The2021–2026 NCAA conference realignment is an ongoing set of extensive changes occurring inNCAAconference membership, primarily at theDivision I level, that began in the 2021–22 academic year. Most of these changes have involved conferences in theFootball Bowl Subdivision (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.

In July 2021, drastic changes in the FBSpower conferences were triggered following reports of Texas and Oklahoma leaving theBig 12 Conference for theSoutheastern Conference by the 2024–25 academic year for the opportunity of increased media exposure and revenue.^[1][2] ThePac-12 Conference lost ten of its twelve members ahead of the 2024–25 academic year, leading to lawsuits and toad hoc arrangements for its remaining two members until newly invited members could join in 2026. TheAssociated Press named conference realignment, and in particular the collapse of the Pac-12, as the 2023 story of the year inU.S. sports.^[3] At theGroup of Five level, six members ofConference USA (CUSA) announced departures for the American Athletic Conference, now known as theAmerican Conference, to also receive improved media exposure, which caused three other CUSA members to leave and join theSun Belt Conference in fear of the conference folding.^[4] As a result, CUSA took in fiveFCS members and twoFBS independents over a 3-year span to remain as an FBS competitor.

The Division IFootball Championship Subdivision (FCS) also saw significant changes, most notably the beginning of football sponsorship by theAtlantic Sun Conference (ASUN); the return of football by theWestern Athletic Conference (WAC), which previously sponsored football at the FBS level until the end of the2012 season; and two football-only conference mergers, one involving the ASUN and WAC and the other involving theBig South Conference andOhio Valley Conference (OVC). A third FCS change was the creation of a formal relationship between theMissouri Valley Football Conference and two non-football leagues, theMissouri Valley Conference (MVC) andSummit League. In 2026, the ASUN–WAC football alliance, known as theUnited Athletic Conference, will effectively replace the WAC as an all-sports league. Since 2021, six FCS members have transitioned to FBS conferences.

Other conference sports sponsorships saw significant changes as well, which affected school conference alignments for participants in men's baseball, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, tennis, volleyball, water polo, wrestling, and women's gymnastics.

On July 21, 2021, theHouston Chronicle reported thatOklahoma andTexas had approached theSoutheastern Conference (SEC) about the possibility of joining that league.^[5] 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.^[6] On July 29, the presidents and chancellors of the 14 SEC members voted unanimously to extend invitations to Oklahoma and Texas, effective in 2025.^[7] The two schools eventually reached a buyout agreement with the Big 12 that allowed them to join the SEC in 2024.^[8]

With the losses of Texas and Oklahoma, theBig 12 Conference was reduced from 10 to 8 teams. On September 10, the Big 12 announced thatBYU, anFBS independent and full member of the non-footballWest Coast Conference (WCC), along withAmerican Athletic Conference (The American) membersCincinnati,Houston, andUCF would join the conference no later than 2024–25.^[9] At the time of announcement, BYU stated that it would join the Big 12 in 2023.^[10] 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.^[11]

On November 2, 2022, ESPN reported thatGonzaga University athletic director Chris Standiford had met with Big 12 commissionerBrett Yormark while theGonzaga men's basketball team was in theDallas area, home to the Big 12 offices, for a scrimmage withTennessee. 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 otherwisemid-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 thePac-12 Conference and theBig East Conference (the latter a non-football league).^[12] Yormark would later confirm that the conference had met with both Gonzaga andUConn regarding possible membership, but the possible addition of both schools was shelved after the addition of the "Four Corners" Pac-12 members.^[13]

In late spring 2023, with the Pac-12 Conference still not having finalized a new media rights deal, multiple media reports linkedColorado, which had left the Big 12 for the then-Pac-10 in 2011, with a potential return to the Big 12. Dennis Dodd ofCBSSports.com reported that Colorado had been in what was described as "substantive" talks with the Big 12.^[14] Greg Swaim, an Oklahoma radio host described by the sports and culture news siteOutKick 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 andArizona were both preparing to join the Big 12.^[15] It was also widely rumored that newly hiredfootball head coachDeion Sanders and several influentialboosters were pushing for Colorado to return to the Big 12.^[16]

Speculation aboutColorado's future increased in July. First, in advance of a meeting of Pac-12 chancellors and presidents set for July 20,Colorado chancellorPhil DiStefano publicly suggested that conference commissionerGeorge 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 directorRick 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,^[17][18] 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.^[19] On July 27, Colorado announced it would be returning to the Big 12 after 13 years.^[20]

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 withApple, with returns based mainly on subscription rates.^[21]Phil Knight, co-founder and retired CEO ofNike and also anOregon alumnus and major donor to both the university andits athletic program, strongly supported the Apple deal.^[16] This was apparently not enough to satisfy multiple members, including Arizona. On August 3, theArizona Board of Regents, which oversees the state's three public universities,^[a] 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.^[22][23] 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),^[b] 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 andSMU.^[24] Then, 10 minutes before the meeting was to start, Washington informed the Pac-12 that it would move to the Big Ten.Washington football coachKalen DeBoer and the university administration were concerned about the prospect that no Pac-12 games would be available on linear television.^[16] Shortly after the morning meeting was canceled, Oregon followed Washington to the Big Ten, and Arizona,Arizona State, andUtah announced they would join the Big 12 beginning in 2024.^[25]

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.^[26]

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.^[27] This came about for lacrosse on February 21, 2024, with the Big 12 addingFlorida,San Diego State, andUC Davis 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 thatOld Dominion andTulsa, 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 membersAlabama andTennessee, neither of which was included in the list of Big 12 rowing members for 2024–25.^[28] SEC bylaws allow it to hold a championship in any sport sponsored by at least 25% of the full membership.^[29] 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.^[30]

On August 23, 2024, reports about Yormark pursuing currentBig East member and football independentUConn 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-sponsoredBig East; any expansion requires the approval of at least 12 of the current 16 members. Ultimately, no invitation came.^[31]

On June 30, 2022, media reports indicated thatUCLA andUSC had started the process of leaving thePac-12 Conference for theBig Ten Conference, with the Big Ten presidents and chancellors having scheduled a meeting that evening to vote on the addition of the twoLos 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.^[32][33]

On August 4, 2023,Oregon andWashington announced they would leave the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten effective July 1, 2024.^[34]

In an August 10 interview for anOhio State fan forum, the school's athletic directorGene 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 received full shares from the new media deal upon their arrival in the conference), would see no decrease in payouts during that deal.^[35]

Shortly after Oklahoma and Texas announced their departure for the SEC, Pac-12 commissionerGeorge Kliavkoff was told by Big 12 commissionerBob 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.^[c] The first and ultimately only committee meeting ended after only a few minutes when USC presidentCarol Folt, who represented the conference's two Los Angeles schools (UCLA andUSC), 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.^[16]

