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, so the announcements mean that CC’s athletics department heads into 2006-07 athletic seasons with three conference affiliations. The SCAC agreement goes into effect next year for cross country, swimming and diving, tennis, and outdoor track and field. In 2007-08, the Tigers will begin SCAC participation in basketball, football, men’s soccer, softball, and volleyball.
SCAC is comprised of 12 member schools — all liberal arts colleges. The others are Austin College (Sherman, Texas), Birmingham-Southern (Birmingham, Ala.), Centre College (Danville, Ky.), DePauw University (Greencastle, Ind.), Hendrix College (Conway, Ark.), Millsaps College (Jackson, Miss.), Oglethorpe University (Atlanta), Rhodes College (Memphis, Tenn.), University of the South (Sewanee, Tenn.), Southwestern University (Georgetown, Texas), and Trinity University (San Antonio).
Conference USA’s other 11 women’s soccer member schools are East Carolina University (Greenville, N.C.), University of Houston, Marshall University (Huntington, W. Va.), University of Memphis, Rice University (Houston), Southern Methodist (Dallas), University of Southern Mississippi (Hattiesburg), University of Alabama-Birmingham, Central Florida University (Orlando), and the University of Texas-El Paso.