The United Athletic Conference (UAC), also known as The United, is an

NCAA 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 Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). Sponsored by the National Collegiate ...

(FCS) intercollegiate athletic conference. The conference is a merger of the existing football leagues of 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) and

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). The UAC covers the southwestern,

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

, and

southern United States The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, Dixieland, or simply the South) is List of regions of the United States, census regions defined by the United States Cens ...

with member institutions located in

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

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 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

, 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 ...

History

Western Athletic Conference

On January 14, 2021, the WAC 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, including football. The new members announced included the "Texas Four" of

Abilene Christian University Abilene Christian University (ACU) is a Private university, private Christian research university in Abilene, Texas, United States. It is classified by the Carnegie Foundation as an R2 (High Research Spending and Doctorate Production) institutio ...

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 ...

Sam Houston State University Sam Houston State University (Sam Houston, SHSU or Sam) is a public research university in Huntsville, Texas, United States. Founded in 1879, it is the third-oldest public college or university in Texas. It is one of the first normal schools wes ...

, and

Stephen F. Austin State University Stephen F. Austin State University (SFASU or SFA) is a public university in Nacogdoches, Texas, in the United States. Named after Stephen F. Austin, one of the founders of Texas, SFA was founded as a teachers college in 1923 and built on part ...

, then members of 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 ...

, along with

Southern Utah University Southern Utah University (SUU) is a public university in Cedar City, Utah, United States. Founded in 1897 as a normal school, Southern Utah University now has over 1,800 graduates each year with baccalaureate and other graduate degrees from its ...

, 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 ...

. Originally, all schools were planned to join in July 2022, but the entry of the Texas Four was moved to July 2021 after the Southland expelled its departing members. The WAC also announced that it would most likely add another football-playing institution at a later date. On the same day, news broke that the

University of Texas Rio Grande Valley The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) is a public research university with its main campus in Edinburg, Texas, and multiple other campuses throughout the Rio Grande Valley region of Texas. It is the southernmost member of the Uni ...

, a non-football-playing WAC member, had committed to creating an FCS football program by 2024. UTRGV later announced it would play an exhibition schedule in 2024 before starting full varsity play in 2025. However,

UTRGV The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) is a public university, public research university with its main campus in Edinburg, Texas, and multiple other campuses throughout the Rio Grande Valley (Texas), Rio Grande Valley region of Tex ...

moved their athletics program, including football, from the WAC to the Southland in 2024 before they played a single game in the alliance. The WAC ultimately partnered with the

(then officially branded as the ASUN Conference) to reestablish its football league, with the Texas Four being joined by three incoming ASUN members for at least the fall 2021 season in what it calls the ASUN–WAC (or WAC–ASUN) Challenge. The Challenge was abbreviated as "AQ7", as the top finisher of the seven teams would be an automatic qualifier for the FCS postseason. The two conferences renewed their alliance for the 2022 season, although both leagues will conduct separate conference seasons and then choose the alliance's automatic qualifier by an as-yet-undetermined process. Both the WAC and ASUN initially planned to have six playoff-eligible teams in 2022, but each lost such a member with the start of FBS transitions by Jacksonville State and Sam Houston. On November 5, 2021, it was reported that

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 ...

(an FBS independent) and

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 ...

would be leaving the WAC for

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 ...

in 2023. The WAC responded by adding football-playing Incarnate Word from the

and non-football school

UT Arlington The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA or UT Arlington) is a public research university in Arlington, Texas, United States. It is the second oldest university in the University of Texas System and was founded in 1895. It was in the Texas A&M ...

from 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 ...

; however, UIW later reversed course and decided to stay with the SLC only days before the 2022-23 athletic season officially began. Lamar also announced that it too would return to its former home of the Southland Conference in 2023 roughly three months prior to UIW's announcement, on April 8, 2022; however, three months later, it was announced that the SLC and Lamar would be accelerating the rejoining process so that Lamar could return for the 2022 athletic season instead. The WAC has been speculated to move back up to FBS in the future following the re-establishment of the football conference at the FCS level.

Atlantic Sun Conference

The ASUN Conference announced that it would be adding the

University of Central Arkansas The University of Central Arkansas (Central Arkansas or UCA) is a public university in Conway, Arkansas, United States. Founded in 1907, the university is one of the oldest in the state. As the state's only normal school at the time, UCA has hist ...

Eastern Kentucky University Eastern Kentucky University (Eastern or EKU) is a public university in Richmond, Kentucky. It also maintains branch campuses in Corbin, Hazard, and Manchester and offers over 40 online undergraduate and graduate options. History Founding ...

, and former member

Jacksonville State University Jacksonville State University (JSU or Jax State) is a public university in Jacksonville, Alabama, United States. Founded in 1883, Jacksonville State offers programs of study in six academic schools leading to bachelor's degree, bachelor's, mas ...

, as incoming members on January 29, 2021, with the intent of sponsoring football in the

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) in 2022. However, with these three schools joining in 2021, the league partnered with another conference beginning to sponsor football also in 2022, the

(WAC), to allow the three teams to join the WAC as football affiliates for 2021, branding it interchangeably as the "ASUN–WAC Challenge" and "WAC–ASUN Challenge"; the two leagues will receive a combined bid to the FCS playoffs. As soon as it was announced, however, the football league was thrown into jeopardy, as Jacksonville State announced it would be leaving once again in 2023 for

(CUSA), an FBS conference.

