
Beginning in the 2021–22 academic year, extensive changes occurred in
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...
conference
A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...
membership, primarily at the
Division I level.
Most of these changes have involved conferences in the
Football Bowl Subdivision
The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...
(FBS) of Division I. All 10 FBS conferences that existed at the start of the realignment cycle have seen or will see changes in their core membership.
The
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City.
Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
named conference realignment, and in particular the collapse of the
Pac-12 Conference
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...
, as the 2023 story of the year in
U.S.
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...
sports. The Pac-12 Conference lost ten of its twelve members ahead of the 2024–25 academic year, leading to lawsuits and to ''ad hoc'' arrangements for its remaining two members until newly invited members could join in 2026.
The Division I
Football Championship Subdivision
The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Bowl Subdivision (F ...
(FCS) also saw significant changes, most notably the beginning of football sponsorship by the
Atlantic Sun Conference
The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Division I FCS level in 2022. ...
(ASUN); the return of football by the
Western Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington.
Due to ...
(WAC), which previously sponsored football at the FBS level until the end of the
2012 season; and two football-only conference mergers, one involving the ASUN and WAC and the other involving the
Big South Conference
The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), ...
and
Ohio Valley Conference
The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in partnership with ...
(OVC). A third FCS change was the creation of a formal relationship between the
Missouri Valley Football Conference
The Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC), formerly the Gateway Football Conference, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the National Collegiate A ...
and two non-football leagues, the
Missouri Valley Conference
The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...
(MVC) and
Summit League.
Other sports saw significant change:
* In men's ice hockey, the
Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) was reestablished by seven members of the men's
Western Collegiate Hockey Association
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college ice hockey conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's-only conference.
From 1951 to 1999, it operated as a me ...
(WCHA), which led to the WCHA disbanding its men's league and becoming a women-only conference.
Also, the men-only
Atlantic Hockey Association and the women-only
College Hockey America announced they would merge into a single conference, later unveiled as
Atlantic Hockey America
Atlantic Hockey America (AHA) is a college ice hockey conference which operates primarily in the northeastern United States. It participates in NCAA Division I as an ice hockey-only conference. The conference was formed in 2023 by the merger of ...
, after the 2023–24 season.
* In men's soccer, the
Sun Belt Conference
The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that has been affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football confe ...
reinstated the sport, ultimately leading to both
Conference USA
Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas.
Mem ...
(CUSA) and the
Mid-American Conference
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...
dropping the sport, and the OVC also added the sport.
* The
Atlantic 10 Conference
The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. The A-10's member schools are located most ...
launched a men's lacrosse league, leading to the
Northeast Conference
The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...
(NEC) and the
Southern Conference
The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Southern Conference College football, football teams c ...
dropping the sport. However, the NEC later reinstated men's lacrosse in 2024–25.
* The NEC became the second D-I all-sports conference to sponsor men's volleyball.
* The
West Coast Conference
The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting o ...
and the
Big West Conference
The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's NCAA Division I, Division I. The conference was origina ...
added men's water polo, which led to the demise of the men's side of the water polo-only
Golden Coast Conference.
* In men's wrestling, the
Ivy League
The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...
announced it would hold its own conference championship meet starting in 2024–25, ending a century-long de facto relationship with the
Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association.
* The
Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...
began sponsoring women's gymnastics, leading to the demise of the single-sport
Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference.
* Several all-sports conferences underwent single-sport mergers or transfers of sponsorship:
** The OVC merged its men's tennis league into the
Horizon League
The Horizon League is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Headquartered in Indianapolis, the league's eleven member schools are located in ...
.
** The
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC ) is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and the Mid-A ...
merged its baseball league into the NEC.
** The
Southland Bowling League was absorbed by CUSA.
** The ASUN added men's and women's swimming & diving, effectively taking over the aquatics side of the
Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) and leaving the latter a beach volleyball-only conference.
** Sponsorship of men's swimming & diving transferred from the
Mid-American Conference
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...
to the MVC.
** The CCSA would itself disband completely after the spring 2025 season, with its final beach volleyball members joining the
Mountain Pacific Sports Federation
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the Western United States, although it has added members as far east as Massachusetts. The conference participates at the NCAA Divisio ...
for that sport.
FBS conferences affected
Southeastern Conference
On July 21, 2021, the ''
Houston Chronicle
The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...
'' reported that
Oklahoma
Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...
and
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
had approached the
Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...
(SEC) about the possibility of joining that league. On July 26, Oklahoma and Texas notified the Big 12 Conference that the two schools did not wish to extend their grant of television rights beyond the 2024–25 athletic year and intended to leave the conference. On July 29, the presidents and chancellors of the 14 SEC members voted unanimously to extend invitations to Oklahoma and Texas, effective in 2025. The two schools eventually reached a buyout agreement with the Big 12 that allowed them to join the SEC in 2024.
Big 12 Conference
With the losses of Texas and Oklahoma, the
Big 12 Conference
The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...
was reduced from 10 to 8 teams. On September 10, the Big 12 announced that
BYU, an
FBS independent and full member of the non-football
West Coast Conference
The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting o ...
(WCC), along with
American Athletic Conference
The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...
(The American) members
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
,
Houston
Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
, and
UCF would join the conference no later than 2024–25.
At the time of announcement, BYU stated that it would join the Big 12 in 2023. The other three schools entered into negotiations with The American regarding their departure date, and on June 10, 2022, an agreement on a 2023 departure date was announced.
On November 2, 2022, ESPN reported that
Gonzaga University
Gonzaga University (GU) ( ) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington, United States. It is Higher education accreditation in the United States, accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges ...
athletic director Chris Standiford had met with Big 12 commissioner
Brett Yormark while the
Gonzaga men's basketball team was in the
Dallas area, home to the Big 12 offices, for a scrimmage with
Tennessee
Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
. This meeting was reportedly part of discussions regarding a possible Gonzaga move to the Big 12 as a full member without football (Gonzaga has not had a football program since 1941).
Gonzaga men's basketball has become by far the dominant program in the otherwise
mid-major WCC. Going into the 2022–23 season, the Bulldogs had played in every NCAA men's tournament in the 21st century, made national championship games in 2017 and 2021, and had been a top regional seed in four of the previous five NCAA tournaments. Gonzaga, which has been transparent with the WCC about its talks with other conferences, had reportedly also been in membership discussions with the
Pac-12 Conference
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...
and the
Big East Conference
The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...
(the latter a non-football league). Yormark would later confirm that the conference had met with both Gonzaga and
UConn regarding possible membership, but the possible addition of both schools was shelved after the addition of the "Four Corners" Pac-12 members.
In late spring 2023, with the Pac-12 Conference still not having finalized a new media rights deal, multiple media reports linked
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
, which had left the Big 12 for the then-Pac-10 in 2011, with a potential return to the Big 12. Dennis Dodd of ''CBSSports.com'' reported that Colorado had been in what was described as "substantive" talks with the Big 12. Greg Swaim, an Oklahoma radio host described by the sports and culture news site ''OutKick'' as "very plugged into the Big 12 landscape," reported over the weekend of June 3–4 that he had been told by multiple sources that Colorado and
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
were both preparing to join the Big 12. It was also widely rumored that newly hired
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
head coach
Deion Sanders
Deion Luwynn Sanders Sr. (born August 9, 1967) is an American American football, football coach with the Colorado Buffaloes football, Colorado Buffaloes. Sanders is also a former professional football and baseball player, having played in the N ...
and several influential
boosters were pushing for Colorado to return to the Big 12.
Speculation about
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
's future increased in July. First, in advance of a meeting of Pac-12 chancellors and presidents set for July 20,
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
chancellor
Phil DiStefano publicly suggested that conference commissioner
George Kliavkoff provide details on a potential media deal. None were presented, and many within the conference suggested that DiStefano's request was intended to pressure Kliavkoff. After the end of the conference's football media day, which took place the day after the chancellors/presidents meeting, Colorado athletic director
Rick George had to dodge many reporters while exiting the event venue. In the meantime, Big 12 officials had reportedly set a deadline of July 25 for Colorado to make a decision on its conference future. The school's board of regents scheduled two meetings for July 26 and 27 at which a Big 12 move was expected to be on the agenda, and the regents posted an agenda for the latter meeting that indicated that a formal vote of some kind was likely. The Big 12 chancellors and presidents held their own meeting on July 26, with conference expansion reportedly on the agenda, and that body reportedly voted unanimously to approve Colorado should it formally apply for membership. An application was expected after the Colorado regents' meeting the following day. On July 27, Colorado announced it would be returning to the Big 12 after 13 years.
In the days after Colorado's announcement, the Pac-12 chancellors and presidents met on August 1, at which time they were presented with the first details of a new media rights deal. This deal was reportedly an exclusively streaming deal with
Apple
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
, with returns based mainly on subscription rates.
Phil Knight
Philip Hampson Knight (born February 24, 1938) is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist who is the co-founder and chairman ''emeritus'' of Nike, Inc., a global sports equipment and apparel company. He was previously its chai ...
, co-founder and retired CEO of
Nike and also an
Oregon
Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
alumnus and major donor to both the university and
its athletic program, strongly supported the Apple deal.
[ This was apparently not enough to satisfy multiple members, including Arizona. On August 3, the ]Arizona Board of Regents
The Arizona Board of Regents (ABOR) is the governing body of Arizona's public university system. It provides policy guidance to Arizona State University, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona.
History
In 1885, the territori ...
, which oversees the state's three public universities, met, reportedly to discuss a potential Arizona move to the Big 12. That conference's chancellors and presidents met that same day and reportedly approved an Arizona application to join. However, there was an apparent reversal, as the Pac-12 chancellors and presidents called a meeting for the morning of August 4 during which they would accept the Apple deal and sign a grant of rights (GOR), with a 10th school to be added later to replace Colorado. Later reports came out that two schools were to receive invitations if the Pac-12 had entered into the GOR—San Diego State
San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system. SDSU is ...
and SMU. Then, 10 minutes before the meeting was to start, Washington informed the Pac-12 that it would move to the Big Ten. Washington football coach Kalen DeBoer and the university administration were concerned about the prospect that no Pac-12 games would be available on linear television.[ Shortly after the morning meeting was canceled, Oregon followed Washington to the Big Ten, and Arizona, Arizona State, and ]Utah
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
announced they would join the Big 12 beginning in 2024.
In October 2023, '' The Messenger'' reported that the Big 12 and Gonzaga had "resumed top-level discussions" regarding a potential move to the conference, possibly as early as 2024–25. Although the Big 12 was dealing with financial and logistical issues surrounding the conference's 2023 and 2024 expansions, the conference presidents and chancellors authorized Yormark to continue discussions with Gonzaga.
The following month, the Big 12 announced it would add two women's sports for 2024–25 and beyond—beach volleyball and lacrosse. At the time, the Big 12 had only one member that sponsored each sport—Cincinnati in women's lacrosse and TCU in beach volleyball. However, each of the incoming members for 2024 sponsored at least one of the two sports. Arizona and Utah sponsored beach volleyball, Colorado sponsored women's lacrosse, and Arizona State sponsored both. The conference press release stated that new members would be added in both sports to enable automatic qualification for NCAA tournaments. This came about for lacrosse on February 21, 2024, with the Big 12 adding Florida
Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
, San Diego State
San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system. SDSU is ...
, and UC Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...
as affiliates for the conference's first season. At the time, Florida played women's lacrosse in The American, and the two California schools played that sport in the Pac-12. Also on February 21, the Big 12 also announced that Old Dominion and Tulsa
Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...
, both then housing women's rowing in The American (Old Dominion as an affiliate and Tulsa as a full member), would join the Big 12 for women's rowing in 2024–25. The Big 12 announcement hinted at the departure of women's rowing associates and full SEC members Alabama
Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
and Tennessee
Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...
, neither of which was included in the list of Big 12 rowing members for 2024–25. SEC bylaws allow it to hold a championship in any sport sponsored by at least 25% of the full membership. In July 2024, Alabama and Tennessee were joined in the SEC by Oklahoma and Texas, both of which sponsor the sport, and the SEC announced the addition of rowing with the four aforementioned programs on August 23.
On August 23, 2024, reports about Yormark pursuing current Big East member and football independent UConn arose, with a meeting scheduled to happen no latter than the following week. However, the report indicated that not all of the conference's presidents and chancellors supported the move, predominately due to the poor performance of the school's football program since its departure from the previous FBS-sponsored Big East; any expansion requires the approval of at least 12 of the current 16 members. If the move were to happen, the football program would join in 2031 when the conference's next media deal takes effect, with other sports joining no earlier than 2026.
Big Ten Conference
On June 30, 2022, media reports indicated that UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
and USC USC may refer to:
Education
United States
* Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico
* University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina
* ...
had started the process of leaving the Pac-12 Conference
The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...
for the Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Fa ...
, with the Big Ten presidents and chancellors having scheduled a meeting that evening to vote on the addition of the two Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
schools. Shortly after this meeting, the Big Ten and both schools issued statements setting a 2024 entry date, immediately after the then-existing Pac-12 media rights contracts expired.
On August 4, 2023, Oregon
Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
and Washington announced they would leave the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten effective July 1, 2024.
