The Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (CCSA) has announced the addition of two more new men’s teams for the 2013-2014 season, as the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and The University of the Incarnate Word will both join with just their men’s programs, and in addition to the other new addition UMBC brings the swimming-only conference up to 15 affiliated schools.
This will make the CCSA an even more geographically diverse conference: NJIT is now the most northern team affiliated with the CCSA, and Incarnate Word is by far the most western.
Both NJIT and Incarnate Word bring interesting stories to the conference. NJIT is three years removed from almost being cut, but were able to save the men’s program from that fate. This makes NJIT one of the few co-ed institutions in the United States with only a men’s varsity swimming program. NJIT was in the Metropolitan Swimming Conference, which spanned all three divisions, and were one of only two Division I members (along with St. Francis).
Incarnate Word joins the conference in their first year as a Division I program after making the transition from being a Division II powerhouse. They are not immediately eligible for the NCAA Championships, which means they will be full-bore into this conference meet, and then use the CSCAA Invitational in Dallas as their end-of-year meet.
The 2014 CCSA Championships will be held on the campus of the University of Georgia.
Men’s members of the CCSA in 2013-2014:
- Davidson (leaving for A10 after 2013-2014 season/defending champions)
- Gardner-Webb
- Howard
- Incarnate Word
- NJIT
- UMBC (winner of the last two America East Conference titles)
- VMI
Women’s members of the CCSA in 2013-2014
-
Florida Gulf Coast University (defending champions)
-
Liberty
-
Georgia Southern
-
Gardner-Webb
-
North Florida
-
Davidson (leaving for A10 after 2013-2014 season)
- Campbell University
-
Radford University
- North Carolina – Asheville
-
Howard University
- VMI
-
North Carolina A&T (Program will be cut shortly)
Is the CSCAA a post season event recognised by the NCAA? If so, how can UIW compete? If not, and it counts as regular playing season, then they won’t be starting their 144 day playing season for a while, right?
No, the CSCAA is not yet recognized as an NCAA post season event. Yes, UIW will have to hold off on starting their 144 day season till probably the end of September or beginning of October.
This would have to go for any team choosing to swim this meet. Curious if that many schools are really holding off official practice until Oct. I see a lot of tweets about teams saying “First practice of the season”
Probably captain-led practices or “optional” practices.
CARA out of season practices can be held after the 1st day of classes or Sept 15th (whichever comes first) depending on how the season is segmented and simply by having pre-season practices up to the 8 hour/2 day off limit prior to the start of the forst official segment. Voluntary pactices can also supplement the 8 hours for individual swimmers who feel that they are not getting enough from the 8 hour limit.
The 140/4 day segments suggested by Dutchwomen below is and interesting idea, but I would strongly suggest getting your compliance person’s approval through the conference for that to be sure. Basically, all practices between the two segments (presumably the interval from the end of conference to… Read more »
Remember that 144 days can be divided into two segments……. See 17.21.1…. that is to say a team could count back 140 days starting from their conference meet, and use the 4 days leftover for this meet….CARA could start this Friday give or a take a few days….
Remember that one can break up the 144 day season into two segments………..
Do you mean that NJIT is one of few co-ed institutions with only men’s swimming?