No, this is not an April Fool’s joke just before Christmas.
The UMass-Amherst Minutemen are joining the Summit League as affiliate members for men’s soccer beginning in 2025. The new, weird union will partner UMass-Amherst with the University of Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens as the Summit League’s newest affiliate members. The ‘Flagship’ Minutemen were members of the 14-team Atlantic 10 Conference. Why would they leave a geographically logical conference for the Summit League? We can only speculate that A-10 conference members care for the Minutemen as much as we do.
As LetsGoDU readers may recall, DU men’s soccer coasted past THE Flagship University in the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Tournament a few weeks ago with a 3-0 victory before falling to eventual national champion Vermont in PKs.
The Western Illinois Leathernecks departed the Summit League as one of the worst conference travel destinations. Now, it will be planes, trains, and automobiles to get to Amherst, which has no airport and another awkward travel partner, Delaware. DU men’s soccer will be forced to fly into Hartford (BDL) or Logan International (BOS) in Boston and bus their way to desolate western Massachusetts.
Then, there is the University of Delaware, a refugee from the Colonial Athletic Association. Their closest airport is the Philadelphia International Airport (PHL), about a 45-minute drive from the university campus. The two additional conference members bring the total to seven Summit League teams for the 2025 men’s soccer season, one more than the six required to maintain an automatic NCAA Tournament berth for the conference tournament champion.
People might naturally jump to the unrealistic notion that the move is a precursor to the Summit League adding hockey and UMass-Amherst joining current members of the NCHC. Considering their traditional rivalries in Hockey East, the Minutemen will not be leaving that conference.
These moves should mean an immediate pay raise and promotion for DU men’s Director of Soccer Operations Angelo Capuano who must organize travel arrangements for the team to travel to far-flung destinations on the east coast. All these travel gyrations with shaky associate members continue to make an eventual move to the West Coast Conference (WCC) a needed and stable option.
Top photo courtesy of The Denver Post
UMass is leaving the A-10 for the MAC as its primary conference and the MAC doesn’t sponsor men’s soccer. That’s why the Summit was there to pick up the minutemen as an affiliate. The Big East was not an option, as it maintains a divisional set up.
There are 4-5 conferences that make more geographic sense, outside the Atlantic 10. Interesting that they are going for the Summit League.
A quality team, good addition.
As DU grads, we should know how to spell Delaware !!!