In an August 10 interview for an Ohio State fan forum, the school's athletic director Gene Smith stated that Fox, the Big Ten's primary media partner, provided extra money to facilitate the addition of Oregon and Washington. According to Smith, Fox agreed to pay $30 to $35 million per year for each of those two schools from their 2024 arrival in the conference through the end of the media deal in the 2029–30 school year. This meant that the 14 existing Big Ten members, plus UCLA and USC (which will receive full shares from the new media deal upon their arrival in the conference), will see no decrease in payouts during that deal.
Pac-12 Conference
Shortly after Oklahoma and Texas announced their departure for the SEC, Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff was told by Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby that the eight remaining Big 12 members were interested in joining the Pac-12. The Pac-12 subsequently formed an expansion committee made up of one official from each of the conference's travel pairings. The first and ultimately only committee meeting ended after only a few minutes when USC president Carol Folt, who represented the conference's two Los Angeles schools (UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
and USC USC may refer to:
Education
United States
* Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico
* University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina
** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina
* ...
), objected to adding more teams and expressed surprise the Pac-12 was talking about the subject. Kliavkoff, presumably aware of USC's importance to the conference, did not push back against Folt.[
On August 24, 2021, the Pac-12 and the Big Ten, along with the ]Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...
, announced that the three leagues would be forming a scheduling alliance, likely in response to the SEC's recent expansion. It consisted of adding games between teams in these three conferences in football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
, as well as men's and women's college basketball
College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...
.
UCLA's move to the Big Ten required approval of the Regents of the University of California
The Regents of the University of California (also referred to as the Board of Regents to distinguish the board from the corporation it governs of the same name) is the governing board of the University of California (UC), a state university sys ...
, the governing body of the University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university, research university system in the U.S. state of California. Headquartered in Oakland, California, Oakland, the system is co ...
system. In a move widely viewed as public posturing, the regents threatened to block UCLA's move. Kliavkoff was privately engaged with a group of regents in an effort to work out a deal to keep UCLA in the conference. The regents told Kliavkoff if he could guarantee UCLA a media payout of $52 million a year over the five years of a new Pac-12 media deal—roughly equal to the planned Big Ten payout, less anticipated travel expenses—plus a $15 million payment to the Big Ten to break the school's agreement to join, the regents' vote would be heavily in favor of UCLA staying in the Pac-12. When Kliavkoff presented this offer to the Pac-12 board, interim Oregon
Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
president Patrick Phillips ended the discussion by saying that Oregon did not want to be in a conference in which it made less money than UCLA.[ The UC Regents approved UCLA's move on December 14, 2022.
In October 2022, the Pac-12's exclusive negotiating window for a new media rights deal with its primary broadcast partner, Fox, expired without a new deal. ESPN was still interested in partnering with the Pac-12, even without UCLA and USC. Kliavkoff presented the conference chancellors and presidents with an offer of $30 million annually for each member. Internal Pac-12 analysis had indicated that the media rights were worth somewhere in the vicinity of $35 million each, giving the sides room for negotiation. However, an August 2023 report by the ''Los Angeles Times'' revealed that one of the Pac-12 presidents—not identified in the ''Times'' report, but speculated by other outlets to be Arizona State president Michael Crow, and later reported by John Canzano to be ]Utah
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
president Taylor Randall—had worked with a professor on his campus to come up with an estimate of $50 million per school. Kliavkoff presented ESPN with the larger number, which caused ESPN to end negotiations.[
As noted, Colorado announced its 2024 return to the Big 12 on July 27, 2023, with Arizona reportedly soon to make its own move to that conference. On August 3, 2023—the same day that the Big 12 met to approve Arizona's application to join the conference—the Big Ten presidents and chancellors met and authorized commissioner Tony Petitti to explore the addition of two other Pac-12 members, ]Oregon
Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...
and Washington. No offers were made at that time, nor was any vote to add more schools taken. Washington's governing board met that same day, reportedly to discuss that school's options in realignment. The Big Ten presidents and chancellors met the following day, reportedly to finalize the addition of Oregon and Washington. The two schools reportedly agreed to accept a reduced payout during their first few years as Big Ten members, possibly as low as 50%—but still more in dollar terms than the reported Pac-12 deal with Apple. On August 4, 2023, Oregon and Washington announced they would join the Big Ten effective with the August 2024 expiration of the Pac-12 media contract.[ As noted previously, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah announced that they would leave for the Big 12 in 2024 on the same day that Oregon and Washington's move was announced.
Shortly after the August 4 mass departure, ]Pat Forde
Pat Forde is a sports journalist who is a national columnist for ''Sports Illustrated''. He previously worked for ESPN, ''The Courier-Journal'' in Louisville, Kentucky, and '' Yahoo Sports''.
Personal life and education
Forde is a native of C ...
of ''Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...
'' wrote that the apparent (and eventual) demise of the Pac-12 could have major implications for the US Olympic team in multiple non-revenue sports. Two of the four schools that then remained in the Pac-12, California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
and Stanford, are key feeders for the US Olympic program, and also train a significant number of athletes who represent other countries. Forde noted that at the 2020 Summer Olympics
The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...
, 32 US athletes were Stanford students or alumni, and 16 others had the same connections to Cal. He also cited a 2017 study by researchers at the website ''OlympStats.com'' that found Stanford had produced more US Olympic athletes than any other university up to that time, and Cal was fourth (UCLA and USC were second and third). CBS Sports journalist Shehan Jeyarajah added that Stanford had won the NACDA Directors' Cup, an annual award presented since 1993–94 to the top overall college sports program, 26 times through 2022–23, and that "a number of non-revenue sport opportunities have been created because of the money paid out by being part of a major football league." He also asked a rhetorical question that even for the West Coast schools that joined the Big Ten, "will the insane costs of flying cross-country for routine conference games be a major deterrent to fielding robust athletic departments?"
On September 1, 2023, the presidents and chancellors of the Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...
(ACC) voted to approve California and Stanford as members effective August 2, 2024. This left Oregon State and Washington State
Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...
as the last two Pac-12 members. On the same day that the ACC made its announcement, American Athletic Conference
The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...
commissioner Mike Aresco, whose conference had evaluated those two schools as potential members, announced that The American would not add any schools in the Pacific Time Zone
The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00 ...
.
The Pac-12 then scheduled a board meeting for September 13; an email from the conference's general counsel indicated that some kind of vote could be taken. This led Oregon State and Washington State, along with their presidents, to file a civil action in Whitman County, Washington
Whitman County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 47,973. The county seat is Colfax, and its largest city is Pullman.
The county was formed from Stevens County in 1871. It is na ...
(where Washington State is located) on September 8 against the Pac-12 and Kliavkoff, requesting a temporary restraining order against the conference. The filing called for a hearing on the restraining order on September 11. The two schools contend that as the only members that have not announced their departure, their presidents are the only legitimate members of the conference's board of directors. According to a report by ESPN's Pete Thamel, "The essence of Washington State and Oregon State's concerns, if the league's 12 schools formally meet, is that the current members could vote to dissolve or evenly distribute the remaining assets." In the court filing, OSU and WSU pointed out that Pac-12 bylaws state that any member that announces its intent to leave "automatically cease(s) to be a member of the Pac-12 Board of Directors and shall cease to have the right to vote on any matter." The filing added that UCLA and USC were immediately stripped of their board seats and voting rights once they announced their move to the Big Ten. OSU and WSU reportedly wish to use the conference's remaining assets, including the "Pac-12" brand, as a lure for a friendly merger with the Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...
. At the September 11 hearing, Whitman County Superior Court Judge Gary Libey granted the restraining order, preventing the full Pac-12 from meeting until the ownership of the league's assets could be determined. A hearing for a preliminary injunction was scheduled for November 14. On October 9, Washington, acting on behalf of the 10 departing members, filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit, challenging the grounds for the removal of those members' voting rights and seeking a dismissal of the suit. Before Washington's filing, the sides had entered mediation in an attempt to resolve governance and financial issues outside of the courtroom.
The preliminary injunction against the Pac-12 and its departing members was granted at the November 14 hearing, tentatively giving Oregon State and Washington State full control of the Pac-12 assets. Judge Libey issued a stay of his ruling to November 20, with no objection from OSU or WSU, to allow for the departing schools to file appeals. The University of Washington filed an emergency motion with the Washington Supreme Court
The Washington Supreme Court is the highest court in the judiciary of the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. The court is composed of a chief justice and eight associate justices. Members of the court are elected to six-year terms. ...
two days after the Whitman County hearing, requesting a stay of that court's ruling and the extension of a temporary restraining order, in place since September, that prevented any board action without unanimous consent of all 12 members. The stay was granted, and both sides in the dispute were asked to file briefs regarding the emergency stay no later than November 28, with replies due by December 8. This action was separate from any appeals that UW or any other departing schools could have filed.
On December 15, the Washington Supreme Court declined to review the Whitman County decision, which lifted the stay on that decision and gave effective control of the Pac-12 assets to Oregon State and Washington State. Six days later, all 12 schools announced a settlement of the dispute. The departing schools agreed to forfeit an undisclosed portion of 2023–24 revenue distributions and provide "specific guarantees against potential future liabilities," while Oregon State and Washington State retained control of Pac-12 assets and future revenue. Full details of the settlement were expected to be finalized in the coming days.
With the failed attempt to keep the conference together as a backdrop, the Pac-12 parted ways with the embattled Kliavkoff, effective February 29, 2024.
The University of California Board of Regents panel approved a plan in May 2024 for UCLA to pay $10 million annually to UC Berkeley as compensation for loss in media rights revenue. That has been referred to as "Calimony."
On September 11, 2024, Yahoo Sports writer Ross Dellenger reported that the Pac-12 was set to enter a rebuilding process by inviting various potential new members, among those being current Mountain West schools Boise State, San Diego State
San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system. SDSU is ...
, Fresno State and Colorado State. The following day, the conference formally announced that the four schools would be joining on July 1, 2026.
On September 23, 2024, Utah State accepted an offer to join the league as its seventh member. This gave the Pac-12 the seven members needed to preserve its official "multisport" status, though one more football member will be needed to preserve FBS status. On the same day Memphis, USF
USF may refer to:
Universities
* University of Saint Francis (Indiana), Ft. Wayne, Indiana
* University of San Francisco, California
* University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida
* University of St. Francis, Joliet, Illinois
* University of Sioux ...
, UTSA and Tulane, who were potential Pac-12 targets declined the offer and stated that they remain committed to The American. UNLV
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. ...
also declined the Pac-12 offer and will remain in MW.
On September 24, 2024, the Pac-12 filed a lawsuit against the Mountain West over its 'poaching penalty', which would force the Pac-12 to pay $10 million for each member of the Mountain West that left to join it. The conference called it "anticompetitive" and "unlawful."
After discussions with multiple conferences, on October 1, 2024, Gonzaga announced its departure from the West Coast Conference
The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting o ...
for the Pac-12 beginning in 2026. Because Gonzaga does not sponsor a football team, the Pac-12 must add one more full member with a football team to preserve its FBS status.
In June 2025, an obscure Twitter/X account promoting Texas State running back Lincoln Pare as a 2025 Heisman Trophy candidate included a picture from the Instagram
Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
story of university
A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
president Kelly Damphousse that featured two beavers floating in the San Marcos River that flows through the university's home city. The post also included an emoji that hinted at Texas State potentially joining Oregon State (nicknamed Beavers) in the Pac-12. Damphousse then reposted this message on June 10, shortly after a regularly scheduled Pac-12 meeting at which Texas State's Pac-12 candidacy was discussed. This sequence immediately led to speculation that Texas State was likely to become the needed eighth full member with football.
Shortly after this post, ESPN reported that Texas State was indeed the leading candidate for Pac-12 expansion, stating that "the league's presidents are enamored with a foothold in the state and Damphousse's leadership." Texas State had been seen as a prime Pac-12 candidate for several months. An earlier Twitter/X post by Damphousse in April 2025, which followed speculation that TSU would be willing to accept a reduced media payout to join the Pac-12, hinted at the parameters of a potential offer. In the post, Damphousse commented on his love of lobster bisque: "People sometimes think that I'd be happy with half a bowl of soup. After all, a cup of soup is better than no soup at all. But for me, it's a full bowl or nothing." Placing this comment in further context, Gonzaga will receive a full share of conference media rights (though not of other football-related revenue) despite not having a football program. Should TSU accept a Pac-12 invitation effective in 2026, it would have to pay a $5 million buyout to its current home of the Sun Belt Conference
The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that has been affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football confe ...
(SBC), which would increase to $10 million on July 1.[
A potential TSU move to the Pac-12 would not only have implications for the SBC, but also ]Conference USA
Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas.
Mem ...
(CUSA) and the FCS ranks. In fall 2024, with TSU having discussions with other conferences (notably the MW), the SBC considered several CUSA members as potential replacements, with Louisiana Tech reportedly emerging as the main candidate. With the SBC being the only FBS conference with football divisions, TSU's departure would create a vacancy in its West Division, already home to two Louisiana schools (Louisiana
Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...
and ULM). Also, according to ESPN, "The Sun Belt's realignment strategy for years has been to double-down on regional rivalries, and Louisiana Tech would fall into that category." In turn, CUSA has started evaluating candidates to replace any departing members, with current FCS program Tarleton State viewed as the favorite.[
]
Atlantic Coast Conference
Prior to the addition of three new members, multiple media reports emerged in May 2023 that seven of the Atlantic Coast Conference
The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, the ACC's eighteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athlet ...
