Incarnate Word University, an NCAA Division I program in San Antonio, Texas, has backed out of its deal to join the Western Athletic Conference next season. Instead, most of the school’s athletic programs will remain in the Southland Conference, while swimming & diving will join the MPSF.
Incarnate Word announced last fall that it would join the WAC for the 2022-2023 season after the conference reinstated a football season last year for the first time in a decade. When Sam Houston State and New Mexico State left the conference for the more football-heavy Conference USA, the WAC added Incarnate Word as a replacement.
But in late June, Incarnate Word announced that the school would not join the WAC, instead choosing to remain in the Southland Conference.
Both conferences compete at the Football Championship Subdivision (1-AA) level.
“In the ever-changing landscape of Division I athletics, change can happen fast, but it has always been our goal to find stability, the best fit and the best opportunities for our student-athletes,” says UIW President Dr. Thomas M. Evans. “Today’s announcement is just another example of putting those interests first. Our decision to remain in the Southland Conference will optimize class time with competition time and time in our community and allow our students to once again excel in all those areas.”
The decision to remain in the Southland Conference came just days before it was announced that USC and UCLA would join the Big Ten conference, setting the college sports world into turmoil and chaos.
Lamar University, another Texas school that sponsors football, will also leave the WAC after two seasons to return to the Southland Conference in the fall of 2023.
While the WAC sponsors both men’s and women’s swimming & diving championships, the Southland Conference sponsors neither. Previously, that left Incarnate Word to compete in the CCSA – a sport-specific conference that hosts orphaned teams in swimming & diving and beach volleyball.
Instead of returning to the CCSA, Incarnate Word will now instead send its swimming & diving programs to the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. That is another sport-specific conference that sponsors 11 sports, including artistic swimming, men’s & wone’s water polo, and men’s and women’s swimming & diving.
Artistic swimming (synchronized swimming) was added as a sport in the conference for the 2021-2022 season, and Incarnate Word’s synchro team joined as one of four inaugural programs, so the school already has a relationship with the MPSF. Stanford won the inaugural MPSF title in synchro, followed by Incarnate Word, Texas Woman’s, and Wheaton College. Incarnate Word’s fencing team also competes in the MPSF.
The MPSF is now home to 10 women’s swimming & diving programs and 8 men’s swimming & diving programs. Those programs come from three ‘primary’ conferences: the Big West, the West Coast Conference, and the Southland Conference.
The Incarnate Word men won the CCSA Championship last season, their fourth championship in five seasons, interrupted only by a freak Texas winter storm in 2021 (not COVID). The Incarnate Word women finished 4th out of 9 teams at the 2022 championship.
Based on last year’s results, Incarnate Word’s women will enter somewhere in the bottom half of the conference. The men’s team will be more competitive from the start, with a strong nucleus of rising sophomores putting them in a likely top 4 position to begin their time in the conference.
The schools will compete at a new venue next season: the Utah Tech pool in St. George, Utah. That is the first time in the 13-year history of the MPSF swimming & diving championships that the meet will be held outside of California.
Women’s Teams, MPSF, 2022-2023 Season
In order of 2022 championship finish
- UC San Diego – 712.5
- Hawaii – 700
- BYU – 584
- UC Santa Barbara – 523
- UC Davis – 396.5
- CSU Bakersfield – 310
- Cal Poly – 173
- San Diego – 169
- Pacific – 165
- Incarnate Word – new addition
Men’s Teams, MPSF, 2022-2023 Season
In order of 2022 championship finish
- BYU – 805
- UCSB – 691
- Hawaii – 576.5
- UC San Diego – 575
- Cal Poly – 370.5
- CSU Bakersfield – 265
- Pacific – 186
- Incarnate Word – new addition
A university dedicated, in a special way, to outreach for Hispanic and foreign students in order to form an international student body, both in academics and sports. . . .Morons? Nope!
I’m all for some of these mid-major D1 programs combining and making larger conference finals, etc. Admittedly only a handful of these schools will ever send swimmers to the NCAAs, but they are still filled with quality swimmers putting up fast times. The MPSF is a great example
Had to look it up, woof.
i mean in their defense i back out of wac deals all the time
can’t get ripped off y’know
Get ready to be destroyed.
Incarnate Word is a great University. Coach Phillip Davis has done wonderful things with the program. An outstanding Coach, program, and University.
What about pac-12 or the the new pac-6 ? At least it’s still a good unit of measurement for your beer cans.
but they gave their word
not as incarnate these days i guess smdh