The SMU men's soccer program, which begins the 1999 season ranked No. 7 in the Soccer America poll, will join the Missouri Valley Conference for the 2000 season, SMU Head Coach Schellas Hyndman announced today.

The Mustangs, along with Belmont and current WAC rivals TCU and Tulsa, will join the current eight-member conference. The Missouri Valley Conference is a traditional soccer powerhouse and offers an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

"SMU soccer is extremely excited to be going into the Missouri Valley Conference," Hyndman said. "The teams in the conference are very strong. They have one of the strongest RPI ratings of any conference in the country. It's an honor for SMU to be coming into such a strong conference and we are looking forward to the challenge."

SMU has competed in the Western Athletic Conference since 1996. "We'll miss being a part of the WAC," Hyndman said. "It's a wonderful conference for soccer."

The current Missouri Valley Conference members are: Bradley (Peoria, Ill.), Creighton (Omaha, Neb.), Drake (Des Moines, Iowa), Eastern Illinois (Charleston, Ill.), Evansville (Evansville, Ind.), Southwest Missouri State (Springfield, Mo.), Vanderbilt (Nashville, Tenn.) and Western Kentucky (Bowling Green, Ky.).