's (ACC) 14 football members— Clemson, Florida State
Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...
, Miami (FL), NC State, North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
, Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
, and Virginia Tech
The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, commonly referred to as Virginia Tech (VT), is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States ...
—had met with legal teams in recent months to examine the grant of rights (GOR) agreement within the conference's media rights deal. In May 2012, the ACC had signed a 15-year media deal with ESPN, which was extended in 2016 to run through the 2035–36 school year. Under the GOR, if a school leaves the ACC before 2036, all remaining media revenue under the existing broadcast contract would revert to the conference. In March 2023, Florida State athletic director Michael Alford expressed frustration with the conference's revenue distribution model in a call to ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, noting that by 2024, each ACC school's share of media revenue would be at least $30 million below those of Big Ten and SEC members. Following the ACC spring meetings later in May 2023,[ the league agreed to a new revenue sharing model in which revenue derived from the ]College Football Playoff
The College Football Playoff (CFP) is an annual single-elimination tournament, knockout invitational tournament to determine a national champion for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, D ...
(CFP) and NCAA men's basketball tournament will be distributed based on each school's success in those competitions. Other league revenue will continue to be split evenly between member schools. The new model takes effect when the CFP expands from 4 teams to 12 in 2024. Another aspect of the media deal that would prove important in later expansion discussions is that the contract contains an escalator clause that requires ESPN to increase its payout to the ACC if it expands beyond 14 football members. By 2023, the escalator clause reportedly called for ESPN to pay the ACC an additional $24 million per year per added member.[
However, this change was apparently not enough to fully satisfy Florida State. During an August 2, 2023, meeting of the university's governing board, president Richard McCullough told the board that Florida State would have to "very seriously" consider leaving the ACC, barring a more radical change to the conference's revenue sharing model.
On August 7, following the mass exodus of schools from the Pac-12, media reported that the ACC had started exploring the addition of ]California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
and Stanford, two of the four schools left behind in the exodus. However, following a conference call of ACC presidents and chancellors on August 9, it was reported that the potential expansion "hit significant roadblocks." The report also confirmed that Notre Dame, a full but non-football ACC member and thus having voting rights on conference expansion, was strongly pushing for the expansion; significantly, Stanford is one of the three schools that Notre Dame football plays every year. By August 11, the potential expansion was described by sources as being "on life support", with Clemson, Florida State, NC State, and North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...
opposed. ACC bylaws require the approval of 75% of the full members (at the time, 12 out of 15) for any proposed expansion.
Despite this, the ACC had not completely ended expansion discussions. On August 23, reports came out that the ACC was seriously considering the addition of not only Cal and Stanford, but also SMU. At the time, SMU had been in deep discussions with both the Pac-12 and ACC for more than a year, and had also been involved with the Big 12 before that conference lost interest.[ All three schools were reportedly willing to make major financial concessions to join the conference, with Cal and Stanford being willing to take reduced shares of conference media payouts for at least several years, and SMU being willing to take no broadcast revenue during its first seven years as an ACC member. The three schools' financial concessions would create a pool of funds that the ACC would split among its members. The conference was working on possible financial models for this fund. At the time of the report, no formal vote on expansion had been taken. An ESPN report on August 28 indicated that there was "continued momentum" toward adding all three schools, with one of the four ACC members that had objected to expansion expected to change its vote in the coming days. A conference call involving ACC presidents and chancellors had been scheduled for that day, but was canceled due to a shooting on the North Carolina campus. The conference call was rescheduled for September 1, and the presidents and chancellors voted to approve the addition of all three schools.][ Reportedly, Clemson, Florida State, and North Carolina still opposed expansion, but NC State changed its vote. The two California schools reportedly joined at about 30% of a full share of media rights, while SMU is not taking any conference media revenue for nine years instead of the previously reported seven. In its ACC membership pitch, SMU also offered to serve as a hub for at least some Olympic sports contests involving Cal and Stanford, reducing travel burdens for all other members.][
Florida State's legal counsel continued to work with an outside law firm to review the ACC GOR. Despite the success initiatives adopted by the conference in August 2023, FSU had continually pushed for unequal revenue distributions based on each school's media value, a concept rejected by the ACC office. The last straw for FSU was seen as the decision of the CFP selection committee to exclude the unbeaten Seminoles from the 2023 CFP, making them the first and only unbeaten power conference team to be left out of the CFP during its 4-team era. This culminated in a meeting of the university's board of trustees on December 22 in which the board voted unanimously to sue the ACC to challenge the GOR and its withdrawal fee. The meeting was immediately followed by the filing of a lawsuit in FSU's home of Tallahassee, in Leon County Circuit Court. The suit claims that the GOR and withdrawal fee, estimated at the time to be about $120 million, violate Florida laws on restraint of trade, and also alleges financial mismanagement, breach of contract, and failure to perform. FSU became the first university ever to challenge a conference GOR in court. The ACC responded with a countersuit against FSU's governing board in ]Mecklenburg County, North Carolina
Mecklenburg County () is a County (United States), county located in the southwestern region of the U.S. state of North Carolina, in the United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 1,115,482, making it th ...
, whose county seat of Charlotte hosts the conference headquarters. The initial complaint asked the court to uphold the GOR, and asserted that any contractual issues should be heard in the headquarters state. The complaint was later amended to allege that FSU violated the GOR by filing the court challenge, and also asserted that FSU had leaked confidential information, specifically details on the ACC media deal with ESPN, in its Florida filing.
On February 16, 2024, the ACC filed a motion to dismiss FSU's suit in Florida. The filing included language that suggested FSU could buy its media rights back from the conference, opening the door to negotiation on the terms of a potential FSU departure from the ACC.
In the following month, Clemson became the second school to challenge the GOR, filing suit in its home jurisdiction of Pickens County, South Carolina
Pickens County is a county located in the northwest part of the U.S. state of South Carolina. As of the 2020 census, its population was 131,404. Its county seat is Pickens. The county was created in 1826. It is part of the Greenville-Anders ...
. The complaint alleged that the ACC's exit fees were "unconscionable" and "unenforceable", and claimed that the ACC's view that the GOR gave it ownership of Clemson's media rights was a "nonsensical reading" and "inconsistent with the plain language of that agreement". FSU's suit against the ACC claimed its total costs of departure (exit fee and media revenue) at the time of filing were $572 million.
The ACC, Clemson, and FSU announced on March 4, 2025 that they had settled their respective lawsuits. The settlement introduces a new conference revenue sharing model that the ACC calls "brand initiative". TV revenue will be divided 60–40, with the majority going to fund the brand initiative and the rest split evenly among the pre-2024 members. Revenue shares from the brand initiative in each season will be based on total viewership over the preceding five seasons, weighted more heavily toward the most recent years. Also, the conference exit fee was significantly reduced. While the GOR remains in place, the exit fee in 2026 will be set at $165 million, dropping by $18 million each year until reaching $75 million in 2030–31. Any school paying the appropriate exit fee will keep its media rights. Significantly, media rights deals for the Big Ten, Big 12, and the College Football Playoff will come up for renewal at the same time the exit fee drops to $75 million.
American Athletic Conference
The losses of Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF left the AAC with 8 remaining schools. After invitations to Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...
members Boise State, Air Force
An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...
, Colorado State, and San Diego State
San Diego State University (SDSU) is a public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CSU) system. SDSU is ...
to join The American were all declined, The American then pivoted to Conference USA
Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas.
Mem ...
(CUSA) to add 6 of its members on October 21, 2021: Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, UAB, North Texas
North Texas is a term used primarily by residents of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to refer to a geographic area of Texas, generally considered to include the area south of Oklahoma, east of Abilene, Texas, Abilene, west of Paris, Texas, Par ...
, Rice
Rice is a cereal grain and in its Domestication, domesticated form is the staple food of over half of the world's population, particularly in Asia and Africa. Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice)—or, much l ...
, and UTSA. In June 2022, the six schools' entry date of July 2023 was officially confirmed. The additions put The American at 14 members for both football and basketball, with Navy
A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...
being a football-only member and Wichita State
Wichita State University (WSU) is a public university, public research university in Wichita, Kansas, United States. It is governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. The university offers more than 60 undergraduate degree programs in more than 200 ...
being a non-football full member.
In May 2022, the AAC announced that the four schools that had remained in CUSA men's soccer after the Sun Belt Conference
The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that has been affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football confe ...
took five schools from the CUSA men's soccer league effective with the upcoming 2022 season— Charlotte, FIU, Florida Atlantic, and UAB—would become men's soccer members in the 2022 season, thus spelling the end of CUSA men's soccer. Of these schools, all but FIU became full members of the AAC in 2023. FIU and Florida Atlantic would also join in women's swimming & diving in July 2022, as did eventual American Conference members North Texas and Rice.
To reiterate, the AAC lost SMU to the ACC effective July 1, 2024, after the ACC voted to admit SMU into the conference on September 1, 2023.[ On the same day as the ACC announcement, American commissioner Mike Aresco ruled out any expansion in the Pacific Time Zone, stating that the conference would instead "focus any expansion efforts on schools that allow for sensible and sustainable competition and student-athlete well-being within our strong geographic footprint."][ The day after SMU's departure was announced, reports came out that The American had targeted ]Army
An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...
as a football-only replacement for SMU, and that Aresco had begun membership discussions with Army athletic director Mike Buddie. Army's service academy rival Navy
A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...
has been a football-only American member since 2015. With Army then being an FBS independent, a potential football-only conference move would not have the same financial complications as a normal conference change. Ultimately, The American announced on October 25 that Army would indeed become a football-only member starting in 2024.
However, Army's move had unique financial issues of its own. Before being announced as a new football member of the American, Army had a TV contract with CBS Sports Network
CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...
(CBSSN) for its home games through the 2028 season, conflicting with the American's broadcast contract with ESPN. The CBSSN contract would remain in place unless the conference or ESPN reached a buyout agreement. Also, Army had over 80 football games scheduled in the coming years, with reported exit fees of over $35 million. The Army program hired a consultant in an attempt to cancel or reschedule as many of the games as possible. Revenue distribution was also a potential issue, as the members that joined in 2023 will not receive a full share of media revenue for several years, though the American had received significant exit fees from the schools that left for the Big 12, and would receive more with SMU's departure. The conference and Army agreed that the Army–Navy Game would continue to be played after the conference championship game as a non-conference matchup, and the two academies would not play each other prior to the traditional date except in the conference title game.[
On September 23, 2024, despite rumors, ]Air Force
An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...
declined an offer to join the AAC and remained in the Mountain West. Shortly after, on October 1, 2024, Texas State declined an offer to join Mountain West and remained in the Sun Belt Conference.
Sun Belt Conference
The departures of the 6 schools reduced Conference USA's membership from 14 to 8, and sensing the instability of the conference, the remaining members looked to join other conferences. In late October 2021, CUSA members Southern Miss, Old Dominion and Marshall applied and were accepted to the Sun Belt Conference (SBC) to begin play in the 2022–23 season. On November 6, the Sun Belt added James Madison
James Madison (June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison was popularly acclaimed as the ...
, a Colonial Athletic Association
The Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), formerly the ECAC South Conference and the Colonial Athletic Association, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA' ...
member playing FCS football. Due to the Colonial's existing policy of prohibiting departing members from participating in conference tournaments, JMU was slated to play the 2022–23 football season as an FBS independent with other sports playing as de facto Sun Belt affiliates; full membership would have begun with the 2023–24 season. However, on February 2, 2022, JMU and the Sun Belt announced that JMU would join for all sports sponsored by the conference, including football, on July 1. On February 11, Southern Miss, Old Dominion, and Marshall announced that they too would join the Sun Belt Conference in 2022. However, CUSA had previously indicated on January 20 that it expected all three schools to remain in the league through 2022–23. ESPN journalist Adam Rittenberg cited an unnamed source regarding this development, "It's not going to be an amicable split. It's gotten ugly, and I assume it's going to get uglier." The source's prediction gained support when Marshall filed suit against CUSA in its local
Local may refer to:
Geography and transportation
* Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand
* Local, Missouri, a community in the United States
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Local'' (comics), a limited series comic book by Bria ...
court in an attempt to force a 2022 move. On March 1, the Sun Belt released its 2022 football schedule with Marshall, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss included, making no mention of the ongoing legal dispute or the possibility that the three schools would not become members for the 2022–23 school year. By the end of that month, the three schools and CUSA reached a settlement that allowed the schools to join the Sun Belt in July 2022.
The increase in the SBC football membership led to reports that the conference's two non-football members, Little Rock
Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...
and UT Arlington, would leave the conference; this eventually happened, with Little Rock joining the Ohio Valley Conference
The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in partnership with ...
and UT Arlington rejoining the Western Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington.
Due to ...
(WAC), a league in which it had been a member in the 2012–13 school year.
