College Realignment Report for January 31, 2025

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 January 15, 2025, and provide updates on previously discussed topics. As a reminder, all official moves starting with the 2024-25 academic year or later can be found here and all changes – full membership or individual sport changes – starting in 2025-26 can be found here. Please note that individual sports changes occurring in 2025-26 or later will be listed in the standalone article only.

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.

ACC, ESPN Extend Media Rights Deal

The ACC and ESPN will extend the current rights deals through the 2035-36 academic year. It was an expected move by ESPN that originally started in July 2016 for 20 years and included a Grant of Rights (GoR) clause. That GoR led to dissent from some schools like Clemson and particularly Florida State, which led to the Seminoles challenging the GoR in court. ESPN ultimately held the option to extend the deal, which was a no-brainer to lock in a favorable deal that is below other conferences. Part of the arrangement is to have more marquee games between the top schools in the final decade. That aspect, combined with more favorable revenue distributions and reduced penalties for leaving after 2031 for some members, may be enough to end pending litigation but that remains to be seen.

Title IX Applies to NIL… For Now

The United States Department of Education put out a ruling that states Title IX applies to NIL. Per the Fact Sheet, the NIL payments to athletes must be considered as part of the school’s athletic aid while painting gender equity standards. The guidance may not last long with a new administration in office.

NCAA Division 1 Sports Changes

The ACC will consider changing its football championship game format. Some possibilities include giving the regular season champion a bye while the second and third-place teams play in the ACC title game. Another idea could be to have the top four teams play in de-facto ACC Championship semifinal games during the regular season’s final week with the winners from those two games playing the following week in the ACC Championship.

Indiana is not planning to cut sports after eliminating 25 positions, according to the IndyStar. The cuts were made in anticipation of the revenue sharing that is expected to be implemented for the 2025-26 academic year once the House v. NCAA lawsuit settlement is finalized.

NCAA Division 2 Sports Changes

The NCAA Division 2 football playoffs will have automatic bids for the first time in 2025 following a successful vote on the proposal. D2 previously had an “earned access” system that saw some conferences miss out on the playoffs entirely. The Gulf South Conference is expected to have an AQ bid in 2025 according to the legislation despite only four conference members currently lined up for the 2025 season. Finally, Division 2 established a women’s wrestling championship beginning with the 2025-26 academic year.

Sonoma State Dropping Athletics

Sonoma State University (Rohnert Park, California) will drop its athletics program after the 2024-25 academic year (no athletics starting in 2025-26). SSU is a member of the California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) and has 11 sponsored sports: baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, women’s cross country, women’s track & field, and women’s volleyball. SSU’s membership with the CCAA goes back to 1998 as one of five schools to join that year along with Chico State, San Francisco State, Stanislaus State, and UC Davis. The CCAA will remain at 12 members for 2025-26 with UC Merced joining from the NAIA‘s California Pacific Conference (Cal Pac) but that number may shrink if more departures happen.

Simon Fraser Will Not Bring Back Football

Simon Fraser University (British Columbia, Canada) has made a final decision on football: it will not be brought back. It was always a long shot for SFU in a saga that began in early 2023. In February 2023, the Lone Star Conference announced its agreement with SFU as a football-only affiliate would end after the 2023 season. Roughly six weeks later, SFU announced it was dropping football immediately but not without backlash and an attempt to bring the team back. An independent advisor looked into the feasibility of bringing back football but concluded the competitiveness and finances were the reasons the sport shouldn’t return. Despite all that, faint hope remained in late 2024 and into 2025 as SFU announced it needed a new plan for its athletics program, which included a final decision on football. Football will not be played at Simon Fraser for the foreseeable future and possibly never again.

NCAA Division 3 Sports Changes

NCAA Division 3 changed its application due date from January 15 to February 1 for schools seeking an exploratory year or full membership. Schools can also seek to shorten the reclassification process from three years to two years via a waiver. Finally, Division 3 has established women’s wrestling as a championship sport beginning with the 2025-26 academic year as did D1 and D2.

NAIA Sports Changes

There are more details regarding Northern New Mexico College (Española, New Mexico) and the Cal Pac agreement announced in December 2024. NNMC may add women’s volleyball beginning with the 2025-26 academic year while the Cal Pac will make some basketball scheduling adjustments the next two seasons.

The NAIA announced numerous changes set to be implemented over the current 2024-25 and the 2025-26 academic years. They announced roster size increases for 15 sports, which have been listed in the table below. The NAIA also announced a five-year moratorium on any further increase requests with exceptions for sports that change championship status. The NAIA approved two rule changes in men’s volleyball and changes to certain aspects of the men’s and women’s golf, softball, and women’s lacrosse championships.

Photo Courtesy of the ACC