SCAC Expanding

The SCAC has announced that they will be adding Concordia and University of the Ozarks (U of O) at the beginning of the 2024-25 academic year. Both schools are currently affiliated with the ASC although the U of O doesn’t have a volleyball program at this time. It was previously announced that McMurry (also from the ASC) would be joining the SCAC in 2024. Trinity and Southwestern dropped a big bomb earlier this year when they announced they were moving to the SAA (from the SCAC) in 2025. So we have even more movement this time driven by the SCAC to shore up their numbers at the expense of the ASC. Starting in 2024, the SCAC will have 11 volleyball programs while the ASC will be down to six. In 2025, the SCAC will drop to 9 members.

I don’t think it’s a surprise that the SCAC was going to do something but I had no idea what direction they would move in. U of O being in Arkansas seems like a bit of stretch but frankly without volleyball I don’t really need to worry about them at this time. Concordia seems like a fine prize and they should be competitive in conference in the sport we all love so much here.

Right now, it looks like the SCAC is well positioned with their 10 member schools (as of 2025). The ASC is a different story. Six volleyball programs will still see them retain their automatic qualifier in that sport but that would still leave just four schools that sponsor football so this seems like their immediate problem. Neither Concordia or U of O sponsor football. The other five (current) football programs are (or will) leave the ASC as they are moving conferences or divisions (in the case of Sul Ross State). However you slice it and for whatever sport, the ASC probably needs to expand so we should expect more movement in the future. As a reminder, the ASC parted ways with their commissioner earlier this year with some believing that it was to find someone who would be more aggressive in attracting new members to the conference.

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