SEC-Big 12 Alliance in Men's Soccer moves to Sun Belt
These moves also led the SBC to reinstate men's soccer, a sport that it had dropped after the 2020–21 school year when a combination of COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
impact and earlier realignment had left the conference with only three men's soccer programs, half of the number required for a D-I conference to maintain its automatic NCAA tournament bid. With three of the four incoming members ( Marshall, Old Dominion, and James Madison
James Madison (June 28, 1836) was an American statesman, diplomat, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fourth president of the United States from 1809 to 1817. Madison was popularly acclaimed as the ...
) sponsoring men's soccer, SBC commissioner Keith Gill had announced in November 2021 that the sport would be reinstated in 2023–24. After the entry of those schools was pushed forward to July 2022, the SBC announced on April 6, 2022, that men's soccer would be reinstated for 2022–23. The three incoming members, plus existing full members Coastal Carolina, Georgia Southern, and Georgia State, were joined by the Southeastern Conference
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...
and Big 12 Conference
The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida ...
members that sponsor the sport—Kentucky
Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...
, South Carolina
South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...
, and West Virginia
West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...
. Later on, the Sun Belt also announced that future Big 12 member UCF would join as a men's soccer affiliate upon joining the Big 12 in 2023, effectively creating a "6-4" format of six Sun Belt schools and four schools from the non-sponsoring SEC or Big 12 conferences.
The reinstatement of SBC men's soccer left the future of men's soccer in CUSA and the Mid-American Conference
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...
in serious doubt, as the two Georgia schools and West Virginia had been MAC men's soccer members (West Virginia had, however, planned to move that sport to CUSA before the Sun Belt reinstated men's soccer), while Coastal Carolina, South Carolina, and Kentucky had been CUSA men's soccer members. This then left both leagues with only four members in the 2022 season. Additionally, CUSA was set to lose three of its four remaining programs for the following season, with Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, and UAB making their move to The American in 2023. This would leave CUSA with only two institutions that sponsor the sport in 2023: FIU and Liberty
Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...
, the latter of whom would be joining CUSA that season. Due to this, The American decided to admit the existing four CUSA soccer programs to their own league, with all four competing as affiliates in 2022 and FIU continuing as an affiliate after the other schools became full members. For a time, Liberty was left without a conference for its own program, but it would join the newly formed Ohio Valley Conference
The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in partnership with ...
(OVC) men's soccer league in time for the 2023 season.[ Meanwhile, the MAC was able to add Chicago State, which was departing from the ]Western Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington.
Due to ...
in all sports, as a men's soccer associate, bringing their own membership to 5. Chicago State ended up becoming an all-sports independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States
* Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
.
At the end of the 2022 season, the MAC discontinued men's soccer as a sponsored sport, having failed to find the sixth member needed to maintain its automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Of the four full MAC members that sponsored men's soccer in the 2022 season, Bowling Green
A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls.
Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...
, Northern Illinois, and Western Michigan moved the sport to the Missouri Valley Conference
The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...
, and Akron moved it to the Big East Conference
The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...
. Chicago State eventually joined the newly established OVC men's soccer league.[
]
Conference USA
Having lost 6 of its 14 members to The American and 3 to the SBC, Conference USA was left with 5 members, short of the NCAA minimum of 6 and the FBS minimum of 8. On November 5, 2021, CUSA invited four schools: FBS independents Liberty
Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...
and New Mexico State
New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a Public university system, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1888, it is the state's oldest public institution ...
, who then respectively played non-football sports in the ASUN Conference
The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Division I FCS level in 2022. ...
and Western Athletic Conference; full ASUN member Jacksonville State; and full WAC member Sam Houston
Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two indi ...
. All four schools began CUSA play with the 2023–24 season. Per NCAA rules, Jacksonville State and Sam Houston were to serve a two-year probationary period. Liberty and New Mexico State, as established FBS members, did not have to serve probationary periods.
Around the same time, reports surfaced that CUSA members Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee is one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee that composes roughly the central portion of the state. It is delineated according to state law as 41 of the state's 95 counties. Middle Tennessee contains the state's capital an ...
were poised to join the Mid-American Conference
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...
(MAC). However, Middle Tennessee elected to remain in CUSA, and the MAC did not invite Western Kentucky after Middle Tennessee did not join.
In April 2022, it was announced that Dallas Baptist would be moving its baseball program from the Missouri Valley Conference
The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...
to CUSA effective that July (with play starting in the 2023 season). While all other Dallas Baptist University teams compete in Division II, primarily in the Lone Star Conference, the baseball team competes in Division I. DBU is also the last D-II member playing D-I baseball.
On October 14, 2022, CUSA announced that another ASUN member, Kennesaw State, would start a transition to FBS after the 2022 football season and join CUSA in 2024.
CUSA announced on May 10, 2023, that it would add the women-only sport of bowling
Bowling is a Throwing sports#Target sports, target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a bowling ball, ball toward Bowling pin, pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). Most references to ''bowling'' are ...
effective in 2023–24. The new bowling league was established by CUSA absorbing the Southland Bowling League (SBL), which the Southland Conference
The Southland Conference (SLC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States (specifically Texas and Louisiana). It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it participates in ...
had created in 2015 as a separate single-sport league. Accordingly, CUSA inherited the SBL's automatic berth in the NCAA Bowling Championship. The eight SBL members, which include established CUSA member Louisiana Tech and new CUSA member Sam Houston, were joined by another new CUSA full member in Jacksonville State, which started a women's bowling program in 2023–24.[
ESPN's Pete Thamel reported on November 27, 2023, that ]Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...
, a member of both sides of the CAA, was planning to transition from FCS to FBS in 2024 and join CUSA in 2025; CUSA officially announced this move the next day. Delaware was ineligible for the FCS playoffs in 2024; however, because of recent changes to bylaws of the all-sports CAA, it remains eligible for CAA championships and automatic NCAA tournament bids in non-football sports until actually leaving the conference. On May 10, 2024, CUSA poached another team from the FCS ranks, announcing that Missouri State, a member of the Missouri Valley Conference
The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...
and the separate though closely related Missouri Valley Football Conference
The Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC), formerly the Gateway Football Conference, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the National Collegiate A ...
, would also join in 2025. That October, UTEP announced it would leave CUSA for the Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...
in 2026.
Mountain West Conference
Multiple media reports indicated that San Diego State University
San Diego State University (SDSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CS ...
, which had been heavily linked with the Pac-12 after the departure of UCLA and USC was announced, had sent a letter on June 13, 2023, to the MW stating it intended to leave the conference in 2024. The school had also reportedly asked the MW for a one-month extension of the June 30 withdrawal deadline, citing "unforeseen delays involving other collegiate athletic conferences beyond our control", likely a reference to the upcoming Pac-12 media deal that had yet to be finalized. This led to an exchange between the MW and SDSU, with university president Adela de la Torre indicating that the June 13 letter was not a formal resignation. The MW's exit fee with a year's notice is $16.5 million, which increases to $34 million with less than a year's notice—which explained SDSU's reported request for a one-month extension to the deadline. In addition to the Pac-12, SDSU has been seen as a potential Big 12 target. The MW responded with a letter to SDSU stating that it would not approve any extension, and also considered the June 13 letter to be an effective notice of withdrawal. The MW and SDSU reached a settlement the next month, with SDSU remaining a member.
Although not joining the conference, remaining Pac-12 members Oregon State and Washington State came to a scheduling agreement with MW schools in December 2023 where all MW football teams play one and/or the other, in a bid to rebuild the conference, starting in 2024. The agreement, however, was not renewed for 2025, leaving both the Beavers and Cougars as de facto independents following the season.
Washington State later announced it would become an MW affiliate in baseball and women's swimming & diving effective in 2024–25, while Oregon State would join the West Coast Conference as a full affiliate member.
During San Diego State's flirtation with the Pac-12, the MW announced it would begin sponsoring women's gymnastics in the 2023–24 season, with full conference members Air Force, Boise State, San Jose State, and Utah State participating. All had previously participated in the single-sport Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference, which had also included BYU and Southern Utah. With BYU moving women's gymnastics to the Big 12 together with the bulk of its teams, and Southern Utah not being invited to MW women's gymnastics, Southern Utah was temporarily left without a gymnastics conference, but it would join the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the Western United States, although it has added members as far east as Massachusetts. The conference participates at the NCAA Divisio ...
in September 2023.
On September 12, 2024, Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State all announced their intentions on leaving the Mountain West and joining the Pac-12, starting in 2026.
On September 23, 2024, Utah State also accepted an offer to join the Pac-12 as its seventh member, starting in 2026, leaving the conference with 6 full members and 7 football members (with Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
as a football-only member). Not long after, UNLV
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada, United States. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. ...
and Air Force
An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...
declined membership offers from the Pac-12 and AAC, respectively, and chose to stay in the Mountain West.
Following speculation in the days prior, UTEP announced it would depart Conference USA in 2026 for the Mountain West on October 1, 2024.[ On October 14, Hawaii athletic director Craig Angelos confirmed outside reports that the school would upgrade to full MW membership in 2026. The MW officially announced this move the next day.
On November 1, 2024, the MW announced that ]Western Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington.
Due to ...
member Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile ().
The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon Nati ...
, a non-football school, would join no later than July 2026. Grand Canyon's official announcement stated that it was reneging on a previously announced move to the West Coast Conference
The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting o ...
, and that if MW bylaws allowed, it would join that conference as early as the second quarter of 2025. On December 10, the MW announced that UC Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...
would join from the Big West Conference
The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's NCAA Division I, Division I. The conference was origina ...
in non-football sports. UC Davis football will remain in FCS as an affiliate of the Big Sky Conference
The Big Sky Conference is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference, affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I with college football, football competing in the Football Cha ...
.
During this time, Mid-American Conference member Northern Illinois University was increasingly speculated as a football-only target for the MW. This speculation proved correct, as NIU accepted such an invitation from the MW, with the acceptance reported on January 3, 2025. Following final approval by the school's governing board on January 7, NIU football will join the MW in 2026. It was reported that the MAC would not likely keep NIU as a non-football member, and the MW's invitation was for football only, given the school's geographic separation from the rest of the conference. With that in mind, NIU was reportedly seeking an all-sports affiliation, with speculated future homes being the non-football Horizon League
The Horizon League is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Headquartered in Indianapolis, the league's eleven member schools are located in ...
(in which NIU had been a member from 1994 to 1997), Missouri Valley Conference
The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...
, and Summit League, as well as the FCS Ohio Valley Conference
The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in partnership with ...
. Most industry sources believed that NIU would eventually join the Horizon, and multiple media outlets reported on February 24 that this was indeed the case, with the school's governing board set to vote on a Horizon League return on February 27. NIU applied to maintain MAC membership in two sports not sponsored by the Horizon—women's gymnastics and men's wrestling. The Horizon League move became official on the same day as the board's vote.
Mid-American Conference
The Mid-American Conference
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...
(MAC) entered the realignment cycle with the longest period of membership stability of any FBS conference, not having gained or lost a core member since Marshall left in 2005 to join CUSA. This changed on February 26, 2024, when ''The Athletic
''The Athletic'' is a subscription-based sports journalism department of ''The New York Times''. It provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. ''The Athletic'' also covers national stories ...
'' reported that the University of Massachusetts Amherst
The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...
, more often known as UMass, was reported as having been approved for full MAC membership, starting in July 2025. The university was expected to finalize this move in the coming days, and MAC commissioner Jon Steinbrecher stated that the MAC would formally announce UMass' arrival on February 29, with a news conference on the UMass campus in the next week. The MAC announcement was made, with UMass making its own announcement that day in advance of its news conference.
UMass had been a football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
-only MAC member in the 2012–2015 seasons while otherwise being a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference
The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. The A-10's member schools are located most ...
(A-10). Eventual full membership in the MAC had been part of the affiliation contract, but UMass turned down full membership, choosing to become an FBS independent. In the months leading to the UMass invitation, the school had engaged with CUSA as well as the MAC, but opted for the MAC, which offered a more favorable geographic footprint and sponsored more of the school's sports. UMass requested to remain in the A-10 for men's lacrosse and women's rowing, neither of which was then sponsored by the MAC, though the A-10 was not expected to vote on this request before May 2024. The A-10 would later vote to keep UMass as a men's lacrosse affiliate; women's rowing was left without a conference home before the MAC added the sport for 2025–26. Men's ice hockey, a sport also not sponsored by the MAC, will remain in Hockey East
The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference.
Hockey East came into existence in 1984 for ...
. With the MAC set to expand to 13 members for 2025–26, speculation about future additions immediately focused on Middle Tennessee and Western Kentucky, CUSA members which had been courted by the MAC earlier in the decade.[
In April 2024, the ]Missouri Valley Conference
The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...
announced it would sponsor men's swimming & diving in 2024–25 after an absence of more than 20 years, by absorbing the MAC's operations in that sport. At the time of announcement, five of the seven schools in MAC men's aquatics were full MVC members. The two full MAC members with men's swimming & diving teams, Ball State and Miami (OH), accordingly became MVC associates.[
This was followed in July 2024 by the announcement that the MAC would add women's rowing as a sponsored sport in 2025–26, coinciding with the arrival of UMass. The MAC rowing league will consist of full members Eastern Michigan, Toledo, and UMass, plus affiliates ]Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...
, High Point, and Temple
A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...
.
