Two NYU sports teams will join new conferences after this season. The men's volleyball team will leave the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association in favor of the newly formed United Volleyball Conference, while wrestling will leave the Metropolitan Conference and become an associate member of the Centennial Conference.
"We are very excited about both the Centennial Conference affiliation for wrestling and the United Volleyball Conference for men's volleyball," athletic director Christopher Bledsoe said. "These are great opportunities for our student-athletes, the athletic department and the university as a whole."
Men's volleyball will join 11 other colleges in the UVC, including Bard College, Stevens Institute of Technology and Vassar College. 10 of those schools are currently playing in the league's inaugural season.
The Violets are the ninth team to contribute a wrestling program to the Centennial Conference, and will join Gettysburg College, Johns Hopkins University, McDaniel College, U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Muhlenberg College, Stevens Institute of Technology, Ursinus College and Washington and Lee University.
Wrestling head coach Bruce Haberli thinks his program will benefit from the change.
"We're moving to a conference where schools like Gettysburg and Johns Hopkins have a good mixture of quality students and athletics," he said. "They need strong GPAs and SATs to get into this conference, which is not exactly the case of the Metropolitan Conference."
NYU wrestling has already faced two Centennial Conference teams this season. The Violets lost to both Stevens on Dec. 10 and Johns Hopkins on Jan. 5 by a combined score of 63-15. They are also scheduled to wrestle Ursinus on Feb. 12 in a tri-meet along with SUNY-Oswego.
Although these two sports are switching conferences, these "single sport" affiliations do not affect NYU's primary membership in the University Athletic Association. The change also will not increase the amount of travel or cost for NYU.