On August 24, 2021, the Pac-12 and the Big Ten, along with theAtlantic Coast Conference, 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 infootball, as well as men's and women'scollege basketball.^[36]

UCLA's move to the Big Ten required approval of theRegents of the University of California, the governing body of theUniversity of California 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, interimOregon 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.^[16] The UC Regents approved UCLA's move on December 14, 2022.^[37][38][39]

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 theLos Angeles Times revealed that one of the Pac-12 presidents—not identified in theTimes report, but speculated by other outlets to beArizona State presidentMichael Crow,^[40] and later reported byJohn Canzano to beUtah presidentTaylor Randall^[41]—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.^[16]

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 commissionerTony Petitti to explore the addition of two other Pac-12 members,Oregon andWashington. 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.^[42] 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.^[43] 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.^[34] 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 ofSports Illustrated wrote that the apparent demise of the Pac-12 (at least in its pre-2024 form) could have major implications for theUS Olympic team in multiple non-revenue sports. Two of the four schools that then remained in the Pac-12,California andStanford, are key feeders for the US Olympic program, and also train a significant number of athletes who represent other countries. Forde noted that at the2020 Summer Olympics, 32 US athletes were Stanford students or alumni,^[d] and 16 others had the same connections to Cal. He also cited a 2017 study by researchers at the websiteOlympStats.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).^[44] CBS Sports journalist Shehan Jeyarajah added that Stanford had won theNACDA 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?"^[45]

On September 1, 2023, the presidents and chancellors of theAtlantic Coast Conference (ACC) voted to approve California and Stanford as members effective August 2, 2024.^[46][47] This leftOregon State andWashington State as the last two Pac-12 members. On the same day that the ACC made its announcement,American Athletic Conference (now American Conference) commissionerMike Aresco, whose conference had evaluated those two schools as potential members, announced that The American would not add any schools in thePacific Time Zone.^[48]

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 inWhitman County, Washington (where Washington Stateis 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 theMountain West Conference.^[49] 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.^[50] 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.^[51]

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.^[52] The University of Washington filed an emergency motion with theWashington Supreme Court 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.^[53]

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.^[54] 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.^[55]

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.^[56]

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.^[57] That has been referred to as "Calimony".^[58]

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 schoolsBoise State,San Diego State,Fresno State andColorado State.^[59] The following day, the conference formally announced that the four schools would be joining on July 1, 2026.^[60]

On September 23, 2024,Utah State accepted an offer to join the league as its seventh member.^[61] This gave the Pac-12 the seven members needed to preserve its official "multisport" status,^[62] though one more football member would be needed to preserve FBS status.^[63] On that same day,Memphis,USF,UTSA andTulane, who were floated as potential Pac-12 expansion targets, declined offers to join the conference and remained committed to the American.^[64]UNLV also declined an offer to join and remained in the Mountain West.^[65]

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."^[66]

After discussions with multiple conferences, on October 1, 2024,Gonzaga announced its departure from theWest Coast Conference for the Pac-12 beginning in 2026.^[67] Because Gonzaga does not sponsor a football team, the Pac-12 had to add at least one more full member with a football team to preserve its FBS status.

In June 2025, an obscureTwitter/X account promotingTexas State (TXST)^[e] running back Lincoln Pare as a 2025 Heisman Trophy candidate included a picture from theInstagram story ofuniversity president Kelly Damphousse that featured twobeavers floating in theSan Marcos River that flows through the university'shome 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 TXST was likely to become the needed eighth full member with football.^[69]

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 TXST 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 oflobster 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.

Talks between Texas State and the Pac-12 escalated after the conference announced it had extended its then-current media deal with CBS Sports, making the company the anchor partner in a multi-platform package, through 2030–31.^[70] On June 25, Texas State informed the SBC that it was expecting a Pac-12 offer, and the Pac-12 had also notified the SBC of its interest in TXST at around that time. On June 27, TXST called a meeting ofits system's board of regents for June 30,^[f] during which the Pac-12 offer was accepted and the payment of a $5 million buyout to the school's current home of theSun Belt Conference (SBC) was approved.^[71][72] The Pac-12 soon added another baseball member, announcing on August 20 thatDallas Baptist, anNCAA Division II member that plays Division I baseball, would leaveConference USA (CUSA) to become a single-sport member in July 2026.^[73] This was soon followed by the addition ofSouthern Utah as a women's gymnastics affiliate, also effective in July 2026.^[74]

TXST's move to the Pac-12 has implications not only for the SBC, but also possibly CUSA and the FCS ranks. In fall 2024, with TXST having discussions with other conferences (notably the MW), the SBC considered several CUSA members as potential replacements, withLouisiana Tech reportedly emerging as the main candidate. With the SBC being the only FBS conference with football divisions, TXST's departure would create a vacancy in its West Division, already home to two Louisiana schools (Louisiana andULM). 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 programTarleton State viewed as the favorite.^[69]

Prior to the addition of three new members, multiple media reports emerged in May 2023 that seven of theAtlantic Coast Conference's (ACC) 14 football members—Clemson,Florida State,Miami (FL),NC State,North Carolina,Virginia, andVirginia Tech—had met with legal teams in recent months to examine the grant of rights (GOR) agreement within the conference's media rights deal.^[75] 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 directorMichael Alford expressed frustration with the conference's revenue distribution model in a call to ACC commissionerJim 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.^[76] Following the ACC spring meetings later in May 2023,^[75] the league agreed to a new revenue sharing model in which revenue derived from theCollege Football Playoff (CFP) andNCAA men's basketball tournament would be distributed based on each school's success in those competitions. Other league revenue would continue to be split evenly between member schools. The new model took effect when the CFP expanded from 4 teams to 12 in 2024.^[77] 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.^[24]

However, this change was apparently not enough to fully satisfy Florida State. During an August 2, 2023 meeting of theuniversity's governing board, presidentRichard 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.^[78]

On August 7, following the mass exodus of schools from the Pac-12, media reported that the ACC had started exploring the addition ofCalifornia andStanford, two of the four schools left behind in the exodus.^[79] 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 thatNotre 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 thatNotre Dame footballplays every year.^[80] By August 11, the potential expansion was described by sources as being "on life support", withClemson, Florida State,NC State, andNorth Carolina opposed. ACC bylaws require the approval of 75% of the full members (at the time, 12 out of 15) for any proposed expansion.^[81]

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 alsoSMU. 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.^[24] 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.^[82] 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.^[83] The conference call was rescheduled for September 1, and the presidents and chancellors voted to approve the addition of all three schools.^[46][47] Reportedly, Clemson, Florida State, and North Carolina still opposed expansion, but NC State changed its vote.^[84] 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^[g] contests involving Cal and Stanford, reducing travel burdens for all other members.^[24][85]