The MAC will lose another member in 2026 with Northern Illinois' departure for MW football and the Horizon League for most other sports.[
]
FCS conferences affected
Western Athletic Conference
On January 14, 2021, the Western Athletic Conference, which last sponsored football at the FBS level during the 2012 season, announced its intention to reinstate football as a conference-sponsored sport at the FCS level, as well as the addition of five new members to the conference in all sports. The new members announced included four Southland Conference
The Southland Conference (SLC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States (specifically Texas and Louisiana). It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it participates in ...
members from Texas in Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston, and Stephen F. Austin, plus Southern Utah from the Big Sky Conference
The Big Sky Conference is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference, affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I with college football, football competing in the Football Cha ...
. Those five schools joined existing WAC members that joined the WAC in the previous year, Tarleton and Utah Tech (known as Dixie State before May 2022) to make up the WAC's initial football membership. The four Southland schools were initially planned to join the WAC for the 2022–23 school year, but the WAC pushed their entry forward to 2021–22 after the Southland expelled all four schools. Southern Utah joined on its originally planned schedule of 2022–23, with SUU and the Big Sky agreeing to honor their scheduling commitments for 2021–22.
That same day, WAC non-football member UTRGV announced that it would begin sponsoring football no later than the 2024 season, while the WAC announced that Chicago State, a geographical outlier for much of its time in the WAC, would depart the conference on July 1, 2022. UTRGV would later announce that it would play an exhibition football schedule in 2024 before starting full varsity play in 2025. However, on March 25, 2024, UTRGV announced it would move its athletic program, including football, from the WAC to the Southland Conference
The Southland Conference (SLC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States (specifically Texas and Louisiana). It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it participates in ...
(SLC) in 2024–25 before playing a single game in the alliance.
On November 12, the WAC announced it would add SLC member Incarnate Word for the 2022–23 season. Though fellow SLC member McNeese was rumored to be joining the WAC along with Incarnate Word, it instead chose to remain in the Southland. On January 21, 2022, the WAC added Sun Belt Conference member UT Arlington, which had joined and left the WAC in the early-2010s realignment cycle, for the 2022–23 season.
On April 8, Lamar University
Lamar University (Lamar or LU) is a public university in Beaumont, Texas, United States. Lamar has been a member of the Texas State University System since 1995. It was the flagship institution of the former Lamar University System. As of the ...
announced that it would rejoin the SLC for 2023–24, spending only two years in the WAC. On July 11, Lamar's transition was moved up to the 2022–23 season.
The WAC and ASUN Conference
The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Division I FCS level in 2022. ...
jointly announced on May 18 that they would renew their football partnership, which was originally intended to operate only in the 2021 season. Each conference had planned to have 6 members that were eligible for the FCS playoffs in the 2022 season, but the start of FBS transitions by outgoing ASUN member Jacksonville State and outgoing WAC member Sam Houston rendered both ineligible for the 2022 playoffs.
On June 24, 2022, one week before it was scheduled to join the WAC, Incarnate Word announced that it would instead remain in the SLC. Along with the departures of New Mexico State and Sam Houston to Conference USA and Lamar back to the Southland, the WAC will have 11 members going forward, 6 of which will play football in the conference.
ESPN reported on December 9, 2022 that the WAC and ASUN had agreed to form a new football-only conference that plans to start play in 2024. The initial football membership would consist of Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, and North Alabama from the ASUN, and Abilene Christian, Southern Utah, Stephen F. Austin, Tarleton, and Utah Tech from the WAC. At the time, UTRGV would have become the 10th member upon its planned addition of football in 2025, but it would later announce its 2024 departure for the SLC. This announcement came after West Georgia was unveiled as a new member of both the ASUN and the new conference, effective in 2024. The new football conference also reportedly planned to move "from what is currently known as FCS football to what is currently known as FBS football at the earliest practicable date." The two conferences made this official on December 20, announcing that they would operate a single football league, tentatively known as the ASUN–WAC Football Conference, starting in 2023. Because of prior scheduling commitments, the football league played a six-game schedule in the 2023 season before a planned move to a full round-robin in 2024. This announcement did not mention a potential move to FBS. The new football league was officially rebranded as the United Athletic Conference (UAC) on April 17, 2023.
On May 10, 2024, the WAC suffered another blow when two non-football full members, Grand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile ().
The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon Nati ...
and Seattle
Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...
, announced that they would move to the West Coast Conference
The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting o ...
in July 2025. Less than a week later, multiple media reports indicated that Stephen F. Austin would soon leave the WAC in July 2024 to return to the SLC. The move was officially announced on May 29.
That September, the Big West Conference
The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's NCAA Division I, Division I. The conference was origina ...
announced that outgoing WAC members Grand Canyon and Seattle, as well as full WCC member and Mountain Pacific Sports Federation
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the Western United States, although it has added members as far east as Massachusetts. The conference participates at the NCAA Divisio ...
(MPSF) women's swimming & diving member San Diego
San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...
, would become Big West swimming & diving affiliates after the 2024–25 season. Grand Canyon and Seattle have men's and women's teams, while San Diego has only a women's team. This led to rumors that the WAC would drop men's and women's swimming & diving after the that season. These rumors gained credence when the MPSF, a multi-sports conference that sponsors a wide array of non-revenue sports but not football or basketball, announced on February 13, 2025, that it would add seven swim/dive members from the WAC in 2025–26. Full WAC member California Baptist will move its men's and women's teams to the MPSF. The other arrivals—full WAC member Utah Tech and WAC affiliates Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...
, New Mexico State
New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a Public university system, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1888, it is the state's oldest public institution ...
, Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado, and UTRGV—sponsor only the women's sport.
Later that month, reports emerged that the Big West, set to lose Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...
and UC Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...
to the Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...
in 2026, was to vote February 28 on the possible addition of two WAC members—California Baptist and Utah Valley
Utah Valley is a valley in North Central Utah located in Utah County, Utah, Utah County, and is considered part of the Wasatch Front. It contains the cities of Provo, Utah, Provo, Orem, Utah, Orem, and their suburbs, including Alpine, Utah, A ...
. By early June, both were announced as new Big West members effective in 2026—California Baptist on March 19 and Utah Valley on June 4. The process of adding Utah Valley was slowed down by several factors. The university president was on bereavement leave for part of spring 2025; several other conferences had at least some interest in adding the school; and Utah Valley wanted to limit the number of key Sunday games it would host (despite being a public school, a large part of its fanbase consists of LDS Church members).
If no new members join, the WAC will be reduced to five members, two shy of the number required to maintain its all-sports status. According to journalist Matt Brown, the WAC has no plans to add any Division II upgraders, and industry sources believe that attempts to recruit more D-I members will not be successful. Brown added, "The most likely outcome, at this point, is that the remaining five institutions find new conference homes and everybody huddles up with the lawyers to figure out how the remaining league assets are split up." He noted that the three remaining Texas members (Abilene Christian, Tarleton State, UT Arlington) have reportedly been candidates for multiple conferences. However, the remaining Utah schools (Southern Utah, Utah Tech) are not seen as likely candidates for any regional league.[
]
ASUN/Atlantic Sun Conference
On January 29, 2021, the ASUN Conference (which would revert to its previous branding as the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2023) announced that it too would begin sponsoring football at the FCS level beginning in 2022–23, as well as announcing three new members for the 2021–22 season: Jacksonville State and Eastern Kentucky from the Ohio Valley Conference
The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in partnership with ...
, and Central Arkansas
Central Arkansas, also known as the Little Rock metro, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metro area in the U.S. state ...
from the Southland Conference. Those three schools plus existing ASUN members Kennesaw State and North Alabama, which had been playing football in the Big South Conference, would make up the first five ASUN football members, with a requisite sixth member to be announced at a later date. For the 2021 football season, the ASUN and WAC formed a football-only partnership, with the three new ASUN members competing alongside WAC members for an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs.
On September 17, that sixth football member was revealed to be Austin Peay, which would join the conference for 2022–23. Though the ASUN had the requisite 6 football members for the 2022 season, the impending departures of Jacksonville State in 2023 and Kennesaw State in 2024 necessitated replacement football members to meet the conference minimum. No such member had been announced. ASUN full member Stetson plays football in the Pioneer Football League
The Pioneer Football League (PFL) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which operates in the United States. The conference participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I Fo ...
, a conference for Division I FCS schools that do not offer football scholarships. Another full member, Bellarmine, added football in 2022 but plays sprint football, a non-NCAA variant played under standard NCAA rules but with player weights limited to .
Shortly before Peay was announced as an incoming member, media reports indicated that the ASUN had approached at least five Division II members regarding possible membership—football-sponsoring Valdosta State, West Florida
West Florida () was a region on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico that underwent several boundary and sovereignty changes during its history. Great Britain established West and East Florida in 1763 out of land acquired from France and S ...
, and West Georgia and non-football Lincoln Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial is a List of national memorials of the United States, U.S. national memorial honoring Abraham Lincoln, the List of presidents of the United States, 16th president of the United States, located on the western end of the Nati ...
and Queens (NC). On May 7, 2022, Queens, from the D-II South Atlantic Conference, announced that it would move up to Division I and join the ASUN Conference beginning with the 2022–23 season. The ASUN made this move official three days later.
On May 18, the ASUN and WAC announced that they had renewed their 2021 football partnership for the 2022 season.[ That October, Kennesaw State announced its 2024 departure for Conference USA.][ This was followed in December 2022 by the two conferences announcing their football-only merger. On September 8, 2023, the ASUN announced that West Georgia would join both the ASUN and UAC in 2024.
On August 28, the ASUN announced that it would begin sponsoring men's and women's swimming & diving effective immediately, taking most of its initial membership from the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA), which had originally been founded as a partnership between the ASUN and several other conferences to provide a home for those conferences' swimming & diving programs. Four full ASUN members moved swimming & diving from the CCSA—Bellarmine and Queens for both men and women, and Florida Gulf Coast and North Florida for women only. Four other CCSA members became ASUN associates. Gardner–Webb moved both its men's and women's teams; Old Dominion moved its men's team, and Liberty (a former full ASUN member) and UNC Asheville, neither of which sponsors a men's team, moved their women's teams. The new ASUN men's league also took two members from The American, which dropped men's swimming & diving after the 2022–23 season—established American member SMU and incoming American member Florida Atlantic. SMU would only be an ASUN swimming & diving member for 2023–24 due to its move to the ACC, which sponsors that sport for both sexes. The CCSA, which had previously expanded its scope to include beach volleyball, was left sponsoring only that sport,][ and its remaining beach volleyball teams would join the ]Mountain Pacific Sports Federation
The Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the Western United States, although it has added members as far east as Massachusetts. The conference participates at the NCAA Divisio ...
for 2025–26 and beyond.[
]
Southland Conference
With much of the Southland Conference's (SLC) football membership leaving for the WAC and ASUN ( Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston
Samuel Houston (, ; March 2, 1793 – July 26, 1863) was an American general and statesman who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution. He served as the first and third president of the Republic of Texas and was one of the first two indi ...
, Stephen F. Austin and Central Arkansas
Central Arkansas, also known as the Little Rock metro, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metro area in the U.S. state ...
), on September 28, 2021, the Southland announced that Division II school Texas A&M–Commerce (renamed East Texas A&M in 2024) would move up from the D-II Lone Star Conference to Division I and join the conference beginning with the 2022–23 season. At the time, this left the Southland with 8 full members, 6 of which play football.
Shortly after A&M–Commerce was announced as an incoming member, the Southland and Ohio Valley Conference
The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in partnership with ...
, which had lost three football-sponsoring schools in this realignment cycle (and would later lose a fourth), announced a football scheduling alliance for the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
On November 12, 2021, the WAC announced it would add SLC member Incarnate Word for the 2022–23 season. Though fellow SLC member McNeese was rumored to be joining the WAC along with Incarnate Word, it instead chose to remain in the Southland.
On April 8, 2022, Lamar University
Lamar University (Lamar or LU) is a public university in Beaumont, Texas, United States. Lamar has been a member of the Texas State University System since 1995. It was the flagship institution of the former Lamar University System. As of the ...
announced that it would rejoin the Southland Conference for 2023–24, spending only two years in the WAC before rejoining a conference where it had been a member from 1963 to 1987 and again from 1999 to 2021. On July 11, Lamar announced that it would instead move to the SLC in time for the 2022–23 season.
On June 24, 2022, Incarnate Word announced that instead of joining the WAC on July 1 as previously planned, it would remain in the SLC.
During this cycle, the SLC expanded its affiliate membership far beyond its primary post-2021 footprint of Louisiana and Texas. Nine schools in all joined, with six from East Coast states and single schools from California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
, Idaho
Idaho ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain states, Mountain West subregions of the Western United States. It borders Montana and Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington (state), ...
, and Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
. First, on June 22, 2021, the SLC announced that NJIT would join in men's and women's tennis effective that July. Two days later, the SLC added four schools for golf, also for 2021–22—Francis Marion
Brigadier general (United States), Brigadier General Francis Marion ( 1732 – February 27, 1795), also known as the "Swamp Fox", was an American military officer, planter, and politician who served during the French and Indian War and t ...