Liberty University Liberty University (LU), known simply as Liberty, is a Private university, private Evangelicalism in the United States, evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservativ ...

was also invited to CUSA for 2023, but had already competed as an FBS independent for some time and was not included in the ASUN's new football league. With the WAC also losing

, another football-sponsoring school, to CUSA, the two conferences announced they would be renewing their alliance for the 2022 season. On September 17, 2021, the ASUN announced

Austin Peay State University Austin Peay State University (APSU) () is a public university in Clarksville, Tennessee, United States. Standing on a site occupied by a succession of educational institutions since 1845, the precursor of the university was established in 1927 ...

, a football-sponsoring school, as a new member for the 2022–23 season.

Merger

ESPN reported on December 9, 2022, that the ASUN and WAC had agreed to form a new football-only conference that plans to start play in 2024. The initial membership would consist of Austin Peay,

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 ...

Eastern Kentucky Eastern or Easterns may refer to: Transportation Airlines *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...

, and

North Alabama North Alabama is a region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Several geographic definitions for the area exist, with all descriptions including the nine counties of Alabama's Tennessee Valley region. The North Alabama Industrial Development Associ ...

from the ASUN, and Abilene Christian,

Southern Utah Dixie is a nickname for the populated, lower-elevation area of south-central Washington County, the southwest corner of the State of Utah, bordering nearby Arizona to the south, and Nevada to the west. The area lies in the northeastern Mojave ...

, Stephen F. Austin, Tarleton State, and Utah Tech from the WAC.

was originally planned to become the 10th member upon its planned addition of football in 2025; however, they moved their athletics program, including football, from the WAC to the Southland in 2024 before they played a single game in the alliance. 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." On December 20, the two conferences confirmed the football merger, announcing that the new football league would start to play in 2023 under the tentative name of "ASUN–WAC Football Conference". The new football league played a six-game schedule in 2023 and planned to start full round-robin conference play in 2024, but this was before the league expanded beyond 9 members following the 2023 season. Neither conference's announcement mentioned any plans to move to FBS. The ASUN and WAC jointly announced on January 5, 2023, that the football conference had established a basic governing structure and had hired Oliver Luck as executive director. On April 17, 2023, ASUN-WAC Football Partnership formally rebranded as the United Athletic Conference. The UAC's waiver request to be recognized as a single-sport FCS football conference was denied by the NCAA later the same month. On September 8, 2023, the

University of West Georgia The University of West Georgia is a public university in Carrollton, Georgia, United States. The university offers a satellite campus in Newnan, Georgia, Newnan, Georgia, select classes at its Douglasville Center, and off-campus Museum Studies c ...

announced it would transition from Division II and join the ASUN in 2024; accordingly, the UAC announced that the West Georgia football program would also join the conference the same year.

Member schools

Current members

Former members

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:2020 till:2028 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<# Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white id:AssocF value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football id:Full value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.5,0.691,0.824) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote) id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:4 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text: OVC bar:4 color:AssocF from:2021 till:2022 text: Jacksonville State (2021-22) bar:4 shift:30 color:OtherC1 from:2022 till:2023 text: ASUN bar:4 color:OtherC2 from:2023 till:end text: CUSA bar:5 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text: Southland bar:5 color:AssocF from:2021 till:2022 text: Lamar (2021–22) bar:5 shift:30 color:OtherC1 from:2022 till:end text: Southland bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text: Southland bar:6 color:AssocF from:2021 till:2022 text:

(2021–22) bar:6 shift:30 color:OtherC1 from:2022 till:2023 text: WAC bar:6 color:OtherC2 from:2023 till:end text: CUSA bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text: Southland bar:7 color:AssocF from:2021 till:2024 text: Stephen F. Austin (2021–2024) bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:2024 till:end text: Southland bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text: Southland bar:1 color:AssocF from:2021 till:end text: Abilene Christian (2021–Present) bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text: Southland bar:2 color:AssocF from:2021 till:end text:

(2021–Present) bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text: OVC bar:3 color:AssocF from:2021 till:end text:

(2021–Present) bar:9 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2022 text: Big South bar:9 color:AssocF from:2022 till:2023 text: Kennesaw State (2022–23) bar:9 shift:30 color:OtherC1 from:2023 till:2024 text:

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 ...

bar:9 color:OtherC2 from:2024 till:end text: CUSA bar:8 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2022 text: OVC bar:8 color:AssocF from:2022 till:end text: Austin Peay (2022–Present) bar:10 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2022 text: Big South bar:10 color:AssocF from:2022 till:end text:

(2022–Present) bar:11 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2022 text: Big Sky bar:11 color:AssocF from:2022 till:end text:

(2022–Present) bar:12 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text:

bar:12 color:OtherC2 from:2021 till:2023 text: WAC bar:12 color:AssocF from:2023 till:end text:

Tarleton Tarleton is a village and civil parish in the West Lancashire district of Lancashire, England. It is situated approximately north-east of Liverpool and south-west of Preston. The parish includes the village of Mere Brow and the hamlets of ...

(2023–Present) bar:13 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text:

bar:13 color:OtherC2 from:2021 till:2023 text: WAC bar:13 color:AssocF from:2023 till:end text: Utah Tech (2023–Present) bar:14 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2024 text: Gulf South (D-II) bar:14 color:AssocF from:2024 till:end text: West Georgia (2024–Present) bar:N color:white from:2020 till:2021 text:None bar:N color:orange from:2021 till:2023 text:WAC-ASUN Challenge bar:N color:yellow from:2023 till:end text:United Athletic Conference ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:2021 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center) text:^"United Athletic Conference membership history"

Conference Champions

Football conference champions

''This is a list of the champions since 2023.''

Conference facilities

Notes

References

External links

* {{NCAA Division I FCS conference navbox ASUN Conference Western Athletic Conference Sports in the Southern United States Sports in the Western United States Sports organizations established in 2023 Articles which contain graphical timelines