As the fall of 2019 comes closer, cnce again the DII college scene will see a facelift, this time coming from the Tri-State area. 

In years past, New York was broken up into Upstate New York which comprised Western and upstate colleges, while the downstate teams in the New York City, the surrounding suburbs, and Long Island competed in the Tri-State Conference.

Numbers in Upstate New York has been dwindling in recent years. More and more teams had been opting for NSCRO and three of the remaining four teams from last season followed suit. SUNY Geneseo, Fredonia and Buffalo State all have moved to the upstate division of NSCRO for the fall. The conference is now defunct.

The Tri-State has seen a bit of a shakeup as well. Last season saw 10 teams broken up into two divisions vie for the conference title. However, the entire southern division will be departing in one way or another. Molloy, Montclair State, and Hofstra have all elected to play in NSCRO. Hofstra will not be playoff eligible due to the size of the school. The College of New Jersey has departed for the MARC and NJIT—rife with forfeits this past season—is not fielding a team.

Monroe College is moving up from NSCRO to round out the six-team field in the Tri-State. William Paterson will remain conference favorites and will be joined by Monroe, Merchant Marine Academy, RPI, Marist and Seton Hall.

As a result of the changes the schedule and playoff structure have been modified for the Tri-State. Each team will play a round-robin with the other teams and the top two teams will receive byes in the first round of the playoffs, with all six teams getting a crack at the national title.

—Brett Anker