Ball State field hockey's first opponent of the 2016 season, Appalachian State, will be a Mid-American Conference rival beginning in 2017.
Located in Boone, North Carolina, Appalachian State will be an affiliate member of MAC, competing only in field hockey.
Most of the Mountaineers' other teams, including the football team famous for upsetting the University of Michigan in 2007, will remain in the Sun Belt Conference. The Sun Belt does not sponsor field hockey, however, so after the NorPac Conference folded in 2014, Appalachian State played as an independent program in 2015 and will do so again in 2016.