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Times Record News (Wichita Falls, Texas)
The Lone Star Conference, once the premier Division II conference for both Texas and Oklahoma, has announced it will grow again.
The LSC will expand to 19 member institutions as league officials announced Tuesday that eight schools have accepted invitations to join the LSC in the fall of 2019.
"We look forward to collaborating on and off the athletic field knowing that our student athletes will benefit from this expansion," said Texas Woman's Chancellor Carine M. Feyten, chair of the LSC President's Council.
With 19 members, the LSC will become the biggest conference in NCAA Division II. The LSC, founded on April 25, 1931, started as a five-member conference of Texas-based schools and with the latest expansion will become a 19-member league with 13 members in Texas, three in Oklahoma, two in New Mexico, and one in Arkansas.
The Heartland Conference is where the members are coming from. Midwestern State currently competes in that league in men's soccer and will continue to do so this season and in 2018.
"This is an exciting time for the Lone Star Conference. The addition of these eight schools makes the LSC the largest and most dynamic conference in NCAA Division II. These nineteen institutions will represent the very best in Division II through a shared commitment to excellence in academics, athletics and student-athlete development," said LSC Commissioner Jay Poerner. "I am thankful to the leadership of the LSC Council of Presidents for its guidance in leading this expansion effort."
MSU has competed with several of the new schools in basketball, including Lubbock Christian's upset win here back in 2016 as the No. 8 seed in the regional tournament. The Mustangs knocked out Fort Smith in 2014.
The new teams do not play compete in D-2 football.
Adding the eight institutions marks the LSC's first expansion since UT Permian Basin and Western New Mexico joined the conference in 2016. The league has had 38 institutions compete as members over its 86-year history.
See more info at lonestarconference.org.
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