College Realignment Report for May 31, 2024

This is part of an ongoing series covering various college realignment news for all three NCAA Divisions as well as the NAIA. The roundup below will cover news and reports since May 15, 2024, and provide updates on previously discussed topics. As a reminder, all official moves starting with the 2023-24 academic year can be found here while changes happening in 2024-25 or later can be found here.

We’ll break out the reports for each Division in the following order: Division 1, Division 2, Division 3, and NAIA. Clicking the links will bring you to that specific section. If a division is not highlighted, there has been no news in the preceding two weeks. We’ve also summarized the news items in a table below if you are more interested in a summary or specific news item rather than having to scroll to find it.

NCAA Settles House, Hubbard, and Carter Lawsuits

The NCAA and Power 5 conferences agreed to a settlement with the plaintiffs in the House, Hubbard, and Carter lawsuits. The immediate cost is $2.8 billion in back damages to be paid out over a decade. The long-term cost is more difficult to quantify because the potential implications of the new era of college athletics will be far-reaching. Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger estimates the price tag at $15 billion over the next decade.

Many questions remain. Will some schools opt to drop a portion of athletic teams and focus on higher-revenue sports? Will schools drop athletics altogether or maybe decide to go to NCAA Division 2? Will the rift between the Power 5 and the rest of Division 1 reach a breaking point? Will Congress step in and help protect the NCAA from additional legal challenges? Will the current settlement and other outstanding legal cases be enough to thwart further damages to the NCAA? The earliest timeline when we see the new era begin is the fall of 2025 but that is contingent upon no additional legal hurdles.

College Football 25 Releasing on July 19

The much-anticipated return of EA’s NCAA football video game series is set. College Football 25 will be released on Friday, July 19 on Playstation and Xbox. The official reveal can be seen below and additional details about game modes, features, etc. can be found here.

Stephen F. Austin Returning to Southland

Stephen F. Austin is set to return to the Southland Conference beginning with the 2024-25 academic year. SFA was one of five teams that left the Southland in 2021 along with Abilene Christian, Central Arkansas, Lamar, and Sam Houston State. It was a perplexing move at the time and the subsequent developments help reinforce that belief. Lamar returned to the Southland in 2022 after one year in the WAC, Incarnate Word reneged on its WAC commitment in 2022, Sam Houston State moved to the FBS in 2023, and UTRGV is leaving the WAC for the Southland in 2024 as well. The move will put the WAC at 9 teams for 2024 and 7 members in 2025. SFA played in the football-only United Athletic Conference, which will be at 9 teams for the 2024 season.

ESPN Sublicenses Some CFB Playoff Games

ESPN has agreed to sublicense College Football Playoff games starting in 2024. TNT will show two first-round games each year from 2024 through 2028. From 2026 through 2028, TNT will also broadcast two quarterfinal matchups. This bodes well for the joint venture between ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros., the latter of which owns TNT. Speaking of that joint venture…

ESPN, Fox, Warner Bros. Joint Venture Named Venu Sports

The joint venture between ESPN, Fox, and Warner Bros. has been introduced as Venu Sports. As noted in February, the bundle will go live in the fall of 2024 but pricing details are still not available. ESPN’s release noted that Venu can be bundled with Disney+, Hulu, or Max.

NCAA Division 1 Sports Changes

Delaware will join the Atlantic 10 in men’s lacrosse beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. The Blue Hens will move from the Coastal Athletic Conference (CAA). The Blue Hens are moving its primary membership from the CAA to Conference USA in 2025-26 but C-USA doesn’t sponsor the sport of men’s lacrosse. Also remaining in the A10 for men’s lacrosse will be Massachusetts, which is making the move from Independent status to the MAC in 2025-26.

Oregon State’s women’s gymnastics team is likely to join the Big 12 beginning with the 2024-25 academic year. Oregon State is part of the Pac-12, which will see its membership flock to other conferences next year. If added, OSU would be the 8th women’s gymnastics team in the Big 12 and would compete against Arizona, Arizona State, BYU, Denver, Iowa State, Utah, and West Virginia.

NCAA Division 2 Sports Changes

The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) will no longer use a divisional format in football. The top two teams in the standings will compete in the CIAA’s Championship Game. The format appears to be ending in 2024 due to Saint Augustine’s University opting not to field a football team in 2024.

