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 March 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 the table below.
| School(s)/Conference | News Item | Realignment Change / Effective Year | Current Conference | New Conference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Augustana (IL) | Cancels Men’s Lacrosse Season | No – 2024-25 | N/A | N/A |
| Azusa Pacific | Joining SCIAC | Yes – 2026-27 | Pac West (D2) | SCIAC (D3) |
| Bryn Athyn | Dropping Athletics | Yes – 2025-26 | UEC (D3) | N/A |
| Cairn University | Adding Flag Football | Yes – 2024-25 | N/A | Club Sport |
| Cal Baptist | Joining Big West | Yes – 2026-27 | WAC (D1) | Big West (D1) |
| FBS | No Joint Spring Games | No – 2024-25 | N/A | N/A |
| FCS | May Allow 12 Games | No – 2026-27 | N/A | N/A |
| Gulf South | Football Received AQ Waiver | No – 2025-26 | N/A | N/A |
| Huston-Tillotson | Joining HBCUAC | Yes – 2025-26 | Red River (NAIA) | HBCUAC (NAIA) |
| McMurry | Joining ASC | Yes – 2026-27 | SCAC (D3) | ASC (D3) |
| NCAA D1 Basketball | New Maximum Number of Games? | No – 2026-27 | N/A | N/A |
| NCAA D2 Football | Bracket Expansion Recommended | No – 2025-26 | N/A | N/A |
| Northeast Conference | Looking to Add More Members | TBD | N/A | N/A |
| Paul Quinn | Joining HBCUAC | Yes – 2025-26 | Red River (NAIA) | HBCUAC (NAIA) |
| Rosemont College | Merging with Villanova | Yes – 2026-27 | United East (D3) | N/A |
| Saint Francis | Leaving NCAA D1 | Yes – 2026-27 | NEC (D1) | PAC (D3) |
| Schreiner | Joining ASC | Yes – 2026-27 | SCAC (D3) | ASC (D3) |
| UCF | Will Add Scholarships | No – 2025-26 | N/A | N/A |
Saint Francis Moving From NCAA Division 1 to Division 3
Saint Francis University (Loretto, Pennsylvania) is leaving the Northeast Conference and NCAA Division 1. SFU will join the NCAA Division 3 Presidents’ Athletic Conference beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. The move will put the NEC at 8 full members and move the PAC up to 13 in 2026-27. Saint Francis will become a full NCAA D3 member at the start of the 2029-30 academic year.
The news comes a week after Saint Francis athletic director Jim Brazill gave an interview with the school’s student website. In that interview, Brazill talked about realignment, the NEC’s membership, and hockey. A screenshot of the interview and those three topics are provided below.
Cal Baptist to the Big West
Cal Baptist University (Riverside, California) and Utah Valley University (Orem, Utah) will leave the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) to join the Big West Conference beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. This possibility was previously reported earlier in February with the Big West making the official invitations to end the month. The WAC is down to six members: Abilene Christian, Southern Utah, Tarleton State, UT Arlington, Utah Tech, and Utah Valley. Utah Valley has been extended an invitation by the Big West and it could be only a matter of days before they too depart the WAC.
NCAA Division 1 Sports News
Men’s and women’s basketball are likely to have a new maximum number of regular games allowed each season. The Basketball Oversight Committees have proposed a flat 32-game maximum, which would commence with the 2026-27 academic year. Currently, schools can have a maximum of 31 games if they compete in a multi-team event or 29 games without a multi-team event. The proposal will be reviewed and voted on in June 2025.
There was some news regarding the FBS and FCS on separate topics. The FBS Oversight Committee won’t allow “joint spring games” this spring as requested by Syracuse and Colorado. The committee cited the timing, the potential competitive/recruiting imbalances, and “student-athletes missing class time” as the reasoning behind the denial. The committee will discuss this proposal further at the FBS and could become a reality by spring 2026.
