NCAA Division I independent schools (soccer)

NCAA independent schools are four-year institutions whose NCAA-affiliated soccer programs are not part of an NCAA-affiliated athletic conference. This means that independents do not schedule each other for competition like conference schools do.

Men's soccer independents

There are no men's soccer independents in the 2016 season.

The last NCAA men's soccer season which included independent schools was the 2013 season, in which five schools played as independents. All of these schools left the independent ranks after that season. Two of these are now in the Sun Belt Conference, which reinstated men's soccer as a sponsored sport in 2014; a third played in the Sun Belt for two years until joining the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) in 2016. At the time the Sun Belt relaunched its men's soccer league, Georgia State University was already a full Sun Belt member, while Howard University and the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) became Sun Belt affiliates.[1] Belmont University became an affiliate of the Horizon League,[2] and the University of the Incarnate Word became an affiliate of the Western Athletic Conference.[3]

NJIT men's soccer joined the ASUN in 2016 after the expiration of the school's two-year affiliate membership contract with the Sun Belt.[4]

Women's soccer independents

Three schools remain independents in the 2016 season. The most recent departure from the independent ranks was NJIT, which joined the ASUN as a full member (though not initially in men's soccer) in 2015.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "Sun Belt Men's Soccer to Re-Debut in Fall 2014" (Press release). Sun Belt Conference. February 11, 2014. Retrieved February 13, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Belmont University to Join Horizon League as Affiliate Member" (Press release). Horizon League. April 21, 2014. Retrieved May 11, 2014.
  3. ↑ "UIW Joins WAC as Affiliate Member in Men's Soccer" (Press release). Western Athletic Conference. December 18, 2013. Retrieved February 28, 2014.
  4. 1 2 "New Jersey Institute of Technology to Join the Atlantic Sun: #NJITtoASun" (Press release). Atlantic Sun Conference. June 12, 2015. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
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