, a Division II member that plays D-I men's golf, in that sport; Delaware State and Maryland Eastern Shore in women's golf; and Augusta, a D-II member that fields D-I teams in men's and women's golf, in both. In June 2022, the SLC added two more schools as affiliates effective the next month, with Boise State joining in beach volleyball and Bryant joining for men's & women's golf and tennis. However, it would lose two of those new affiliates in 2022–23 when Delaware State and Maryland Eastern Shore moved women's golf to the more geographically appropriate Northeast Conference
The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...
(NEC) after that conference entered into a partnership with those schools' full-time home of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC ) is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and the Mid-A ...
in baseball and men's and women's golf. Shortly after the MEAC–NEC announcement, the SLC gained a men's tennis affiliate in UIC, whose new home of the Missouri Valley Conference sponsors tennis only for women. Also, San Jose State joined for beach volleyball, uniting it with Boise State, the only other Mountain West Conference
The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...
member sponsoring that sport. UIC men's tennis spent only one season in the SLC, moving to the Mid-American Conference
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region (North America), Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Its members co ...
after the 2022–23 season. Francis Marion would leave SLC men's golf after the 2024–25 season to join the reinstated men's golf league of the Big Sky Conference
The Big Sky Conference is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference, affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I with college football, football competing in the Football Cha ...
.
As noted previously, the Southland Bowling League, a bowling-only conference that had been supported by the SLC, was merged into Conference USA after the 2022–23 season.
On March 25, 2024, the SLC expanded again with the announcement that the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley would join the conference effective in July 2024, joining from the WAC.[ A little more than two months later, Stephen F. Austin announced its return to the SLC on the same schedule.][
]
Ohio Valley Conference
In addition to three Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) football members joining the ASUN, two additional OVC members have announced their intent to leave the conference. On September 28, 2021, non-football member Belmont announced it would join the Missouri Valley Conference
The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...
(MVC) for the 2022–23 season. On January 7, 2022, Murray State announced that it too would join the MVC for 2022–23. Though the MVC does not sponsor football, Murray State applied to (and eventually joined) the Missouri Valley Football Conference
The Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC), formerly the Gateway Football Conference, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the National Collegiate A ...
(a separate entity from the Missouri Valley Conference) starting with the 2023 season. At the time of this announcement, the expected 2023 departure of Murray State football would have left the Ohio Valley Conference with 5 football members. (Full OVC member Morehead State plays non-scholarship football in the Pioneer Football League.)
On December 9, 2021, Sun Belt Conference non-football member Little Rock was announced as the newest OVC member starting with the 2022–23 season. Following this, reports began to surface that the OVC had anticipated Murray State leaving, and had actively been exploring other options for expansion, with current D-I FCS schools Arkansas-Pine Bluff of the Southwestern Athletic Conference
The Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, which is made up of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southern United St ...
and Western Illinois of the Summit League, as well as D-II schools Southern Indiana
Southern Indiana is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern third of the U.S. state of Indiana and borders the states of Illinois to the west, Kentucky to the south, and Ohio to the east. Spanning the state's southe ...
, Hillsdale, Grand Valley State, and Lincoln Memorial
The Lincoln Memorial is a List of national memorials of the United States, U.S. national memorial honoring Abraham Lincoln, the List of presidents of the United States, 16th president of the United States, located on the western end of the Nati ...
, all being named as potential candidates. Exactly two months after Little Rock joined, on February 9, 2022, it was confirmed that Southern Indiana, a non-football sponsoring member from the D-II Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC), would begin the process of reclassifying to D-I and would join the OVC in July 2022. Later that same month, on February 23, another GLVC member, the football-sponsoring Lindenwood, was announced as a July 2022 entry.
The day before the Lindenwood announcement saw a major change to the FCS landscape when the OVC and Big South Conference
The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), ...
announced their plans to merge their respective football leagues effective in 2023. Certain major details of the alliance—specifically, whether it would be operated by the Big South or OVC, or become a completely separate entity—were not revealed at the time. The alliance was eventually unveiled as the Big South–OVC Football Association, later changed to the current branding of OVC–Big South Football Association
The OVC–Big South Football Association is an association of football members of the Big South Conference and Ohio Valley Conference (OVC). The OVC–Big South covers the American Midwest and South with member institutions located in Illinois, ...
. The partnership was officially classified as "an association of their .e., the two conferences'football member institutions" instead of a full-fledged conference (similar to the football arrangement between the ASUN Conference and Western Athletic Conference before the creation of the United Athletic Conference).
On July 6, 2022, the OVC and Horizon League
The Horizon League is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Headquartered in Indianapolis, the league's eleven member schools are located in ...
announced their plans to merge their respective men's tennis leagues effective immediately. OVC members that sponsor the sport now compete as affiliate members under the banner of the Horizon League men's tennis championship. The expanded Horizon men's tennis league also includes Belmont, which had officially left the OVC for the MVC days earlier.
The OVC announced on March 28, 2023, that it would add men's soccer as a sponsored sport effective with the upcoming 2023 season. Full members Eastern Illinois, Lindenwood, SIUE, and Southern Indiana were joined by affiliates Chicago State, Houston Christian, Incarnate Word, and Liberty. Chicago State played in OVC men's soccer only in 2023, as it joined the Northeast Conference, which sponsors the sport, in 2024.
On May 12, 2023, the OVC announced that Western Illinois, which had reportedly been considered for membership in 2021, would become a full member effective that July. Western Illinois football played the 2023 season in the Missouri Valley Football Conference
The Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC), formerly the Gateway Football Conference, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the National Collegiate A ...
before becoming part of the Big South–OVC alliance in 2024. It would also keep men's soccer in the Summit League through the 2023 season, keeping that league at the 6 members needed to maintain the Summit's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Colonial/Coastal Athletic Association
The departure of James Madison left the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), renamed in 2023 to the Coastal Athletic Association
The Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), formerly the ECAC South Conference and the Colonial Athletic Association, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA' ...
, with 9 all-sports members, with 11 schools participating in the technically separate entity of CAA Football. On January 18, 2022, NJ.com reported that Monmouth
Monmouth ( or ; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Monmouthshire, Wales, situated on where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. The population in the 2011 census was 10,508, rising from 8 ...
, a full member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC, ) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Its current 13 full members are located in five Northeastern states: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachuse ...
and football-only member of the Big South Conference
The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), ...
, would join both sides of the CAA starting in 2022–23. They also reported Big South full member Hampton and America East Conference
The America East Conference (AmEast) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference is headquartered in Boston, Massachu ...
member Stony Brook would probably join the CAA. Hampton had been working toward an eventual CAA invitation since at least 1995, and Stony Brook had been a member of CAA Football since 2013. On January 25, all three schools were officially announced as new members of the all-sports CAA for 2022–23, with Hampton and Monmouth also joining CAA Football.
On February 18, 2022, North Carolina A&T received approval from its board of trustees to move from the Big South to the CAA, and the CAA officially announced A&T's move on February 22. While A&T joined the all-sports CAA for the 2022–23 season, it did not join CAA Football until the 2023 season.
On August 3, 2022, Campbell announced that it too would leave the Big South for both sides of the CAA beginning with the 2023–24 academic year. A year later, CAA Football announced that Bryant would become that league's 16th member in 2024. Later in 2023, Delaware announced its departure for Conference USA effective in 2025.[ On May 14, 2024, Richmond, otherwise a member of the non-football Atlantic 10 Conference, announced it would leave CAA Football in 2025 for football membership in the ]Patriot League
The Patriot League is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference comprising primarily leading Private university, private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United ...
, where its women's golf team had played before the A-10 began sponsoring that sport in 2024–25.
Two other schools later announced they would leave CAA Football for the Patriot League in 2026. William & Mary announced it would join its in-state rival Richmond in Patriot League football on April 25, while remaining a member of the all-sports CAA. Villanova, otherwise a Big East Conference
The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...
member, announced its move on June 5.
Big South Conference
On February 7, 2020, North Carolina A&T State University announced it would join Big South from the MEAC as a full member, including football, starting in 2021–22.
On January 25, 2022, the Colonial Athletic Association
The Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), formerly the ECAC South Conference and the Colonial Athletic Association, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA' ...
announced that Big South Conference
The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), ...
full member Hampton and football-only member Monmouth
Monmouth ( or ; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Monmouthshire, Wales, situated on where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. The population in the 2011 census was 10,508, rising from 8 ...
would join both sides of the CAA for the 2022–23 season. On February 22, the CAA announced that North Carolina A&T would join the all-sports CAA in 2022–23 and CAA Football a year later. These departures, along with football-only members Kennesaw State and North Alabama leaving to play in the ASUN Conference
The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Division I FCS level in 2022. ...
, at the time brought the Big South membership down to 10 full members and 5 football members, the latter being one short of the conference minimum. (Big South full member Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...
plays non-scholarship football in the Pioneer Football League
The Pioneer Football League (PFL) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which operates in the United States. The conference participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I Fo ...
.) On March 29, 2022, the football membership was restored to 6 with the announcement that Bryant would join as a football-only member effective with the 2022 season, but A&T's 2023 departure for CAA Football would again reduce the football membership to 5. On August 3, 2022, the Big South lost another football member as Campbell announced that it would join both sides of the CAA for the 2023–24 academic year, followed on August 10, 2023, by Bryant announcing its own move to CAA Football for 2024–25, and then on November 28 by Robert Morris announcing it would return to its former full-time home of the Northeast Conference as a football associate.
As noted previously, the Big South and OVC effectively merged their football leagues in 2023.[
]
Big Sky Conference
Southern Utah left the Big Sky Conference for the WAC on July 1, 2022. Southern Utah's departure left the Big Sky with 10 full members, all of which sponsor football, with Cal Poly and UC Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...
as football-only members.
Northeast Conference
On March 29, 2022, Bryant announced that it would leave the Northeast Conference
The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...
(NEC) that July, with most sports joining the America East Conference
The America East Conference (AmEast) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference is headquartered in Boston, Massachu ...
and football joining the Big South. On April 5, the NEC responded by adding Stonehill College for 2022–23, a football-sponsoring Division II institution from the Northeast-10 Conference
The Northeast-10 Conference (NE-10) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the northeastern United States in the states o ...
.
ESPN reported on April 27 that Mount St. Mary's, a full NEC member without a football program, was in the process of a move to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC, ) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Its current 13 full members are located in five Northeastern states: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachuse ...
(MAAC), where it would join several other basketball-focused private schools. The conference change was officially announced on May 2, 2022, effective that July.
During this realignment, the NEC also announced that it would begin sponsoring men's volleyball in the 2023 season (2022–23 school year) with six teams. The NEC became the second D-I all-sports conference to sponsor the sport, after the Big West Conference
The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's NCAA Division I, Division I. The conference was origina ...
. Before the 2022 season, only three NEC members (Sacred Heart
The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus () is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is p ...
, St. Francis Brooklyn, and Saint Francis (PA)) had men's volleyball programs, all competing in the single-sport Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA). In the 2022 season, two more full NEC members, Fairleigh Dickinson and LIU, began sponsoring men's volleyball, competing as independents. When announcing its new men's volleyball league, the NEC announced that Merrimack, an all-sports member transitioning from Division II, would launch a men's volleyball program and become the sixth member, thereby reaching the required membership level for an eventual automatic bid to the combined D-I and D-II championship. The EIVA retained six members, maintaining its automatic bid. The NEC eventually added two Division II schools, Daemen and D'Youville, as associate members for its first men's volleyball season.
On May 9, 2022, NEC commissioner Noreen Morris indicated in a Twitter post that the NEC would not sponsor men's lacrosse after the 2021–22 school year. The conference had already lost full members Bryant and Mount St. Mary's, and the impending addition of men's lacrosse by the Atlantic 10 Conference
The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. The A-10's member schools are located most ...
(A-10), confirmed later that month, took away both NEC men's lacrosse affiliates (Hobart
Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...
and Saint Joseph's). Three of the remaining four NEC men's lacrosse schools, full conference members LIU, Sacred Heart, and Wagner, would be taken in by the MAAC as affiliate members. According to Morris, the fourth, Merrimack, was in membership discussion with multiple lacrosse-sponsoring conferences; it eventually joined the America East Conference
The America East Conference (AmEast) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference is headquartered in Boston, Massachu ...
for that sport effective with the 2023 season (2022–23 school year).
On July 12, 2022, the NEC and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC ) is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and the Mid-A ...
(MEAC) entered into a partnership for baseball and golf, under whose terms all MEAC members that sponsored baseball, men's golf, and women's golf became NEC associate members effective immediately. This marked the end of the MEAC baseball league, which had been reduced to four members due to earlier realignment. Howard
Howard is a masculine given name derived from the English surname Howard. ''The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names'' notes that "the use of this surname as a christian name is quite recent and there seems to be no particular reason for ...
, already an NEC associate in six sports, added men's golf to its NEC membership. Coppin State and Norfolk State joined for baseball; Delaware State joined for baseball and women's golf; North Carolina Central joined in men's and women's golf; and Maryland Eastern Shore joined in all three sports.[ Several months later, the NEC announced that Delaware State would add women's lacrosse and women's soccer to its NEC membership in 2023–24.