Dominican University New York (Orangeburg, New York) has discontinued men’s tennis and will not bring it back beginning with the 2024-25 academic year. The Chargers competed in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC), which is also the school’s primary conference.

Fresno Pacific University (Fresno, California) is adding STUNT beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. It is not yet known which conference the school will join when it begins competition. Fresno Pacific is a full member of the Pacific West Conference.

Southwest Baptist University (Bolivar, Missouri) is adding three new sports beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. The school will begin competing in men’s and women’s swimming and men’s volleyball with all three teams competing in the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC). As a result of SBU adding men’s volleyball, the GLVC will start sponsoring the sport in 2025-26. It is unclear which current GLVC teams that offer men’s volleyball will move their team to the GLVC for the sport.

Ursuline College (Pepper Pike, Ohio) is adding women’s flag football beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. It is not known which conference Ursuline will join when it starts competing in the sport. The Arrows are a full member of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC).

Jessup to Join NCCAA For Two Seasons

Jessup University (Rocklin, California) is joining the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic years as it completes the transition from the NAIA to the NCAA Division 2 level. Jessup will maintain membership in both the NCAA and NCCAA as it uses the latter organization to “give its student-athletes a chance to compete on a national level.” Jessup is joining the Pacific West Conference in 2024-25 after spending a decade in the NAIA’s Golden State Atheltic Conference (GSAC).

NCAA Division 3 Sports Changes

The Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) and Southern Athletic Association (SAA) will partner up in a scheduling alliance beginning with the 2024 season. The two conferences have scheduled 6 non-conference games for September 21 this year. The scheduling agreement serves as a replacement for the SAA’s lost games caused by the recent closure of Birmingham-Southern College.

The State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) will add two different schools in three sports over the next two years. SUNY Cobleskill (Cobleskill, New York), and Penn State Behrend (Erie, Pennsylvania) will join the SUNYAC in men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track & field beginning in 2024-25. SUNY Cobleskill will also join the SUNYAC in men’s and women’s cross country beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. Cobleskill’s programs are moving from the North Atlantic Conference while Behrend’s track & field programs will leave the United East Conference.

The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) is adding three members for women’s lacrosse beginning with the 2024-25 academic year. Augsburg University (Minneapolis, Minnesota), College of Saint Benedict (St. Joseph, Minnesota), and Hamline (Saint Paul, Minnesota). All three are primary members of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) but the women’s lacrosse teams played in the Midwest Women’s Lacrosse Conference (MWLC). With these three changes, the MWLC will have no teams in 2024-25 as Northwestern (MN) is dropping its lacrosse programs and the duo of Cornell (IA) and Lake Forest are joining the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) in 2024-25.

Albright College (Reading, Pennsylvania) is cutting its men’s and women’s swimming programs effective with the 2024-25 academic year. The programs competed in the Middle Atlantic Conference, which is Albright’s primary conference.

Hiram College (Hiram, Ohio) will move its men’s wrestling team from the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) to the Presidents Athletic Conference (PAC) beginning with the 2024-25 academic year. Hiram is leaving the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) and will join the PAC as a full member in 2025-26.

Norwich University (Northfield, Vermont) will move its women’s hockey team from the New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) to the Little East Conference beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. The Little East is sponsoring women’s ice hockey beginning with the 2025-26 academic year and will have 8 teams in the inaugural season.

Whittier College (Whittier, California) may bring back a football team according to a posting on social media. The funding target is set at $250,000 in order to bring back the program, which was originally shut down in 2022. Men’s golf, men’s lacrosse, and women’s golf were shut down at the same time but a recent fundraising drive led men’s lacrosse to be brought back as a club sport for the 2024-25 academic year. Whittier is a full member of the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC), which currently has 6 football-playing members (California Lutheran, Chapman, Claremont-Mudd-Scripps, La Verne, Pomona-Pitzer, and Redlands).

William Peace University (Raleigh, North Carolina) is adding women’s golf beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. The new program will compete in the USA South Conference, which is William Peace’s primary conference.

Macalester Selects New Mascot

Macalester College (Saint Paul, Minnesota) has chosen a new mascot. Macalester will be represented by the Highland Cow (also called the Hielan Coo) as its official mascot. The college is retaining its nickname of “Scots”, and the new mascot pays homage to its Scottish derivation.

