There are lots of factors that go into these decisions....but I have never understood why UCD added field hockey. One of the reasons, among many, the school dropped wrestling was that it was not a big west coast sport. There have always been more wrestling teams in the west than field hockey teams.

But I digress.

Rumor becomes official:
http://www.hornetsports.com/sports/fball/2018-19/releases/20181217l02pyo

I think there's a lot of that with field hockey schedules. UCD will travel to the east once or twice a season. Play several teams, often at neutral sites....teams will travel west play the west coast teams....sometimes UCD will meet the team from the east at Cal or Stanford.

The Bee chimes in:
https://www.sacbee.com/sports/article223171005.html

Salt Lake Tribune article on Taylor's possible move.
https://www.sltrib.com/sports/utah-utes/2018/12/14/utah-could-lose-another/

Bison DC Matt Entz is likely replacement at NDSU.
https://www.valleynewslive.com/content/sports/BREAKING--502731071.html

Nope,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NCAA_Division_I_field_hockey_programs
http://www.telluris.us/hbwave/id12.html

With UOP dropping the sport the closest D-1 field hockey schools to the east of Davis are Missouri State and Iowa. That's it on this side of the Mississippi River.

(This one always surprised me: Not only do neither USC nor UCLA have field hockey, USC doesn't even have softball.)

...and after the women’s basketball result the running score is UCD 30, CSUS 10. Next event is men’s tennis at Davis on January 19th. Still no word on whether beach volleyball will be part of this season’s Cup. Pending that there are still 45 points to be won, so 15 will wrap it up for UCD.

Certainly not NAIA...but I assume as a small conference without an auto-bid unless they can find another conference that will provide this membership of convenience that the AEC did. Before the AEC association they were in a conference with South Atlantic roots. The article in the Bangor paper notes that the AEC found another school to join as a field hockey member, thus keeping their auto-bid without the cross-country travel problems.

Here is an article from the Bangor Daily News about the change in the AEC membership and divisional alignment. The article reports it will happen at the end of the 2018 season (i.e., now) rather than at the end of the 2019 season.

https://bangordailynews.com/2018/07/17/sports/umaine-sports/america-east-field-hockey-adds-member-to-end-east-west-format/

The Stockton Record:
https://www.recordnet.com/sports/20181203/pacific-cuts-field-hockey-program
(Says no other cuts anticipated.)

Channel 40:
https://fox40.com/2018/12/03/players-vow-to-fight-back-after-uop-cuts-womens-field-hockey-team/

Would dropping field hockey require UOP to make cuts in some men's program? Does it leave them with Title IX problems?

From the UOP news release:

Field hockey competes in the America East Conference, with most teams on the East Coast. It is one of four in California — the others being UC Davis, Cal Berkeley and Stanford — to make up the West Division of the America East Conference. America East notified the four California associate member institutions in field hockey this fall that this opportunity will be eliminated following the 2019-20 season. This change will put the burden on individual schools to schedule games, and for these four programs, it will eliminate automatic bids to NCAA national tournaments after winning conference tournaments.

https://www.pacifictigers.com/sports/w-fieldh/2018-19/releases/20181203nplaxi

So now there are three field hockey schools west of the Missouri River, and a year from now they will lose their already tenuous conference affiliation. Particularly tough for Davis as I think UOP was about the only conference team they defeated in the last few years, and this year they didn't even to that.

D*mn! They beat us on "Average time of possession."

I found this thread at d2football.com . <a href="http://www.d2messageboard.com/showthread.php?t=93151" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.d2messageboard.com/showthread.php?t=93151</a> (The level of conversation on this site has gone down the drain.) I lost interest after about 2 1/2 pages. A question about the future of the GNAC takes a sidetrack to insult hurling commentary on the prospects of the University of British Columbia joining the Pac 12.

The loose idea seems to be that the remaining teams will continue in the GNAC, such as it is, and hope to come up with scheduling arrangements with the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference or the Lone Star Conference. That would require a travel budget for some teams that may already be watching the pennies.

OK, the link does not seem to be working, which is probably not a loss, and yes, it could be operator error.

Go to www.d2football.com . Click on "Message Board"on the left margin, scroll down to "Super Region 4" and "GNAC" about 3/4 of the way down the page, click on that and then to the thread titled "GNAC Future." It is a red envelope as it is pretty active, and should be near the top. Or skip it - you might have something you'd rather do like root canal work or visiting the in-laws.

Your guess is as good as mine, probably better. The conference as a whole has several other schools and sponsors several other sports, but football is suffering. http://www.gnacsports.com/home/default/

I think it's laughable that FBS/D1A won't play a more inclusive playoff system. Four teams? They get four weeks between their last regular season game and the first playoff game, typically played in a fair weather city in the southern half of the country. This year the winners get nine days to prepare for the final game. We get arguments about how preparing for a multi-round playoff is unfair to these student athletes and that coaches and administrators are opposed to a more extensive playoff. Ha! If all the other divisions, and the NAIA teams, can play more games when fewer of the players will ever have a realistic chance of playing professionally, then the players in the FBS division can take a little time off from their bio-science labs and debate team practices.....but I digress.

Heck, bring back the Astrodome....