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 theunbeaten Seminoles from the 2023 CFP, making them the first and only unbeatenpower conference team to be left out of the CFP during its 4-team era.^[h] 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 ofTallahassee, inLeon County Circuit Court. The suit claims that the GOR and withdrawal fee, estimated at the time to be about $120 million,^[i] 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.^[86] The ACC responded with a countersuit against FSU's governing board inMecklenburg County, North Carolina, whose county seat ofCharlotte 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.^[87]

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.^[88]

In the following month,Clemson became the second school to challenge the GOR, filing suit in its home jurisdiction ofPickens County, South Carolina. 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.^[89]

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.^[j] 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.^[90]

The losses of Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF left the American with 8 remaining schools. After invitations toMountain West Conference membersBoise State,Air Force,Colorado State, andSan Diego State to join the American were all declined,^[91] The American then pivoted toConference USA (CUSA) to add 6 of its members on October 21, 2021:Charlotte,Florida Atlantic,UAB,North Texas,Rice, andUTSA.^[92] In June 2022, the six schools' entry date of July 2023 was officially confirmed.^[93] The additions put The American at 14 members for both football and basketball, withNavy being a football-only member andWichita State 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 theSun Belt Conference took five schools from the CUSA men's soccer league effective with the upcoming 2022 season—Charlotte,FIU,Florida Atlantic, andUAB—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.^[94]

To reiterate, the AAC lostSMU to the ACC effective July 1, 2024, after the ACC voted to admit SMU into the conference on September 1, 2023.^[46][47] 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."^[48] The day after SMU's departure was announced, reports came out that The American had targetedArmy as a football-only replacement for SMU, and that Aresco had begun membership discussions with Army athletic director Mike Buddie. Army'sservice academyrivalNavy has been a football-only American member since 2015. With Army then being anFBS independent, a potential football-only conference move would not have the same financial complications as a normal conference change.^[95] Ultimately, The American announced on October 25 that Army would indeed become a football-only member starting in 2024.^[96]

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 withCBS Sports Network (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 theconference 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.^[97][96]

On September 23, 2024, despite rumors,Air Force declined an offer to join the American and remained in the Mountain West.^[98]

In a change not related to realignment, the conference dropped the word "Athletic" from its name on July 21, 2025, becoming simply the American Conference. The initialism "AAC", which was used more by media than by the conference, was also retired, with "American" becoming the official short form.^[99]

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 membersSouthern Miss,Old Dominion andMarshall applied and were accepted to the Sun Belt Conference (SBC) to begin play in the 2022–23 season.^{[100][101][102]} On November 6, the Sun Belt addedJames Madison, aColonial Athletic Association 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 anFBS independent with other sports playing as de facto Sun Belt affiliates; full membership would have begun with the 2023–24 season.^{[103][104][105]} 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.^[106] 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 journalistAdam 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."^[107] The source's prediction gained support when Marshall filed suit against CUSA in itslocal court in an attempt to force a 2022 move.^[108] 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.^[109] 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.^[110]

The increase in the SBC football membership led to reports that the conference's two non-football members,Little Rock andUT Arlington, would leave the conference; this eventually happened, with Little Rock joining theOhio Valley Conference and UT Arlington rejoining theWestern Athletic Conference (WAC), a league in which it had been a member in the2012–13 school year.^[111][112] A few years later, Little Rock announced it will also join the WAC (now rebranded as UAC), starting in 2026–27 season.^[113]

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 ofCOVID-19 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, andJames Madison) sponsoring men's soccer, SBC commissionerKeith Gill had announced in November 2021 that the sport would be reinstated in 2023–24.^[114] 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 membersCoastal Carolina,Georgia Southern, andGeorgia State, were joined by theSoutheastern Conference andBig 12 Conference members that sponsor the sport—Kentucky,South Carolina, andWest Virginia.^[115] Later on, the Sun Belt also announced that future Big 12 memberUCF 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.^[116]

The reinstatement of SBC men's soccer left the future of men's soccer in CUSA and theMid-American Conference 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, withCharlotte,Florida Atlantic, andUAB making their move to The American in 2023. This would leave CUSA with only two institutions that sponsor the sport in 2023:FIU andLiberty, 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.^[117] For a time, Liberty was left without a conference for its own program, but it would join the newly formedOhio Valley Conference (OVC) men's soccer league in time for the 2023 season.^[118] Meanwhile, the MAC was able to addChicago State, which was departing from theWestern Athletic Conference in all sports, as a men's soccer associate, bringing their own membership to 5.^[119] Chicago State ended up becoming an all-sportsindependent.

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.^[120] Of the four full MAC members that sponsored men's soccer in the 2022 season,Bowling Green,Northern Illinois, andWestern Michigan moved the sport to theMissouri Valley Conference,^[121] andAkron moved it to theBig East Conference.^[122] Chicago State eventually joined the newly established OVC men's soccer league.^[118]

As noted in the Pac-12 section, Texas State was officially announced on June 30, 2025 as a new Pac-12 member effective in 2026–27. With TXST having flirted with a move to the MW in 2024, the SBC started evaluating candidates for a replacement at that time, and Louisiana Tech—which had been an SBC member from 1991 to 2001—emerged as the frontrunner. These discussions took center stage again following TXST's Pac-12 move, and the SBC presidents and chancellors met on July 10 to discuss inviting Louisiana Tech. While some leaders of schools in the conference's East Division^[k] pushed back on the invitation, in the end the proposed invitation to Louisiana Tech received approval from the required 10 of 13 members. The formal vote to invite Louisiana Tech followed on July 14. While full details of Tech's entry remained to be worked out, a 2026 entry date was expected.^[123]

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 independentsLiberty andNew Mexico State, who then respectively played non-football sports in theASUN Conference and Western Athletic Conference; full ASUN memberJacksonville State; and full WAC memberSam Houston. All four schools began CUSA play with the 2023–24 season.^[124] 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 membersWestern Kentucky andMiddle Tennessee were poised to join theMid-American Conference (MAC). However, Middle Tennessee elected to remain in CUSA, and the MAC did not invite Western Kentucky after Middle Tennessee did not join.^[125]

In April 2022, it was announced thatDallas Baptist would be moving its baseball program from theMissouri Valley Conference to CUSA effective that July (with play starting in the 2023 season). While all otherDallas Baptist University teams compete in Division II, primarily in theLone Star Conference, the baseball team competes in Division I. DBU is also the last D-II member playing D-I baseball.^[126][127]

On October 14, 2022, CUSA announced that another ASUN member,Kennesaw State, would start a transition to FBS after the 2022 football season^[128] and join CUSA in 2024.^[129]

