{"id":601609,"date":"2024-12-12T10:28:18","date_gmt":"2024-12-12T17:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=601609"},"modified":"2024-12-12T10:28:18","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T17:28:18","slug":"american-athletic-conference-adds-liberty-marshall-james-madison-for-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/american-athletic-conference-adds-liberty-marshall-james-madison-for-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"American Athletic Conference Adds Liberty, Marshall, James Madison for 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>American Athletic Conference Adds Liberty, Marshall, James Madison for 2025 Season<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The American Athletic Conference on Thursday announced three women\u2019s swimming programs as affiliate members for the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n<p>Liberty University, Marshall University and James Madison will join the conference as affiliate members for women\u2019s swimming effective July 1, 2025. They bolster AAC\u2019s swimming ranks to nine schools, joining East Carolina, Florida Atlantic, North Texas, Rice, Tulane and Florida International. The first five are full members, with FIU as a swimming affiliate.<\/p>\n<p>Swimming is a championship-only sport in the conference. The expanded nine-team championships in 2026 will be hosted at the Greensboro Aquatic Center.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are excited to welcome JMU, Liberty and Marshall to The American in women\u2019s swimming and diving,\u201d AAC commissioner <strong>Tim Pernetti<\/strong> said <a href=\"https:\/\/theamerican.org\/news\/2024\/12\/12\/swimming-diving-american-athletic-conference-announces-affiliate-members-in-womens-swimming-and-diving-championship-site-in-2026.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in a press release<\/a>. \u201cAll three programs are at the top of the sport and will enhance our strength in women\u2019s swimming and diving and our philosophy of providing the highest level of competition and experience for our student-athletes. This expansion will better position The American for even more participation in the NCAA Championships.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/meet\/american-athletic-conference-swimming\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">American Athletic Conference Swimming News<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>James Madison and Marshall are both full members of the Sun Belt Conference, where their women\u2019s teams are competing this season. JMU won the conference last year with Marshall second. Georgia Southern and Old Dominion are the remaining members of what seems like a doomed Sun Belt swimming slate, both full-time Sun Belt members. The conference <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/report-sun-belt-conference-to-reinstate-swimming-championships\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">only resuscitated swimming in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For JMU, the 2026 championships will be the fifth different league it has competed in over six years. It was runner-up at the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association in 2023 after winning the ECAC in 2022 and the Colonial Athletic Association in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re excited to transition JMU swimming &amp; diving to the American Athletic Conference beginning this summer and thank Commissioner Tim Pernetti for the opportunity,\u201d JMU Director of Athletics <strong>Matt Roan <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/jmusports.com\/news\/2024\/12\/12\/swimming-diving-jmu-swim-dive-joins-american-athletic-conference.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said in a university statement<\/a>. \u201cAs our department has continued to elevate, this program has been forced to make some adjustments over the last few years while trying to identify the most ideal conference situation. Despite multiple transitions, they\u2019ve continued to compete at a phenomenal, championship level under the leadership of Head Coach Dane Pedersen. The move to the American positions JMU swimming &amp; diving in a strong conference with the ability to grow to greater heights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Marshall has the chance to rejoin many of its former Conference USA rivals with this move to the AAC.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are several familiar coaches in the conference that I have had the privilege of competing against in years past,\u201d coach <strong>Ian Walsh<\/strong> said <a href=\"https:\/\/herdzone.com\/news\/2024\/12\/12\/womens-swimming-and-diving-marshall-swimming-diving-to-join-the-american-athletic-conference\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">in a statement<\/a>. \u201cI know these programs will challenge us to be better and we look forward to elevating the conference as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Liberty is a primary member of Conference USA. The Lady Flames are swimming in the Atlantic Sun Conference this year. They are the reigning ASUN champ after five straight CCSA titles from 2019-23.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe American Athletic Conference will afford our swim\/dive program with a highly competitive conference home where our team will continue to flourish and compete for championships,\u201d Liberty director of athletics <strong>Ian McCaw<\/strong> said. \u201cWe are grateful to Commissioner Pernetti, his staff and campus administrators for affording Liberty this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>American Athletic Conference Adds Liberty, Marshall, James Madison for 2025 Season The American Athletic Conference on Thursday announced three women\u2019s swimming programs as affiliate members for the 2025-26 season. Liberty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8367,"featured_media":154481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[66326,59397,66010,7898,29485,9401,122751],"class_list":["post-601609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-college","tag-aac-swimming","tag-american-athletic-conference","tag-american-athletic-conference-swimming","tag-james-madison","tag-liberty","tag-marshall","tag-sun-belt-conference"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- 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