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As 2019 begins and Winter sets in, just thought I'd kill some time and think about what would happen if another team drops out of The MAC as far as Men's soccer is concerned. We kinda dodged a bullet last year when we were able to snag SIU Edwardsville to round out the number to an even 6. But let's say WVU or SIU-E decide the MAC isn't where they want to be, or NIU or BG drop their program...then what? There are 24 DI Conferences out there....which one would be best for the Zips? I ruled out The Western Athletic Conference, The West Coast Conference, The PAC 12, The Ivy League and the Big West as possibilities. That leaves the America East Conference (8 current teams, U Mass Lowell), American Athletic Conference (8 teams, USF, UCF), Atlantic 10 (13 teams), ACC (12 teams), ASUN (7 teams, Florida Gulf Coast), Big East (10 teams), Big South (9 teams, Radford), Big 10 (9 teams), Colonia Athletic (9 teams,, James Madison), Conference USA (8 teams, 2 from the SEC), Horizon League (9 teams), Metro Atlantic (11 teams, Rider), Missouri Valley (7 teams, 1 from Southland Conference), Northeast Conference (9 teams, Robert Morris), Patriot League (10 teams, Lehigh), Southern (7 teams, 1 from Ohio Valley), Summit League (6 teams, 1 from Ohio Valley), and Sun Belt (5 teams, 1 from MEAC...sound familiar?). What Conference would best suit our Zippers? Which would offer us the best opportunities to continue our NCAA tournament success by offering an optimal number of tourney bids/conference? Where would we fit best to give us solid competition to grow on, expose us to other markets and more recruiting (although I'd argue we are a top draw now)? My choices would be Big10, as there are vacancies and we now play a large OC schedule against their teams already; American Athletic Conference with solid teams like Cincy, UConn, SMU, Temple, but we would be the odd team in; and Atlantic 10, which has 13 teams now, with Dayton, VCU and St. Louis to name a few). I took into consideration the ACC probably wouldn't invite us in, and also considerations for travel budget and scheduling.... Share your thoughts, please.....