Moravian and Juniata will compete in the Centennial Conference and Susquehanna in the Liberty League for football in 2007, leaving the Middle Atlantic Conference, it was announced today by the three schools. The moves will leave the MAC with eight football programs, while the Centennial Conference will grow to nine members and the Liberty League to eight.

The moves may be a precursor to the schools' other programs leaving the MAC. Each school has the option of remaining in the MAC in other sports through the 2007-08 academic year.

"We are thrilled to add Juniata and Moravian to our football family," said Steven Ulrich, the Centennial's executive director. "The combination of outstanding academics and a commitment to excellence on the gridiron football makes Juniata and Moravian a perfect fit for our conference."

Juniata is 1-3 (all against Dickinson) and Moravian 1-5 (all against Muhlenberg) against Centennial schools since 1999.

"The move to the Centennial Conference should prove to be a great benefit for our football student athletes," Juniata president Thomas Kepple said. "The opportunity to compete against institutions with enrollments and academic standards that are similar to those at Juniata gives our student-athletes a chance to compete on a level playing field, and provides them every opportunity to succeed.

Moravian coach Scot Dapp cited the strength and competitive nature of Centennial football. "It will be a difficult schedule," he said, "but we're looking forward to the challenge."

Susquehanna becomes the only Pennsylvania-based member of the Liberty League, formerly the Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association. "The landscape of NCAA Division III has changed significantly since the mid-1990s as the membership has grown from approximately 350 to over 430 institutions," said Susquehanna athletic director Pam Samuelson. "This growth, along with the creation of the automatic qualifier for conferences to NCAA playoffs, has created an extremely dynamic situation in which many institutions are reexamining the role of intercollegiate athletics on their campuses."