The FCS Oversight Committee is looking at expanding the calendar to allow for a 12-game regular season. The current rules only allow for an 11-game regular season, except in certain years when 14 Saturdays are present between Labor Day weekend and the end of November. The 2024 and 2025 seasons allowed FCS teams to schedule 12-game regular seasons. The committee will continue discussing the idea and seeking feedback before deciding whether to implement it beginning with the 2026 season. One conference that might have some thoughts? The Ivy League.
Central Florida will add 74 new scholarships beginning with the 2025-26 academic year when the terms of the House settlement come into effect. It is not clear how the new scholarships will be divided among UCF’s sports, although softball appears to be one of the sports likely to benefit, according to the report. UCF’s softball team has made four straight NCAA Tournament appearances including a Super Regional appearance in 2022.
NCAA Division 2 Sports News
The NCAA Division 2 Championship Committee is recommending that the D2 football bracket expand to 32 teams with the 2025 season and The expansion was expected after the NCAA Convention in January saw the introduction of automatic qualifying bids beginning with the 2025 season and the Gulf South Conference will have an AQ bid for 2025 after receiving a waiver. With the new recommendation, the Committee would attempt to minimize flights. Here is how the bracket would look:
- Four teams would be seeded 1 through 4 in their super region.
- Teams 5 through 8 would be unseeded and can face any of the four seeded teams from any super region if the matchup reduces flights.
- Teams that receive an Automatic Qualifying (AQ) bid and are not inside the top 8 of the super region would automatically face a 1 seed in their super region. The team could be switched to a different super region’s 1 seed if it would reduce the flights.
Azusa Pacific Moving from NCAA D2 to D3
Azusa Pacific (Azusa, California) will leave the NCAA Division 2 Pacific West Conference to join the NCAA Division 3’s Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC). The move will be effective beginning with the 2026-27 academic year and will require APU to undergo the reclassification process. Under new NCAA rules, the process could take as little as two years, which would make APU a full member of D3 starting with the 2028-29 academic year. Once APU makes the move, the SCIAC will have 10 full members and the Pac West will have 13 full members.
NCAA Division 3 Sports News
The American Southwest Conference will add McMurry University (Abilene, Texas) and Schreiner University (Kerrville, Texas) from the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. The ASC will be up to 6 members (all football-playing) while the SCAC will have 8 full members in 2026-27. The moves will flip the football issues that the ASC had over to the SCAC. Only four teams are slated to be football-playing in the SCAC in 2026: Austin College, Centenary (LA), Lyon, and Texas Lutheran.
Augustana College (Rock Island, Illinois) has canceled the remainder of its men’s lacrosse season due to a lack of available players. The school’s athletic website only shows 12 players on the roster. The Vikings went 0-3 this season before a string of four canceled games between March 5 and March 16. The school is planning to play in the 2025-26 academic year. Augustana is a full member of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW), which is where its men’s lacrosse team competes.
Bryn Athyn College (Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania) will discontinue its athletics program at the end of the 2024-25 academic year. The school will put in a club sports model to replace the varsity programs. Bryn Athyn is a member of the United East Conference (UEC) and is one of two members to announce significant athletic changes at the end of March 2025 (see Rosemont below).
Cairn University (Langhorne Manor, Pennsylvania) will add women’s flag football as a club sport for the 2024-25 academic year. Beginning in 2025-26, Cairn will elevate the sport to varsity status and join the United East Conference (UEC). Cairn is a full member of the UEC.
Rosemont College (Rosemont, Pennsylvania) will merge with Villanova University (Villanova, Pennsylvania). The merger will begin during the 2027-28 academic year but athletic impacts will be felt sooner. Rosemont will compete in the United East Conference through the 2025-26 academic year and then transition its athletic teams to club status beginning with the 2026-27 academic year.
NAIA Sports News
Huston-Tillotson University (Austin, Texas) and Paul Quinn College (Dallas, Texas) are joining the HBCU Athletic Conference (HBCUAC) beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. Both schools will leave the Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC). The moves will put the HBCUAC up to 15 full members in 2025-26 while the RRAC will drop to 12 full members. The HBCUAC also announced it will begin sponsoring men’s and women’s soccer in 2025-26 with the additions of Huston-Tillotson and Paul Quinn.
Photo courtesy of Saint Francis Athletics