MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Dan Stratford's desire of turning West Virginia men's soccer into a perennial Top 10 program just became easier – or harder – depending upon how you look at things.
 
Earlier today, Conference-USA and West Virginia University jointly announced the Mountaineers will become the league's 10^th men's soccer member for the 2022 fall season. Conference-USA is adding 2021 NCAA participant Coastal Carolina as an affiliate member this year, joining affiliate members Kentucky and South Carolina from the Southeastern Conference.
 
The full-fledged members of C-USA include 2021 national champion Marshall, 2021 NCAA participant Charlotte as well as Florida International, Florida Atlantic, Old Dominion and Alabama-Birmingham.
 
"We are pleased to welcome another traditionally strong program in West Virginia to enhance one of our conference's most successful sports," said Conference-USA commissioner Judy MacLeod.
 
West Virginia has been a member of the Mid-American Conference since 2012 when the Mountaineers made the switch from the Big East to the Big 12 Conference. Big 12 does not sponsor men's soccer.
 
"There wasn't any element of disgruntlement toward the MAC, I think it was more a case of looking at the trajectory of Conference-USA as well the addition of Coastal Carolina this season," Stratford said via a zoom meeting with media this afternoon. "Looking at the quality of games and opponents we will have, and the way that we feel that conference is trending, it will prove to be one of the strongest men's soccer conferences in the country."
 
This past season, C-USA boasted NCAA champion Marshall, as well as NCAA participants Kentucky and Charlotte. The Wildcats won their first-round game against New Hampshire before being bounced by Wake Forest in the second round.
 
Wake got by Coastal Carolina in the first round, 3-2.
 
C-USA has been a multiple-bid league for the last 11 seasons.
 
By comparison, Bowling Green was the only Mid-American Conference school to qualify for this year's NCAA Tournament and lost to Monmouth in the opening round. West Virginia, with a 6-3-1 record that included regular season wins over Marshall and Charlotte, did not make this year's NCAA Tournament field despite finishing No. 12 in the RPI rankings.
 
"We had a good home and now we feel like we've found a slightly better one," Stratford said.
 
"If we were 6-3-1 in Conference USA would we have made it (into the NCAA Tournament)? I don't know," he added. "That's a pretty strong hypothetical. I've said my peace about being left out. You could look at it that way and say, 'There was one AQ (automatic qualifier) for the MAC and that team still had to play a play-in game, and you had three teams in Conference USA that made it, two of which we beat.'
 
"It's hard not to connect those dots and say it's perhaps a reflection of where people perceive Conference USA to be compared to the MAC. I'm still waiting for a rational reason why we didn't make the tournament this year," Stratford said.
 
According to the coach, the consideration to switch conferences began in late January before the start of the 2021 spring campaign. WVU director of athletics Shane Lyons and his staff did the preliminary legwork allowing Stratford to concentrate on coaching his team this spring.
 
"I have to give a lot of credit to Shane and (senior associate athletics director) Simon Dover from the standpoint of feeling like I had a lot of freedom of choice in the proposal and in the decision," he said.
 
Once the decision to switch conferences was made, all Stratford had to do was keep a big secret until the process was finally completed earlier today.
 
"We were finishing out our 2021 recruiting class and it was tough (not to mention the conference switch), including some C-USA schools we were competing against," he admitted. "The players only literally found out the same time as everyone else at 1 p.m. when it was announced, so they're excited as well."
 
With Marshall's success in the NCAA Tournament, soccer has moved to the forefront in people's minds in the Mountain State, so annual games with the Thundering Herd are going to be very desirable to the fans. 
 
Having traditional SEC brands Kentucky and South Carolina will also help with fan appeal.
 
Stratford admitted annual trips to Florida and South Carolina will also get the attention of top recruits. All of this adds up to a win-win situation for Stratford as he desires to take West Virginia, a 14-time NCAA Tournament participant, to another level.
 
"With the addition of Coastal Carolina and ourselves … I've made no bones about it, we're an aspiring Top 10 program and we have every intention of being there as quickly as possible," he said.
 
"It's going to be tough, but if we want to be a Top 10 program we need to play those types of teams. We already were in the non-conference, and now we get to do it in the conference as well," Stratford concluded.