CUSA announced on May 10, 2023 that it would add the women-only sport ofbowling^[l] effective in 2023–24. The new bowling league was established by CUSA absorbing theSouthland Bowling League (SBL), which theSouthland Conference had created in 2015 as a separate single-sport league. Accordingly, CUSA inherited the SBL's automatic berth in theNCAA Bowling Championship. The eight SBL members, which included established CUSA memberLouisiana 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.^[130][131]

ESPN's Pete Thamel reported on November 27, 2023 thatDelaware, 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 remained eligible for CAA championships and automatic NCAA tournament bids in non-football sports until actually leaving the conference.^[132][133] On May 10, 2024, CUSA poached another team from the FCS ranks, announcing thatMissouri State, a member of theMissouri Valley Conference and the separate though closely relatedMissouri Valley Football Conference, would also join in 2025.^[134]

In October 2024, UTEP announced it would leave CUSA for theMountain West Conference starting in 2026.^[135] UTEP was the oldest member of the conference, having joined the conference in 2005.^[136] On July 15, 2025, after weeks of speculation following Texas State's announcing their departure to the rebuilt Pac-12 in 2026,Louisiana Tech released a statement stating that they would leave for the Sun Belt by July 1, 2026.^[137] This would have the effect of dropping the total number of members of CUSA from 12 to 10 by 2026. Dallas Baptist baseball would follow Texas State to the reconfigured Pac-12.

Multiple media reports indicated thatSan Diego State University, 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 presidentAdela 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.^[138][139] 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.^[140] The MW and SDSU reached a settlement the next month, with SDSU remaining a member.^[141]

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.^[142]

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.^[143]

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.^[144] All had previously participated in the single-sportMountain Rim Gymnastics Conference, which had also included BYU andSouthern 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 theMountain Pacific Sports Federation in September 2023.^[145]

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.^[60]

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 (withHawaii as a football-only member).^[61] Not long after,UNLV andAir Force declined membership offers from the Pac-12 and AAC, respectively, and chose to stay in the Mountain West.^[65] An attempt from the Mountain West to invite Texas State also failed, and the Bobcats chose to remain in the Sun Belt,^[146] later showing interest in the Pac-12 instead.^[147]

Following speculation in the days prior,UTEP announced it would depart Conference USA in 2026 for the Mountain West on October 1, 2024.^[135] On October 14, Hawaii athletic directorCraig Angelos confirmed outside reports that the school would upgrade to full MW membership in 2026.^[148] The MW officially announced this move the next day.^[149]

On November 1, 2024, the Mountain West Conference announced that Grand Canyon University, a non-football member of the Western Athletic Conference, would join the league no later than July 2026.^[150] Grand Canyon's 2024 announcement stated that it was reneging on a previously announced move to theWest Coast Conference, and that if MW bylaws allowed, it would join that conference as early as the second quarter of 2025.^[150] On July 8, 2025, it was confirmed that Grand Canyon would officially join the MW one year ahead of schedule.^[151] On December 10, 2024, the MW announced thatUC Davis would join from theBig West Conference in non-football sports.UC Davis football will remain in FCS as an affiliate of theBig Sky Conference.^[152][153]

During this time, Mid-American Conference memberNorthern Illinois University was increasingly speculated as a football-only target for the MW.^[154] This speculation proved correct, as NIU accepted such an invitation from the MW, with the acceptance reported on January 3, 2025.^[155] Following final approval by the school's governing board on January 7,NIU football will join the MW in 2026.^[156] 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-footballHorizon League (in which NIU had been a member from 1994 to 1997),Missouri Valley Conference,^[m] andSummit League, as well as the FCSOhio Valley Conference.^[n] Most industry sources believed that NIU would eventually join the Horizon,^[157][158] 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.^[159][160] The Horizon League move became official on the same day as the board's vote.^[161] NIU later announced that its two remaining sports not sponsored by the Horizon would join other conferences in 2026–27. Men's wrestling will join the Pac-12,^[162] and women's gymnastics will also join the MW.^[163]

The MW later announced that it would start sponsoring men's soccer and men's swimming & diving starting in 2026–27. Four of the six inaugural MW men's soccer teams are full conference members that had previously housed men's soccer in the WAC, namely Air Force, Grand Canyon, San Jose State, and UNLV. The other two are incoming full MW member UC Davis and departing WAC member Utah Tech, which will become an affiliate in both men's soccer and baseball. Men's swimming & diving, being reinstated after having been dropped in 2011, will initially feature new full MW member Hawaii and established MW members Air Force, Grand Canyon, UNLV, and Wyoming.^[164]

TheMid-American Conference (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, whenThe Athletic reported that theUniversity of Massachusetts Amherst, 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,^[165] and MAC commissionerJon 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.^[166] The MAC announcement was made,^[167] with UMass making its own announcement that day in advance of its news conference.^[168]

UMass had been afootball-only MAC member in the 2012–2015 seasons while otherwise being a member of theAtlantic 10 Conference (A-10). Eventual full membership in the MAC had been part of the affiliation contract, but UMass turned down full membership, choosing to become anFBS 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 formen'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.^[169] The A-10 would later vote to keep UMass as a men's lacrosse affiliate;^[170] 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, remains inHockey East. 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.^[165]

In April 2024, theMissouri Valley Conference 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.^[171]

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 initially consists of full membersEastern Michigan,Toledo, and UMass, plus affiliatesDelaware,High Point, andTemple.^[172]

The MAC will lose another member in 2026 with Northern Illinois' departure for MW football and the Horizon League for most other sports.^[161]

On January 14, 2021, the Western Athletic Conference, which last sponsored football at theFBS level during the 2012 season, announced its intention to reinstate football as a conference-sponsored sport at theFCS level, as well as the addition of five new members to the conference in all sports. The new members announced included fourSouthland Conference members from Texas inAbilene Christian,Lamar, Sam Houston, andStephen F. Austin, plusSouthern Utah from theBig Sky Conference. Those five schools joined existing WAC members that joined the WAC in the previous year,Tarleton andUtah Tech (known as Dixie State before May 2022)^[o] to make up the WAC's initial football membership.^[173] 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.^[174][175] 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.^[176]

That same day, WAC non-football memberUTRGV announced that it would begin sponsoring football no later than the 2024 season,^[177] while the WAC announced thatChicago State, a geographical outlier for much of its time in the WAC, would depart the conference on July 1, 2022.^[178] 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 theSouthland Conference (SLC) in 2024–25 before playing a single game in the alliance.^[179]

On November 12, the WAC announced it would add SLC memberIncarnate Word for the 2022–23 season.^[180] Though fellow SLC memberMcNeese was rumored to be joining the WAC along with Incarnate Word, it instead chose to remain in the Southland.^[181] 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.^[112]

