Who's In What League

July 1 marks the beginning of the academic year for most colleges, and college conferences.  Every year, July 1 is the day when teams change conferences.  This year was no exception.  In fact, this July 1 might've been the most significant day on the college sports landscape in a while.  After all the football-driven "realignment" (aka poaching and conference-jumping), things may finally have settled down.  That's because the BCS conferences achieved one of their goals.  The Big East as we knew it is dead.  In its place are two brand-new conferences: the New Big East and the American Athletic Conference.  The American is technically not new, since the old Big East simply rebranded itself, but who are they trying to kid?  The Big East schools took the name (and Madison Square Garden) with them.  They're still the Big East.

All of this can easily get extremely confusing.  Especially when you have schools that are on their third conference in as many years (Butler) and lame-ducks that are biding time in their existing conference before going somewhere else next year (Rutgers, Louisville, Maryland, etc.).  It's hard to keep track of who's in what league.  Never fear, though.  I'm here to help.  Here's a handy-dandy little reference guide to the 2013-14 edition of Division I conference realignment (if a conference isn't listed, there was no change in membership between last year and this year):

America East: New: UMass Lowell (moving up from Division II); Gone: Boston University (Patriot League)

American (new conference): (from Big East): Cincinnati, Connecticut, South Florida, Louisville (leaving next year), Rutgers (leaving next year); (from Conference USA): Central Florida, Houston, Memphis, SMU; (from Atlantic 10) Temple

Atlantic 10: New: George Mason (from CAA); Gone: Butler, Xavier (Big East), Charlotte (Conference USA), Temple (American)

ACC: New: Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Syracuse (from Big East); Gone: None

Big East: New: Butler, Xavier (from Atlantic 10), Creighton (from Missouri Valley); Gone: Cincinnati, Connecticut, Louisville, Rutgers, South Florida (American), Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Syracuse (ACC)

Big West: New: None; Gone: Pacific (West Coast)

CAA: New: College of Charleston (from Southern); Gone: George Mason (Atlantic 10), Georgia State (Sun Belt), Old Dominion (Conference USA)

Conference USA: New: Charlotte (from Atlantic 10), Old Dominion (from CAA), Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Middle Tennessee, North Texas (from Sun Belt), Louisiana Tech, UTSA (from WAC); Gone: Central Florida, Houston, Memphis, SMU (American)

Great West: disbanded; NJIT, the only remaining member, became an Independent

Horizon: New: Oakland (from Summit); Gone: Loyola Chicago (Missouri Valley)

MAAC: New: Monmouth, Quinnipiac (from NEC); Gone: Loyola Maryland (Patriot League)

Missouri Valley: New: Loyola Chicago (from Horizon); Gone: Creighton (Big East)

Mountain West: New: San Jose State, Utah State (from WAC); Gone: None

NEC: New: None; Gone: Monmouth, Quinnipiac (MAAC)

Patriot: New: Boston University (from America East), Loyola Maryland (from MAAC); Gone: None

Southland: New: Houston Baptist (from Great West), New Orleans (Independent), Albilene Christian, Incarnate Word (from Division II)

Summit: New: Denver (from WAC); Gone: Oakland (Horizon), UMKC (WAC)

Sun Belt: New: Texas State, Texas-Arlington (from WAC), Georgia State (from CAA); Gone: Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Middle Tennessee, North Texas (Conference USA)

West Coast: New: Pacific (from Big West); Gone: None

WAC: New: Chicago State, Texas-Pan American, Utah Valley (from Great West), Cal State Bakersfield (Independent), Grand Canyon (from Division II), UMKC (from Summit); Gone: Louisiana Tech, UTSA (Conference USA), San Jose State, Utah State (Mountain West), Texas State, Texas-Arlington (Sun Belt), Denver (Summit)

There you have it.  A total of 20 conferences were affected by this summer's round of realignment, including the creation of a new conference and the disbanding of another.  Of course, some big ones are on the horizon again next summer, with Rutgers and Maryland joining the Big Ten, Louisville going to the ACC, and the American adding a few more from Conference USA.  So, don't get used to the current conference landscape just yet.  It might take the whole year to straighten things out, anyway.