St. Francis Brooklyn, which had been a full non-football NEC member since the league's founding in 1981, announced on March 20, 2023, that it was eliminating its athletic program at the end of the 2022–23 school year. Less than two months later, the NEC announced that non-football Division II upgrader Le Moyne would replace St. Francis Brooklyn effective in 2023–24.]
On October 23, 2023, the MAAC announced that Merrimack and Sacred Heart would leave the NEC for that conference after the 2023–24 school year. This announcement came less than two weeks after the NEC had announced that it would reinstate men's lacrosse effective with the 2025 season (2024–25 school year), with both departing schools having been announced as new men's lacrosse members. The other announced members were full NEC members Le Moyne, LIU, and Wagner, plus new associates Detroit Mercy and VMI. The NEC announced on November 7 that it would add Cleveland State and former full member Robert Morris as men's lacrosse associates for the 2025 season. This was soon followed by the announcement that Robert Morris would return to NEC football in 2024, and then by the announcement that Chicago State would end its two-year stint as an all-sports independent and join the NEC in 2024.[ Chicago State joined for all sports except men's and women's tennis, which will move to the NEC once the school's affiliation contract with the ]Horizon League
The Horizon League is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Headquartered in Indianapolis, the league's eleven member schools are located in ...
expires after the 2024–25 season.
Further changes came in early April 2024. First, on April 1, Sacred Heart announced it would leave the NEC men's volleyball league after the spring 2024 season to return to the EIVA. Three days later, football-sponsoring Mercyhurst University announced it would transition from the Division II PSAC and join the NEC, bringing the league back to 9 members for the 2024–25 season.
Chicago State is expected to add FCS football in the 2026 season. In September 2023, the school began a fundraising campaign to expand its sports offerings, including the potential addition of football. On February 11, 2025, CSU announced it had begun a search for its first head football coach, and hired Bobby Rome II that April. The month after CSU announced its head coaching search, Saint Francis University (not to be confused with former NEC member St. Francis Brooklyn) announced it would leave the NEC in 2026 to reclassify to NCAA Division III
NCAA Division III (D-III) is the lowest division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships to student- ...
, joining the Presidents' Athletic Conference. In early May 2025, the NEC announced the arrival of another Division II upgrader, the University of New Haven, effective that July.
Missouri Valley Football Conference
On April 4, 2022, the Missouri Valley Football Conference
The Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC), formerly the Gateway Football Conference, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the National Collegiate A ...
announced that Murray State's football team would join the conference beginning with the 2023 season. The move was made as a result of Murray State's previously announced move of its other sports from the Ohio Valley Conference
The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in partnership with ...
(OVC) to the Missouri Valley Conference
The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...
(MVC), a separate entity from the MVFC that does not sponsor football.
The MVFC would eventually lose Western Illinois, which left the non-football Summit League for the OVC in 2023. The football team played the 2023 season in the MVFC before leaving for the Big South–OVC football alliance in 2024.[ It will lose a second member in 2025 when Missouri State leaves for CUSA.][
On May 5, 2025, the MVFC announced a new conference structure that formalized the decades-long unofficial ties between the MFVC and MVC, and also established a formal relationship between the MVFC and Summit League. Under the new structure, the commissioners of the MVC and Summit will hold the top two positions in the MVFC, and both conferences will share administrative duties. Of the 10 MVFC members in the 2025 football season, all but one are members of the two partner conferences.
]
Southern Conference
While the Southern Conference
The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Southern Conference College football, football teams c ...
(SoCon) had no change to its full membership, the addition of men's lacrosse by the Atlantic 10 Conference
The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. The A-10's member schools are located most ...
led to the SoCon disbanding its men's lacrosse league after the 2022 season. The SoCon had sponsored men's lacrosse since the 2015 season, when it took over operational control of the ASUN men's lacrosse league. As part of an agreement with the SoCon, the ASUN reestablished men's lacrosse for the 2022 season, with full member Bellarmine joined by five new single-sport members, while another full ASUN member, Jacksonville
Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...
, stayed in SoCon men's lacrosse with a mixture of full SoCon members and affiliates.
With Hampton moving to the CAA and affiliates High Point and Richmond (the latter a full A-10 member) moving the sport to the A-10, the SoCon was left with only three men's lacrosse members, with six required to maintain its automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Accordingly, Jacksonville and full SoCon member Mercer moved that sport to the ASUN, while VMI, also a full SoCon member, returned to its former men's lacrosse home of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC, ) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Its current 13 full members are located in five Northeastern states: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachuse ...
.
Ivy League
Since its formal founding in 1954, the Ivy League
The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...
has never had a membership change, and this realignment cycle has been no exception. However, the Ivies announced a significant change in men's wrestling in December 2023.
The Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) had been founded in 1904, with competition starting the next year, by four Ivy schools (Columbia, Penn, Princeton, Yale; all but Yale were members in 2023–24). Over time, the EIWA would expand beyond the Ivies to include many other programs in the northeastern U.S. Through 2023–24, all Ivy League members that sponsored varsity men's wrestling competed in the EIWA. While Ivy champions were extrapolated from results of dual meets between Ivy members, the Ivies competed for NCAA tournament berths as part of the EIWA. On December 19, 2023, the Ivy League announced it would launch its own conference championship meet starting in the 2024–25 season, ending its relationship of more than a century with the EIWA. With six members, the Ivies will have their own automatic NCAA tournament bid for the first time. The EIWA retained 11 members and its own automatic bid.
Patriot League
Like the Ivy League, the Patriot League
The Patriot League is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference comprising primarily leading Private university, private institutions of higher education and two United States service academies based in the Northeastern United ...
has seen no change to its core membership in this cycle. However, the conference's football league will add a member in 2025 with the arrival of Richmond, which was a Patriot League member in women's golf before Richmond's primary conference, the A-10, started sponsoring that sport in 2024–25. The Spiders will become the first new member of Patriot League football since the arrival of Georgetown in 2001, and the Spiders' entry will be the first change in Patriot League football membership since Towson left in 2004.[ A year later, Villanova and William & Mary will join as football associates.
]
Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
On February 7, 2020, North Carolina A&T State University announced it would leave the MEAC to join the Big South as a full member, including football, starting in 2021–22. Shortly thereafter, Bethune–Cookman and Florida A&M also announced they would leave the MEAC to join the SWAC.
On July 12, 2022, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC ) is a List of NCAA conferences, collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and the Mid-A ...
(MEAC) and the NEC
is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Inte ...
entered into a partnership for baseball and golf, under whose terms all MEAC members that sponsored baseball, men's golf, and women's golf became NEC associate members effective immediately. This marked the end of the MEAC baseball league, which had been reduced to four members due to earlier realignment. Howard
Howard is a masculine given name derived from the English surname Howard. ''The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names'' notes that "the use of this surname as a christian name is quite recent and there seems to be no particular reason for ...
, already an NEC associate in six sports, added men's golf to its NEC membership. Coppin State and Norfolk State joined for baseball; Delaware State joined for baseball and women's golf; North Carolina Central joined in men's and women's golf; and Maryland Eastern Shore joined in all three sports.[
]
Southwestern Athletic Conference
As already noted, Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman joined from the MEAC as full-members in 2021–22.
Pioneer Football League
On November 19, 2017, Presbyterian College, a Big South full-member announced it would be moving its football program to the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League starting in 2021–22. Presbyterian's last Big South football season was in 2019; the Blue Hose competed the 2020 season as an independent before joining the Pioneer League for 2021 and beyond. The Blue Hose remain a member of the Big South in all other sports.
The University of St. Thomas, after moving up from Division III to Division I in 2021, joined the Pioneer Football League since its new home of the Summit League did not sponsor football.
Non-football Division I conferences affected
America East Conference
On May 6, 2021, America East Conference
The America East Conference (AmEast) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference is headquartered in Boston, Massachu ...
(AmEast) member Hartford
Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...
's governing board voted to begin the process of transitioning the school's athletic program from Division I to Division III. The plan calls for the following steps:
* January 2022: Formal request for reclassification with the NCAA.
* 2022–23: No athletic scholarships will be awarded to incoming students.
* 2023–24: Become a provisional member in a D-III conference to be determined; transition remaining students off athletic scholarships by the end of that school year.
* 2024–25: Become a full member of the aforementioned D-III conference.
* 2025–26: Full D-III membership.
Hartford left the AmEast on July 1, 2022, competing as a Division I independent in 2022–23 before joining its new D-III home of the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC; now known as the Conference of New England) in 2023, with the CCC announcing Hartford's arrival on June 21, 2022.
On January 25, Stony Brook was announced as a full member of the Colonial Athletic Association (now known as Coastal Athletic Association
The Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), formerly the ECAC South Conference and the Colonial Athletic Association, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA' ...
) starting in 2022–23. The school has been a member of CAA Football since 2013.
A little more than two months later on March 29, Bryant was announced as a new member of the America East Conference starting in 2022–23. As noted earlier, Bryant football joined the Big South Conference at that time, became part of the Big South–OVC football alliance in 2023, and joined CAA Football in 2024.
Atlantic 10 Conference
On November 16, 2021, the Atlantic 10 Conference
The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. The A-10's member schools are located most ...
(A-10) announced that Loyola Chicago would join the conference starting with the 2022–23 season. As the A-10 did not anticipate gaining or losing any further full members for the foreseeable future, the conference now has 15 members. However, this will change in 2025 with the departure of UMass for the MAC.[
]
Formation of A-10 men's lacrosse league
For several years, the A-10 had been working toward establishing a men's lacrosse league. As of the 2022 season (2021–22 school year), four of its full members ( Richmond, St. Bonaventure, Saint Joseph's, and UMass) sponsored men's lacrosse, two short of the number of members required for an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.[ On February 2, 2022, ''USA Lacrosse Magazine'' reported that the A-10 was evaluating Fairfield, High Point, and ]Hobart
Hobart ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the island state of Tasmania, Australia. Located in Tasmania's south-east on the estuary of the River Derwent, it is the southernmost capital city in Australia. Despite containing nearly hal ...
as potential affiliates to reach the required membership total. The A-10 officially announced the addition of men's lacrosse on May 23, 2022, with the four full members joined by High Point and Hobart.
Accordingly, this meant that all of the aforementioned programs would be leaving their current conferences in order to join the A-10's new league. The Colonial Athletic Association
The Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), formerly the ECAC South Conference and the Colonial Athletic Association, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA' ...
, which was the former home of UMass men's lacrosse, was also going through a realignment of its own (see CAA section) and planned on bringing in more lacrosse sponsoring institutions to the conference, while the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC, ) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Its current 13 full members are located in five Northeastern states: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachuse ...
, St. Bonaventure's former home, still sat at 6 members even after the Bonnies' departure. However, the Northeast Conference
The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Foo ...
, former home of Saint Joseph's and Hobart, as well as the Southern Conference
The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Southern Conference College football, football teams c ...
, former home of High Point and Richmond, were put in a more trying situation. The NEC, while also losing the aforementioned two programs, was also losing Bryant and Mount St. Mary's, two full NEC members that both sponsored men's lacrosse. Meanwhile, the SoCon was already sitting precariously at 6 men's lacrosse institutions, and simply could not afford to lose any of their members. This left both conferences with only 4 men's lacrosse sponsoring members each, and with no other option available to them, both conferences announced they would stop sponsoring the sport effective with the 2023 season (though the NEC would eventually reinstate the sport in 2024–25).[ Three of the four lacrosse programs in the NEC ( LIU, ]Sacred Heart
The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus () is one of the most widely practised and well-known Catholic devotions, wherein the heart of Jesus Christ is viewed as a symbol of "God's boundless and passionate love for mankind". This devotion to Christ is p ...
, and Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner ( ; ; 22 May 181313 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, essayist, and conductor who is chiefly known for his operas (or, as some of his mature works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most o ...
) announced they would join the MAAC as men's lacrosse affiliates, while the fourth, Merrimack, ultimately announced it would house its men's lacrosse program in the America East Conference
The America East Conference (AmEast) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference is headquartered in Boston, Massachu ...
. For the SoCon, VMI announced it too would be joining the MAAC in lacrosse, which was its former home for the sport from 2002 to 2013. Meanwhile, Jacksonville
Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...
returned to its full-time home of the ASUN Conference
The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Division I FCS level in 2022. ...
, joined by Mercer as an affiliate, while Hampton, who was poised to join the CAA as a full member in 2022, had already made plans to move its lacrosse program to the conference as well.
Horizon League
On January 22, 2022, CBSSports.com reported that UIC would leave the Horizon League
The Horizon League is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Headquartered in Indianapolis, the league's eleven member schools are located in ...
for the MVC in July. This report was confirmed on January 26 when UIC was unveiled as a new MVC member, effective that July. The Horizon League dropped to 11 members going forward.
On July 6, 2022, the Ohio Valley Conference
The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in partnership with ...
(OVC) and Horizon League announced their plans to merge their respective men's tennis leagues effective in the 2022–23 academic year, as already noted. OVC members that sponsor the sport, as well as Belmont, which had left the OVC days earlier for the Missouri Valley Conference
The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the fourth-oldest collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the Midwestern Unite ...