On April 8,Lamar University announced that it would rejoin the SLC for 2023–24, spending only two years in the WAC.^[124] On July 11, Lamar's transition was moved up to the 2022–23 season.^[182]

The WAC andASUN Conference 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.^[183]

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.^[184] Along with the departures of New Mexico State and Sam Houston to Conference USA and Lamar back to the Southland, the WAC had 11 members going forward, 6 of which were to 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."^[185] 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.^[186] The new football league was officially rebranded as theUnited Athletic Conference (UAC) on April 17, 2023.^[187]

On May 10, 2024, the WAC suffered another blow when two non-football full members,Grand Canyon andSeattle, announced that they would move to theWest Coast Conference in July 2025.^[188] 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.^[189][190] The move was officially announced on May 29.^[191]

That September, theBig West Conference announced that outgoing WAC members Grand Canyon and Seattle, as well as full WCC member andMountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) women's swimming & diving memberSan Diego, 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.^[192] 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 memberCalifornia Baptist moved its men's and women's teams to the MPSF. The other arrivals—full WAC memberUtah Tech and WAC affiliatesIdaho,New Mexico State,Northern Arizona,Northern Colorado, andUTRGV—sponsor only the women's sport.^[193][194]

Later that month, reports emerged that the Big West, set to loseHawaii andUC Davis to theMountain West Conference in 2026, was to vote February 28 on the possible addition of two WAC members—California Baptist andUtah Valley. By early June, both were announced as new Big West members effective in 2026—California Baptist on March 19^[195] and Utah Valley on June 4.^[196] 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 ofLDS Church members).^[197]

If no new members had joined, the WAC would have been reduced to five members, two shy of the number required to maintain its all-sports status. According to journalist Matt Brown, the WAC had no plans to add anyDivision II upgraders, and industry sources believed that attempts to recruit more D-I members would be unsuccessful. 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) had reportedly been candidates for multiple conferences. The remaining Utah schools (Southern Utah, Utah Tech) were not seen as likely candidates for any regional league.^[197] However, the two Utah schools would eventuallyjoin the Big Sky Conference.

This scenario changed on June 26, 2025 when the ASUN and WAC jointly announced a major reorganization effective in 2026. The two conferences will become partners in an all-sports consortium at that time. The WAC will rebrand as the United Athletic Conference, which will expand from a football-only conference to an all-sports league. The new UAC will feature seven of the current UAC football members—Abilene Christian, Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama, Tarleton State, and West Georgia—plus non-football UT Arlington and newcomerLittle Rock which will leave the OVC and join the UAC, starting in the 2026-27 season.^[113] The reconfigured ASUN will consist entirely of schools that do not sponsor scholarship FCS football—non-football Florida Gulf Coast, Jacksonville, Lipscomb, North Florida, and Queens; non-scholarship FCS school Stetson; and Bellarmine, which plays the non-NCAA variant ofsprint football.^[198][199]

On January 29, 2021, the ASUN Conference (which would revert to its previous branding as the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2023)^[p] 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 andEastern Kentucky from theOhio Valley Conference, andCentral Arkansas from the Southland Conference. Those three schools plus existing ASUN membersKennesaw State andNorth 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.^[200] 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.^[201]

On September 17, that sixth football member was revealed to beAustin Peay, which would join the conference for 2022–23.^[202] 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 memberStetson plays football in thePioneer Football League, a conference for Division I FCS schools that do not offer football scholarships. Another full member,Bellarmine, added football in 2022 but playssprint football, a non-NCAA variant played under standard NCAA rules but with player weights limited to 178 pounds (81 kg).

Shortly before Peay was announced as an incoming member, media reports indicated that the ASUN had approached at least fiveDivision II members regarding possible membership—football-sponsoringValdosta State,West Florida, andWest Georgia and non-footballLincoln Memorial andQueens (NC).^[q][203] On May 7, 2022, Queens, from the D-IISouth Atlantic Conference, announced that it would move up to Division I and join the ASUN Conference beginning with the 2022–23 season.^[204] The ASUN made this move official three days later.^[205]

On May 18, the ASUN and WAC announced that they had renewed their 2021 football partnership for the 2022 season.^[183] That October, Kennesaw State announced its 2024 departure for Conference USA.^[128] 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.^[206]

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 theCoastal 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.^[207] Its four remaining beach volleyball teams initially announced that they would join theMountain Pacific Sports Federation for 2025–26 and beyond,^[208] but two of these schools, Florida State and South Carolina, instead becameBig 12 Conference associates in that sport.^[209]

As noted above, the ASUN and WAC will form an all-sports consortium in 2026, with the ASUN's scholarship FCS programs moving to an expanded United Athletic Conference (which replaces the WAC).

With much of the Southland Conference's (SLC) football membership leaving for the WAC and ASUN (Abilene Christian,Lamar,Sam Houston,Stephen F. Austin andCentral Arkansas), on September 28, 2021, the Southland announced that Division II schoolTexas A&M–Commerce (renamed East Texas A&M in 2024^[210]) would move up from the D-IILone Star Conference to Division I and join the conference beginning with the 2022–23 season.^[211] 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 andOhio Valley Conference, 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.^[212]

On November 12, 2021, the WAC announced it would add SLC memberIncarnate Word for the 2022–23 season.^[180] Though fellow SLC memberMcNeese was rumored to be joining the WAC along with Incarnate Word, it instead chose to remain in the Southland.^[181]

On April 8, 2022,Lamar University 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 fromEast Coast states and single schools fromCalifornia,Idaho, andIllinois. First, on June 22, 2021, the SLC announced thatNJIT would join in men's and women's tennis effective that July.^[213] Two days later, the SLC added four schools for golf, also for 2021–22—Francis Marion, a Division II member that plays D-I men's golf, in that sport;Delaware State andMaryland Eastern Shore in women's golf; andAugusta, a D-II member that fields D-I teams in men's and women's golf, in both.^[214] In June 2022, the SLC added two more schools as affiliates effective the next month, withBoise State joining in beach volleyball^[215] andBryant joining for men's & women's golf and tennis.^[216] 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 appropriateNortheast Conference (NEC) after that conference entered into a partnership with those schools' full-time home of theMid-Eastern Athletic Conference in baseball and men's and women's golf.^[217] Shortly after the MEAC–NEC announcement, the SLC gained a men's tennis affiliate inUIC, whose new home of the Missouri Valley Conference sponsors tennis only for women.^[218] Also,San Jose State joined for beach volleyball, uniting it with Boise State, the only otherMountain West Conference member sponsoring that sport.^[219] UIC men's tennis spent only one season in the SLC, moving to theMid-American Conference after the 2022–23 season.^[220] Francis Marion would leave SLC men's golf after the 2024–25 season to join the reinstated men's golf league of theBig Sky Conference,^[221] and Boise State and San Jose State beach volleyball both left at that time, respectively for the Big 12^[209] and MPSF.^[222]