NAIA Sports Changes

The Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) is making a couple of sports sponsorship changes starting with the 2024-25 academic year. First, the GPAC will stop sponsoring men’s volleyball in 2024-25 with the duo of Dordt (Sioux Center, Iowa) and Morningside (Sioux City, Iowa) moving to the Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC) as associate members in 2024-25. Kansas Wesleyan (Salina, Kansas) and Ottawa University (Ottawa, Kansas) were already announced as members of the HAAC in men’s volleyball starting in 2024-25. The final two members of the GPAC for men’s volleyball are Central Christian (McPherson, Kansas) and Jamestown (Jamestown, North Dakota) but their future conference in the sport is unknown.

The GPAC also announced it would sponsor women’s wrestling beginning with the 2024-25 academic year with six teams competing in the inaugural season. Dakota Wesleyan (Mitchell, South Dakota), Doane University (Crete, Nebraska), Hastings College (Hastings, Nebraska), Midland University (Fremont, Nebraska), Morningside University (Sioux City, Iowa), and Waldorf University (Forest City, Iowa) will all move from the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) to the GPAC. All six will be full members of the GPAC by the start of the 2024-25 academic year.

Defiance College (Defiance, Ohio) will add men’s volleyball beginning with the 2025-26 academic year and will compete in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC). Defiance is making the transition from the NCAA Division 3 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) to the NAIA and the WHAC beginning with the 2024-25 academic year.

Hope International University (Fullerton, California) is adding men’s wrestling beginning with the 2024-25 academic year. HIU is a primary member of the Gold State Athletic Conference (GSAC) but the GSAC doesn’t sponsor men’s wrestling. It is not known which conference the newly added sport will compete in.

The University of Pikeville (Pikeville, Kentucky) is adding a bass fishing team beginning with the 2024-25 academic year. The NAIA doesn’t sponsor the sport and UPike will compete in three different organizations for collegiate bass fishing: the Association of Collegiate Anglers, the Bassmaster College Series, and FLW College Fishing.

Simpson University (Redding, California) will join the Frontier Conference as an associate member in football beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. The move will put the Frontier Confernece at 14 football-playing members and they will have 2 automatic selections to the NAIA playoffs. The Red Hawks are playing their first full season in 2024 as an independent and have 6 Frontier Conference members on the schedule. Simpson is a primary member of the California Pacific Conference, which does not sponsor football.

Viterbo University (La Crosse, Wisconsin) will eliminate its varsity Esports team after the 2023-24 academic year, according to a statement from the school’s president. Viterbo added the sport for the 2022-23 academic year but the financial constraints at the university have led to its short tenure – along with other cost-cutting measures. Viterbo competed in the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE).

William Woods University (Fulton, Missouri) is adding men’s lacrosse beginning with the 2024-25 academic year and joining the Heart of American Athletic Conference (HAAC), which recently raided the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) for its men’s lacrosse teams earlier in May. William Woods would give the HAAC 10 members in the sport. The Owls compete in the American Midwest Conference but are set to join the HAAC as a full member beginning with the 2025-26 academic year.

Frontier Conference Expands

The Frontier Conference will pick up the remnants of the disbanding North Star Athletic Association. Four schools will join the already committed Dickinson State (Dickinson, North Dakota) in the Frontier Conference beginning with the 2025-26 academic year: Bellevue University (Bellevue, Nebraska), Dakota State University (Madison, South Dakota), Mayville State University (Mayville, North Dakota), Valley City State University (Valley City, North Dakota).

The NSAA announced in January 2024 that it would disband following the 2024-25 academic year. The move of five full members pushes the Frontier Conference to 12 teams (Bismarck State is also likely to join in 2025) although some uncertainty surrounds Mayville State. The Comets were approved for an exploratory year by the NCAA for the 2024-25 academic year and wish to join the NCAA Division 3 Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) but have not received an invitation. In any event, the Frontier Conference would still be in a much better position at 10 members for the short-term future.

Blue Mountain Christian To Join NCCAA

Blue Mountain Christian University (Blue Mountain, Mississippi) is joining the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) beginning with the 2024-25 academic year. BMCU plans to maintain its membership in the NAIA and is a member of the Southern States Atheltic Conference. As a member of the NCCAA, the Toppers will compete in the Division 1 Mideast Region.

Photo Courtesy of Texas Athletics