, now compete as Horizon affiliate members. Chicago State also became an affiliate member in both men's and women's tennis. The Horizon's men's tennis membership expanded to 11 through the 2023–24 season,[ but after that season dropped to 10 with full OVC member Lindenwood dropping men's tennis along with eight other NCAA sports. It dropped to 8 members for the 2025–26 season with the departure of Chicago State tennis, which is joining the rest of the school's sports in the Northeast Conference,][ and the elimination of the men's tennis program of affiliate Eastern Illinois.
In 2026, Northern Illinois will rejoin the Horizon League after a nearly 30-year absence.][
]
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
On May 2, 2022, the MAAC announced that Mount St. Mary's University would be Monmouth
Monmouth ( or ; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Monmouthshire, Wales, situated on where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. The population in the 2011 census was 10,508, rising from 8 ...
's replacement in the conference starting with the 2022–23 season, maintaining the MAAC's membership at 11 schools.[
The MAAC would announce a further expansion in October 2023, with Merrimack and Sacred Heart joining from the NEC in July 2024. This brought the MAAC to its largest-ever membership total of 13.][
]
Missouri Valley Conference
Losing Loyola Chicago, whose men's basketball team had made the Final Four in 2018
Events January
* January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency.
* January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...
and Sweet Sixteen in 2021
Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...
, was a significant athletic blow to the MVC, but was arguably a larger institutional blow. The Chicago area, especially its suburbs, is a major source of students for many MVC members, and Loyola's departure would leave the conference without a significant presence in the city. The basketball issue was addressed with the addition of Belmont and Murray State, both frequent contenders for NCAA men's tournament berths, putting the Missouri Valley Conference at 11 members. The issue of a Chicago presence was addressed by entering into negotiations with the city's largest university, UIC. ''CBSSports.com'' reported on January 22, 2022, that UIC had indeed been invited and accepted; this move was made official four days later.[ The conference reportedly reached out to ]Kansas City
The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more t ...
of the Summit League for potential membership before this, in addition to UIC, as well as Sun Belt member UT Arlington (which instead rejoined the WAC).
As previously noted, Missouri State will leave the MVC for CUSA in 2025,[ coinciding with the formalization of the ties between the MVC and Missouri Valley Football Conference.
]
Summit League
On October 4, 2019, the University of St. Thomas, a Minnesota school that was set to be expelled from its longtime athletic home of the NCAA Division III
NCAA Division III (D-III) is the lowest division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that do not offer athletic scholarships to student- ...
Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC ) is an List of NCAA conferences, intercollegiate athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division III, Division III. All 13 of the mem ...
(MIAC) in 2021, announced that it received an invitation to join the Summit upon its MIAC departure, starting in 2021–22. St. Thomas eventually received a waiver of an NCAA rule mandating that Division III schools can only transition to Division II, allowing the school to move directly to D-I on the originally announced schedule.
On May 12, 2023, Western Illinois University
Western Illinois University (WIU) is a public university in Macomb, Illinois, United States. It was founded in 1899 as Western Illinois State Normal School. As the normal school grew, it became Western Illinois State Teachers College. Once West ...
announced that it would leave the Summit League for the Ohio Valley Conference
The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in partnership with ...
that July.[ As noted earlier, the men's soccer team remained in the Summit through the 2023 season, after which it joined the OVC. Western Illinois had been a member of the Summit since its 1982 formation as the Association of Mid-Continent Universities, and was the last one of these schools to remain in the conference.
As noted previously, the Summit will become an official partner in the Missouri Valley Football Conference starting with the 2025 season.
]
West Coast Conference
With Brigham Young University
Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...
leaving the West Coast Conference
The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting o ...
for the Big 12 in 2023, the WCC dropped to 9 members going forward.
On July 19, 2022, it was announced that the WCC would add men's water polo in 2023–24 with seven members—the four WCC members that sponsor the sport (Loyola Marymount
Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. LMU enrolls over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, making it the largest Catholic university on the west coast of the ...
, Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...
, Pepperdine and Santa Clara) plus three affiliates (Air Force
An air force in the broadest sense is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army aviati ...
, California Baptist and San Jose State). Consequently, two water polo-only conferences were directly affected: the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA) lost four of its then-current nine men's members and the Golden Coast Conference (GCC) lost three of its then-current six men's members (neither conference's women's side was affected).
In December of that year, multiple media reports indicated that the two schools left behind in the mass exodus from the Pac-12, Oregon State and Washington State, were nearing a short-term deal with the WCC for affiliate membership in all sports apart from baseball. Under this arrangement, which would operate in 2024–25 and 2025–26, the so-called "Pac-2" would be eligible for WCC championships and be able to represent the WCC in NCAA championship events. The agreement was officially announced on December 22.
The WCC would expand still further, announcing on May 10, 2024, that Grand Canyon and Seattle would leave the Western Athletic Conference
The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the Western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington (state), Washington.
Due to ...
for the WCC in July 2025. Seattle will be returning to the WCC after a 45-year absence.[ However, the WCC will lose Gonzaga to the reimagined Pac-12 in 2026, and Grand Canyon announced in November 2024 that it had reneged on its WCC move to instead join the Mountain West Conference.][
]
Big West Conference
The Big West Conference
The Big West Conference (BWC) is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's NCAA Division I, Division I. The conference was origina ...
(BWC) has so far had no changes in its full-time membership during the realignment cycle, though Hawaiʻi and UC Davis will leave in 2026 for the Mountain West Conference (with Hawaiʻi already being an MW football member), and California Baptist and Utah Valley will join in 2026. The BWC added three sports during the cycle.
Men's water polo was added effective in the 2023 season (2023–24 school year) with six full conference members— Cal State Fullerton, Long Beach State, UC Davis
The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...
, UC Irvine
UC may refer to:
Education
In the United States
* University of California system
* University of Charleston, West Virginia
* University of Chicago, Illinois
* University of Cincinnati, Ohio
* Upsala College, East Orange, New Jersey (''defunct ...
, UC San Diego, and UC Santa Barbara.[ Of these schools, Long Beach State, UC Irvine, and UC Santa Barbara had been the last three members of the men's side of the GCC; UC Davis and UC San Diego had been in the WWPA; and Cal State Fullerton launched new varsity teams in both men's and women's water polo.
Men's and women's swimming & diving were added in 2024–25.
]
Ice hockey conferences affected
Central Collegiate Hockey Association
On June 28, 2019, seven schools from the ten-member men's side of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college ice hockey conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's-only conference.
From 1951 to 1999, it operated as a me ...
(WCHA) began the process of withdrawing from the conference, with the intent of forming a new conference for the 2021–22 season. These seven schools were Bemidji State, Bowling Green
A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls.
Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...
(who had retained the rights to the CCHA name), Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State and Northern Michigan. The seven schools cited a more compact geographic footprint as one reason for the move; the remaining three WCHA members, Alabama-Huntsville, Alaska
Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...
and Alaska–Anchorage, all geographic outliers in the WCHA, were notably absent. On February 18, 2020, these seven schools announced they would begin competing in a new CCHA in 2021–22. Later that year, the University of St. Thomas, a former D-III school who had been granted a waiver by the NCAA earlier in the year to transition directly to D-I, was announced to be joining the new CCHA as a member on July 29, 2020, bringing the membership up to an even eight teams.
On May 17, 2022, Augustana University was announced as the league's ninth member. The Vikings
Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...
will play a partial league schedule in the 2023–24 and 2024–25 seasons before playing a full league schedule in 2025–26. The CCHA will lose a member in 2026, with the National Collegiate Hockey Conference announcing in May 2024 that St. Thomas would join that league for the 2026–27 season.
Western Collegiate Hockey Association
The WCHA men's side was forced to disband after seven of its 10 schools left the conference to reestablish the CCHA starting in the 2021–22 academic year. Of the other three remaining programs, Alabama-Huntsville program was disbanded after the 2020–21 season, Alaska
Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...
program became independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States
* Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
, and Alaska–Anchorage program would be cut after the 2020–21 season due to a reduction in state funding unless the program could raise $3 million, and the program went on hiatus that year while its future was uncertain. Ultimately, the program was saved, and it returned to play in the 2022–23 season as an independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States
* Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
, following the dissolution of the men's side of its former conference, the WCHA.
The WCHA still operates as a women's ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
-only conference and the women's WCHA announced a further expansion effective in 2021–22 with the arrival of St. Thomas, a Twin Cities
Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in stat ...
school that received NCAA approval to directly transition from Division III. The Summit League offered the Tommies a D-I home, and backed the school's bid to directly transition from D-III. Interestingly, St. Thomas is a member of the men's ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...
-only CCHA (the conference that replaced the WCHA on the men's side), while being a WCHA member for its women's program.
National Collegiate Hockey Conference
The National Collegiate Hockey Conference
The National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) is an NCAA men's Division I hockey conference. The league was formed on July 9, 2011 and began playing for the 2013–14 season, the same season that the Big Ten Conference began competition, as a ...
(NCHC), which had not had a membership change since its formation in 2011 and start of play in 2013, announced on July 5, 2023, that Arizona State would become the league's ninth member in 2024. The Sun Devils had played as a D-I independent since being elevated from club to varsity status in 2015. The NCHC announced a further expansion in May 2024, announcing that St. Thomas would join from the CCHA in 2026.[
]
Atlantic Hockey Association
The only change to the membership of the Atlantic Hockey Association (AHA) was the temporary departure of Robert Morris, which had dropped both men's and women's ice hockey after the 2020–21 season due to COVID-19 impacts but reinstated both teams in 2023–24.
However, a more significant change would come in June 2023 when AHA and College Hockey America (CHA), then a women-only league, jointly announced they would merge into a single conference after the 2023–24 season. The two leagues, while having separate governing boards and bylaws, had a longstanding relationship, having operated with a single commissioner and conference staff since 2010. On April 30, 2024, the new conference was unveiled as Atlantic Hockey America
Atlantic Hockey America (AHA) is a college ice hockey conference which operates primarily in the northeastern United States. It participates in NCAA Division I as an ice hockey-only conference. The conference was formed in 2023 by the merger of ...
, retaining the AHA initialism.
Atlantic Hockey America
Shortly after the merger, AHA would lose the American International men when the school announced it would align that team with the rest of its athletic program in Division II after the 2024–25 season.
Women's ice hockey
New England Women's Hockey Alliance
Stonehill, which had announced a move up from Division II, added women's ice hockey starting in 2022–23, joining the New England Women's Hockey Alliance
The New England Women's Hockey Alliance (NEWHA) is a women's college ice hockey conference in the United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. As of the most recent 2023–24 NCAA hockey season, the confere ...
(NEWHA).
On June 29, 2022, the NEWHA announced that it would expand to 8 members with the addition of Assumption University, which officially joined for administrative purposes on July 1 but did not start conference play until launching its varsity program in the 2023–24 season.
College Hockey America
As noted previously, College Hockey America fully merged with the Atlantic Hockey Association in July 2024 under the banner of Atlantic Hockey America. The two predecessor conferences had shared a commissioner and office staff since 2010. The first change to CHA during the realignment was the temporary departure of Robert Morris. On December 1, 2023, CHA announced that Delaware would join the conference for the school's first season of varsity women's hockey in 2025–26. Delaware's membership will accordingly transfer to the merged AHA.
Men's water polo
As noted above, the men's side of the Golden Coast Conference (GCC) disbanded following the 2022 men's season (2022–23 school year) after all of its final six members left for the new men's water polo leagues of the Big West and West Coast Conferences. The GCC remains in operation as a women-only conference.
The men's side of the Western Water Polo Association (WWPA), which lost four of its members to the West Coast Conference's new league, reloaded by adding four Division II members effective with the 2023 season— Gannon, McKendree, Mercyhurst, and Salem. All were already WWPA women's members. However, Mercyhurst would play only one season in the WWPA, returning its men's and women's teams in the sport to the school's former home of the Collegiate Water Polo Association
The Collegiate Water Polo Association is a conference of colleges and universities in the Eastern United States that sponsor 19 men's teams and 17 women's teams that compete in varsity water polo. The winners of the conference tournaments earn ...
after the 2023–24 school year.
Footnotes
Membership change statistics
Full membership
The following table lists all Division I all-sports conferences and changes to membership as a result of the realignment.
Football
The following table is reflective of both football-only membership changes and full membership changes that include football.
Notes
List of FBS schools changing conferences since 2022
The following list only includes changes to the primary conference affiliation of schools.
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
See also
* 2010–2014 NCAA conference realignment
* 2005 NCAA conference realignment
* 1996 NCAA conference realignment
* List of NCAA Division I conference changes in the 2020s
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:2021-22 NCAA conference realignment
NCAA conference realignments
Southeastern Conference realignment
Big 12 Conference
Big Ten Conference
Atlantic Coast Conference
Pac-12 Conference
American Athletic Conference
Sun Belt Conference
Conference USA
Mountain West Conference
Western Athletic Conference
ASUN Conference
Coastal Athletic Association
Coastal Athletic Association Football Conference
Northeast Conference
Ohio Valley Conference
Big South Conference
Southland Conference
Big Sky Conference
America East Conference
Atlantic 10 Conference
Big West Conference
Golden Coast Conference
Missouri Valley Conference
Missouri Valley Football Conference
Horizon League
Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
Mid-American Conference
Summit League
United Athletic Conference
West Coast Conference
Atlantic Hockey America
Central Collegiate Hockey Association
National Collegiate Hockey Conference