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 theUniversity of Texas Rio Grande Valley would join the conference effective in July 2024, joining from the WAC.^[179] A little more than two months later, Stephen F. Austin announced its return to the SLC on the same schedule.^[191]

In addition to three Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) football members joining the ASUN, two additional OVC members announced their intent to leave the conference. On September 28, 2021, non-football memberBelmont announced it would join theMissouri Valley Conference (MVC) for the 2022–23 season.^[223] On January 7, 2022,Murray State announced that it too would join the MVC for 2022–23.^[224] Though the MVC does not sponsor football, Murray State applied to (andeventually joined) theMissouri Valley Football Conference (a separate entity from the Missouri Valley Conference) starting with the 2023 season.^[225] 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 memberMorehead 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.^[111] 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 schoolsArkansas-Pine Bluff of theSouthwestern Athletic Conference andWestern Illinois of theSummit League, as well as D-II schoolsSouthern Indiana,Hillsdale,Grand Valley State, andLincoln Memorial, all being named as potential candidates.^[226] 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-IIGreat Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC), would begin the process of reclassifying to D-I and would join the OVC in July 2022.^[227] Later that same month, on February 23, another GLVC member, the football-sponsoringLindenwood, was announced as a July 2022 entry.^[228]

The day before the Lindenwood announcement saw a major change to the FCS landscape when the OVC andBig South Conference 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.^[229] The alliance was eventually unveiled as the Big South–OVC Football Association, later changed to the current branding ofOVC–Big South Football Association. The partnership was officially classified as "an association of their [i.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 theUnited Athletic Conference).^[230]

On July 6, 2022, the OVC andHorizon League 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.^[231]

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.^[118] Chicago State played in OVC men's soccer only in 2023, as it joined the Northeast Conference, which sponsors the sport, in 2024.^[232] In 2026, Liberty will move men's soccer to theSouthern Conference,^[233] while OVC men's soccer will add a third Texas member inUTRGV.^[234]

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 theMissouri Valley Football Conference before becoming part of the Big South–OVC alliance in 2024.^[235] 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.^[236][r]

On August 13, 2025, theSouthern Conference (SoCon) announced that football-sponsoring OVC memberTennessee Tech would join the SoCon in 2026.^[239] Shortly after,Little Rock announced that it would also leave the OVC, with theUAC as its destination, starting in the 2026-27 season.^[113]

The departure of James Madison left the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), renamed in 2023 to theCoastal Athletic Association,^[240] with 9 all-sports members, with 11 schools participating in the technically separate entity ofCAA Football. On January 18, 2022,NJ.com reported thatMonmouth, a full member of theMetro Atlantic Athletic Conference and football-only member of theBig South Conference, would join both sides of the CAA starting in 2022–23. They also reported Big South full memberHampton andAmerica East Conference memberStony Brook would probably join the CAA.^[241] Hampton had been working toward an eventual CAA invitation since at least 1995,^[242] 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.^[243]

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.^[244]

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.^[245] A year later, CAA Football announced thatBryant would become that league's 16th member in 2024.^[246] Later in 2023, Delaware announced its departure for Conference USA effective in 2025.^[133] 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 thePatriot League, where its women's golf team had played before the A-10 began sponsoring that sport in 2024–25.^[247][248]

Two other schools later announced they would leave CAA Football for the Patriot League in 2026.William & Mary announced on April 25 it would join its in-state rival Richmond in Patriot League football, while remaining a member of the all-sports CAA.^[249]Villanova, otherwise aBig East Conference member, announced its move on June 5.^[250] CAA Football later announced on July 22 thatSacred Heart, which had become an FCS independent afterthe university left theNortheast Conference for the non-footballMetro Atlantic Athletic Conference in 2024, would join in 2026 while remaining a MAAC member.^[251]

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.^[252]

On January 25, 2022, theColonial Athletic Association announced thatBig South Conference full memberHampton and football-only memberMonmouth would join both sides of the CAA for the 2022–23 season. On February 22, the CAA announced thatNorth Carolina A&T would join the all-sports CAA in 2022–23 and CAA Football a year later. These departures, along with football-only membersKennesaw State andNorth Alabama leaving to play in theASUN Conference, 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.^[200][241] (Big South full memberPresbyterian plays non-scholarship football in thePioneer Football League.) On March 29, 2022, the football membership was restored to 6 with the announcement thatBryant would join as a football-only member effective with the 2022 season,^[253] 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 asCampbell 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.^[254]

As noted previously, the Big South and OVC effectively merged their football leagues in 2023.^[229]

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, withCal Poly andUC Davis as football-only members.^[173]

On June 18, 2025,Sacramento State announced it would leave the Big Sky for the non-footballBig West Conference effective in 2026.^[255] At the time, Sacramento State was attempting to start a transition from FCS to FBS despite not having an invitation from an FBS conference.^[256] One week later on June 25, the Big Sky announced that it would addSouthern Utah andUtah Tech, the two Utah schools that would be left behind in the ASUN/WAC reorganization, effective in 2026.^[257]

On March 29, 2022,Bryant announced that it would leave theNortheast Conference (NEC) that July, with most sports joining theAmerica East Conference and football joining the Big South.^[258] On April 5, the NEC responded by addingStonehill College for 2022–23, a football-sponsoring Division II institution from theNortheast-10 Conference.^[259]

ESPN reported on April 27 thatMount St. Mary's, a full NEC member without a football program, was in the process of a move to theMetro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), where it would join several other basketball-focused private schools. The conference change was officially announced on May 2, 2022, effective that July.^[260]

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 theBig West Conference. Before the 2022 season, only three NEC members (Sacred Heart,St. Francis Brooklyn, andSaint Francis (PA)) had men's volleyball programs, all competing in the single-sportEastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA). In the 2022 season, two more full NEC members,Fairleigh Dickinson andLIU, began sponsoring men's volleyball, competing as independents. When announcing its new men's volleyball league, the NEC announced thatMerrimack, 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 thecombined D-I and D-II championship. The EIVA retained six members, maintaining its automatic bid.^[261] The NEC eventually added two Division II schools,^[s]Daemen andD'Youville,^[262] as associate members for its first men's volleyball season.^[t]

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.^[263] The conference had already lost full members Bryant and Mount St. Mary's, and the impending addition of men's lacrosse by theAtlantic 10 Conference (A-10), confirmed later that month, took away both NEC men's lacrosse affiliates (Hobart andSaint 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.^[264] According to Morris, the fourth, Merrimack, was in membership discussion with multiple lacrosse-sponsoring conferences; it eventually joined theAmerica East Conference for that sport effective with the 2023 season (2022–23 school year).^[265]

