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Welcome to SIU-Edwardsville! The MAC is back to automatic bid territory. They have only been D1 since 2008, but won the MVC tourney last season and made it to the Sweet 16 in the college cup, knocking off multiple ranked teams in the process. It looks like they might enter the MAC as our biggest competition.

I'm going to go slightly off topic here but SIUE coming over for soccer got me thinking. Their "normal" league for athletics is the OVC. They were playing soccer in the MVC and now are moving to the MAC. It seems pretty haphazard to me which schools play in other conferences for sports their league does not sanction. Would there be anything to gain if these three conferences (MAC, OVC, MVC) made an agreement regarding taking in members from one another for what are traditionally non-revenue sports? For example the MAC has 6 mens tennis teams (one being Binghampton) and the MVC has 5 (one being Stony Brook). It seems like going together would help scheduling, maybe travel, etc... I'm not sure if there is anything to gain but I would think it would be worth looking at. Any thoughts?

I get where you were coming from now, skip-zip. For MAC and Akron Mens Soccer, SIU-E joining is a plus up. As far as overall bump for the MAC, no. When I first saw this news that SIU-E was joining the MAC for Mens Soccer, I couldn't help but immediately think of Billy Berger, may he rest in peace.

SIU-E last year....knocked off Michigan State (which akron did not last year)...they tied in regulation and won on PK's they went to top 16 seed Butler....and won on PK's.... then in the round of 16, they lost 2-1 to a very good Wake Forest team. St. Louis ....has always been a hot bed for excellent junior soccer....Edwardsville gets a lot of kids from the St. Louis area. They are not an unknown school for soccer. SIU-Edwardsville will raise the bar for other teams in the MAC. Having the certainty of a 6th team in the MAC and having another consistent top 30 RPI team in the league to compete with Akron will help coach Embick in recruiting.

SIUE is a good men's soccer program and has been consistently working to better themselves. Better soccer program than U@B. Made it to sweet 16 last season. I think they've been in the Tourney at least of years in a row. Seem to being going up while many are stagnant or dropping.

SIU-E won 2 matches last year in the NCAA's and made it to the round of 16. I believe that they defeated Michigan State on PK's. They will help Zips soccer in the RPI. Tremendous upgrade over Buffalo. Edwardsville is 525 miles away from Akron. I do hope that the mens soccer team will be able to fly to St. Louis when they play at SIU-E.

Back in the 70's and 80's SIUE soccer benefited greatly from the big St Louis soccer scene. They will be a great addition. http://www.siuecougars.com/sports/m-soccer/2016-17/releases/20170602ekhbew

I agree that it does seem late in the game and it probably is, but Verbal Commits shows that there have been 655 D1 transfers this year and 255 of them have yet to commit to a school. So nearly 40% of this year's transfers have yet to find a home. My comment had a lot to do with it seeming like Groce has knowing what he is doing or getting it right by recommending these guys to go (or however you want to word it). Dalton ended up at Juco and now Williams at a Big South program. Sidenote: Robo has yet to find a destination. Williams may be an outspoken Christian and him going there maybe played a part in that, but I'm not sure if he had a better spot he would have chosen Liberty. I mean he did pick Akron this first time around.

Most interesting thing I learned was that Jojo's real name is Bruce.

He is a guy that has never played at the collegiate level and announced his transfer way late in the process. You can be the most talented player in the world, but without tape showing that you are as close as possible to a sure-thing, you are going to end up at a lower level school in his position. By the way, Liberty went 21-14 last season and with the money that they are trowing into their athletics at the moment, I'm not sure that they will be considered a team that is lower than Akron for much longer.

Perhaps think that he wasn't all that good

Akron leads the MAC East division with 10 current NFL payers: 10 -- Akron 8 --- Buffalo 7 --- Kent 6 --- Miami 6 --- Ohio