On July 12, 2022, the NEC andMid-Eastern Athletic Conference (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, already an NEC associate in six sports, added men's golf to its NEC membership.Coppin State andNorfolk State joined for baseball;Delaware State joined for baseball and women's golf;North Carolina Central joined in men's and women's golf; andMaryland Eastern Shore joined in all three sports.^[217] 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.^[266]

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 eliminatingits athletic program at the end of the 2022–23 school year.^[267] Less than two months later, the NEC announced that non-football Division II upgraderLe Moyne would replace St. Francis Brooklyn effective in 2023–24.^[268]

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.^[269] 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 associatesDetroit Mercy andVMI.^[270] The NEC announced on November 7 that it would addCleveland State and former full memberRobert Morris as men's lacrosse associates for the 2025 season.^[271] This was soon followed by the announcement that Robert Morris would return to NEC football in 2024, and then by the announcement thatChicago State would end its two-year stint as an all-sports independent and join the NEC in 2024.^[232] Chicago State joined for all sports except men's and women's tennis, which moved to the NEC once the school's affiliation contract with theHorizon League expired after the 2024–25 season.^[272]

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.^[273] Three days later, football-sponsoringMercyhurst University announced it would transition from the Division IIPSAC and join the NEC, bringing the league back to 9 members for the 2024–25 season.^[274]

Chicago State is expected to add FCS football in the 2026 season.^[275] In September 2023, the school began a fundraising campaign to expand its sports offerings, including the potential addition of football.^[276] On February 11, 2025, CSU announced it had begun a search for its first head football coach,^[277] and hiredBobby Rome II that April.^[278] 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 toNCAA Division III, joining thePresidents' Athletic Conference.^[279] In early May 2025, the NEC announced the arrival of another Division II upgrader, theUniversity of New Haven, effective that July.^[280]

In a change not directly related to realignment, the conference changed its official name to its longstanding initialism of NEC on October 2, 2025.^[281]

On April 4, 2022, theMissouri Valley Football Conference announced thatMurray 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 theOhio Valley Conference (OVC) to theMissouri Valley Conference (MVC), a separate entity from the MVFC that does not sponsor football.^[282]

The MVFC would eventually lose Western Illinois, which left the non-footballSummit 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.^[235] It lost a second member in 2025 when Missouri State left for CUSA.^[134]

On May 5, 2025, the MVFC announced a new conference structure that formalized the decades-long unofficial ties between the MVFC 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 hold the top two positions in the MVFC, and both conferences share administrative duties. Of the 10 MVFC members in the 2025 football season, all but one are members of the two partner conferences.^[283]

While theSouthern Conference (SoCon) had no change to its full membership until the 2026 arrival of Tennessee Tech, the addition of men's lacrosse by theAtlantic 10 Conference 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.^[284] As part of an agreement with the SoCon, the ASUN reestablished men's lacrosse for the 2022 season, with full memberBellarmine joined by five new single-sport members, while another full ASUN member,Jacksonville, stayed in SoCon men's lacrosse with a mixture of full SoCon members and affiliates.

With Hampton moving to the CAA and affiliatesHigh Point andRichmond (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 memberMercer moved that sport to the ASUN,^[285] whileVMI, also a full SoCon member, returned to its former men's lacrosse home of theMetro Atlantic Athletic Conference.^[286]

Since its formal founding in 1954, theIvy League 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.

TheEastern 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.^[287]

Like the Ivy League, thePatriot League has seen no change to its core membership in this cycle. However, the conference's football league added a member in 2025 with the arrival ofRichmond, 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 became the first new member of Patriot League football since the arrival ofGeorgetown in 2001, and the Spiders' entry was the first change in Patriot League football membership sinceTowson left in 2004.^[247] A year later, Villanova and William & Mary will join as football associates.

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.^[252] Shortly thereafter,Bethune–Cookman andFlorida A&M also announced they would leave the MEAC to join theSWAC.^[288][289]

On July 12, 2022, theMid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) and theNEC 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, already an NEC associate in six sports, added men's golf to its NEC membership.Coppin State andNorfolk State joined for baseball;Delaware State joined for baseball and women's golf;North Carolina Central joined in men's and women's golf; andMaryland Eastern Shore joined in all three sports.^[217]

As already noted, Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman joined from the MEAC as full-members in 2021–22.^[289][288]

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.^[290] 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.^[291] The Blue Hose remain a member of the Big South in all other sports.^[292]

TheUniversity 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.^[293]

On May 6, 2021,America East Conference (AmEast) memberHartford's governing board voted to begin the process of transitioning the school's athletic program from Division I toDivision III.^[294] 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 theConference of New England) in 2023, with the CCC announcing Hartford's arrival on June 21, 2022.^[295]

On January 25,Stony Brook was announced as a full member of the Colonial Athletic Association (now known asCoastal Athletic Association) 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.

On November 16, 2021, theAtlantic 10 Conference (A-10) announced thatLoyola Chicago would join the conference starting with the 2022–23 season, giving the conference 15 members.^[296] At the time, the A-10 did not anticipate gaining or losing any further full members for the foreseeable future, but UMass left for the MAC in 2025.^[165][166]

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, andUMass) sponsored men's lacrosse, two short of the number of members required for an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.^[284] On February 2, 2022,USA Lacrosse Magazine reported that the A-10 was evaluatingFairfield,High Point, andHobart as potential affiliates to reach the required membership total.^[297] 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.^[298]

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. TheColonial Athletic Association, which was the former home of UMass men's lacrosse, was also going through a realignment of its own (seeCAA section) and planned on bringing in more lacrosse sponsoring institutions to the conference, while theMetro Atlantic Athletic Conference, St. Bonaventure's former home, still sat at 6 members even after the Bonnies' departure. However, theNortheast Conference, former home of Saint Joseph's and Hobart, as well as theSouthern Conference, 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 losingBryant andMount 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^[299] (though the NEC would eventually reinstate the sport in 2024–25).^[270] Three of the four lacrosse programs in the NEC (LIU,Sacred Heart, andWagner) 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 theAmerica East Conference.^[300] 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 returned to its full-time home of theASUN Conference,^[u] joined byMercer as an affiliate, whileHampton, 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.

On January 22, 2022,CBSSports.com reported thatUIC would leave theHorizon League for the MVC in July.^[301] This report was confirmed on January 26 when UIC was unveiled as a new MVC member, effective that July.^[302] The Horizon League dropped to 11 members going forward.

On July 6, 2022, theOhio Valley Conference (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 asBelmont, which had left the OVC days earlier for theMissouri Valley Conference, 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,^[231] but after that season dropped to 10 with full OVC member Lindenwood dropping men's tennis along with eight other NCAA sports.^[303] 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,^[272] and the elimination of the men's tennis program of affiliate Eastern Illinois.^[304]

In 2026, Northern Illinois will rejoin the Horizon League after a nearly 30-year absence.^[161]

On May 2, 2022, theMAAC announced thatMount St. Mary's University would beMonmouth's replacement in the conference starting with the 2022–23 season, maintaining the MAAC's membership at 11 schools.^[260]

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.^[269]

Losing Loyola Chicago, whose men's basketball team had made the Final Four in2018 and Sweet Sixteen in2021, was a significant athletic blow to the MVC, but was arguably a larger institutional blow. TheChicago 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.^[v][305] 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.^{[223][224][296]} 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;^[301] this move was made official four days later.^[302] The conference reportedly reached out toKansas City of theSummit League for potential membership before this, in addition to UIC, as well as Sun Belt member UT Arlington (which instead rejoined the WAC).^[306]

As previously noted, Missouri State left the MVC for CUSA in 2025,^[134] coinciding with the formalization of the ties between the MVC and Missouri Valley Football Conference.

On October 4, 2019, theUniversity of St. Thomas, a Minnesota school that was set to be expelled from its longtime athletic home of theNCAA Division IIIMinnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) in 2021, announced that it received an invitation to join the Summit upon its MIAC departure, starting in 2021–22.^[307] 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.^[308]

On May 12, 2023,Western Illinois University announced that it would leave theSummit League for theOhio Valley Conference that July.^[235] 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 became an official partner in the Missouri Valley Football Conference starting with the 2025 season.

On October 31, 2025, it was announced thatDenver would be leaving the Summit League for theWest Coast Conference in all the sports it plays in the former league, beginning on July 1, 2026.^{[309][310][311][312]}

WithBrigham Young University leaving theWest Coast Conference for theBig 12 in 2023, the WCC dropped to 9 members going forward.^[9]

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,Pacific,Pepperdine andSanta Clara) plus three affiliates (Air Force,California Baptist andSan Jose State).^[313] Consequently, two water polo-only conferences were directly affected: theWestern Water Polo Association (WWPA) lost four of its then-current nine men's members and theGolden 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.^[314][315] The agreement was officially announced on December 22.^[316]

The WCC would expand still further, announcing on May 10, 2024 that Grand Canyon and Seattle would leave theWestern Athletic Conference for the WCC in July 2025. Seattle returned to the WCC after a 45-year absence.^[188] 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.^[150] The WCC will return to 10 members in 2027 with the arrival ofUC San Diego from the Big West Conference.^[317] UCSD will become the WCC's first public school sinceNevada left for the Big Sky Conference in 1979. Gonzaga will be replaced by Denver in 2026.

Hawaiʻi and UC Davis will leave in 2026 for the Mountain West Conference (with Hawaiʻi already being an MW football member), while California Baptist, Sacramento State, and Utah Valley will join in 2026, and UC San Diego will leave for the West Coast Conference in 2027. 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,UC Irvine,UC San Diego, andUC Santa Barbara.^[318] 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.^[319]

Men's and women's swimming & diving were added in 2024–25.^[320]

On June 28, 2019, seven schools from the ten-member men's side of theWestern Collegiate Hockey Association (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 wereBemidji State,Bowling Green (who had retained the rights to the CCHA name),Ferris State,Lake Superior State,Michigan Tech,Minnesota State andNorthern Michigan. The seven schools cited a more compact geographic footprint as one reason for the move; the remaining threeWCHA members,Alabama-Huntsville,Alaska andAlaska–Anchorage, all geographic outliers in the WCHA, were notably absent.^[321] On February 18, 2020, these seven schools announced they would begin competing in a newCCHA in 2021–22.^[322] Later that year, theUniversity 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.^[323]

On May 17, 2022,Augustana University was announced as the league's ninth member. TheVikings played a partial league schedule in the 2023–24 and 2024–25 seasons before playing a full league schedule in 2025–26.^[324] 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.^[325]

TheWCHA men's side was forced to disband after seven of its 10 schools left the conference to reestablish theCCHA starting in the 2021–22 academic year.^[326][322] Of the other three remaining programs,Alabama-Huntsville program was disbanded after the 2020–21 season,Alaska program becameindependent, andAlaska–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.^[327] Ultimately, the program was saved, and it returned to play in the 2022–23 season as anindependent, following the dissolution of the men's side of its former conference, the WCHA.^[328]

The WCHA still operates as a women'sice hockey-only conference and the women's WCHA announced a further expansion effective in 2021–22 with the arrival ofSt. Thomas, aTwin Cities school that received NCAA approval to directly transition fromDivision III.^[329][330] TheSummit League offered the Tommies a D-I home, and backed the school's bid to directly transition from D-III.^[331] Interestingly,St. Thomas is a member of the men'sice hockey-onlyCCHA (the conference that replaced the WCHA on the men's side), while being a WCHA member for its women's program.

TheNational Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC), which had not had a membership change since its formation in 2011 and start of play in 2013, announced on July 5, 2023, thatArizona State would become the league's ninth member in 2024. The Sun Devils had played as aD-I independent since being elevated fromclub to varsity status in 2015.^[332] The NCHC announced a further expansion in May 2024, announcing that St. Thomas would join from the CCHA in 2026.^[325]

The only change to the membership of theAtlantic Hockey Association (AHA) was the temporary departure ofRobert Morris, which had dropped both men's and women's ice hockey after the 2020–21 season due to COVID-19 impacts^[333] but reinstated both teams in 2023–24.^[334][335]

However, a more significant change would come in June 2023 when AHA andCollege 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.^[336][337] On April 30, 2024, the new conference was unveiled asAtlantic Hockey America, retaining the AHA initialism.^[338]

Shortly after the merger, AHA would lose theAmerican International men whenthe school announced it would align that team with the rest of its athletic program in Division II after the 2024–25 season.^[339][w]

Stonehill, which had announced a move up fromDivision II, added women's ice hockey starting in 2022–23, joining theNew England Women's Hockey Alliance (NEWHA).^[340]

On June 29, 2022, the NEWHA announced that it would expand to 8 members with the addition ofAssumption 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.^[341]

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 ofRobert 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.^[342] Delaware's membership accordingly transferred to the merged AHA.

As noted above, the men's side of theGolden 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.^[343]

The men's side of theWestern 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, andSalem. All were already WWPA women's members.^[344] 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 theCollegiate Water Polo Association^[x] after the 2023–24 school year.^[345]

The following table lists all Division I all-sports conferences and changes to membership as a result of the realignment.

The following table is reflective of both football-only membership changes and full membership changes that include football.

The following list only includes changes to the primary conference affiliation of schools.

• 2010–2014 NCAA conference realignment
• 2005 NCAA conference realignment
• 1996 NCAA conference realignment
• List of NCAA Division I conference changes in the 2020s