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 24, 2025, and provide updates on previously discussed topics. As a reminder, all official moves starting with the 2025-26 academic year 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 since the most recent post.

NCAA Division 1 News

Big 12 Passes on Private Equity

According to Commissioner Brett Yormark, the Big 12 Conference will not pursue any private equity investment at this time. Yormark was quite vague in his interview with Front Office Sports when asked about the reasons other than multiple variations of “not being ready”. Attempting to (mis)read between the lines, the House settlement is probably a big part of the reason why this isn’t happening… yet. Schools and conferences don’t really know how the settlement will impact them in a year or two, let alone in the next 5-10 years, which is probably how long an initial equity investment would last. There’s also the fact that the settlement still hasn’t been approved by the Judge. The idea of private equity becoming entangled with college athletics will be researched again, and one day it will become a reality.

Lehigh Adds Wrestling

Lehigh University (Bethlehem, Pennsylvania) is elevating its women’s club wrestling team to varsity status beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. Lehigh is the first school from the Patriot League to add women’s wrestling as a varsity sport, and joins Delaware State (MEAC), Iowa (Big Ten), Lindenwood (OVC), Presbyterian (Big South), and Sacred Heart (MAAC) as the only NCAA Division 1 schools to offer varsity women’s wrestling. That will change soon after the NCAA added women’s wrestling as the 91st championship, with the first championship meet set to take place during the 2025-26 academic year.

NCAA Division 2 News

PSAC to Add Member in June, Commish to Retire after 2025-26

The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference will add a new member by the end of June, according to commissioner Steve Murray. In February, Murray said two in-state schools would apply for the 18th membership in the conference. In a recent podcast interview with Gannon Athletics, Murray provided more insight, including that the PSAC extended an invitation on Tuesday, May 20, to a yet-to-be-named school. The new member is currently a two-year institution and will become a four-year institution as part of its move to the PSAC. There are more than a dozen two-year schools in Pennsylvania. Murray doesn’t think the PSAC will move beyond 18 teams at this time, but the conference had discussions about potentially moving to 19 or 20 members. Murray also said the conference did have conversations with schools in Ohio, but concerns were raised about expanding the footprint too much.

Murray’s final year in charge of the PSAC will be the 2025-26 academic year. Murray was named PSAC commissioner in 1998 and has overseen many collegiate shifts in his nearly three-decade career, but the PSAC has been relatively stable. The 13 original members formed the PSAC in 1951, but didn’t see a new member added until 2008 when Gannon University (Erie, Pennsylvania) joined. Pittsburgh-Johnstown and Seton Hill (Greensburg, Pennsylvania) both joined in 2013. Cheyney University faced NCAA compliance and financial issues, which led to them leaving the PSAC and becoming an independent non-affiliated institution. Shepherd University (Shepherdstown, West Virginia) joined in 2019, while Mercyhurst (Erie, Pennsylvania) left in 2024 to move up to NCAA Division 1 and the Northeast Conference.

Missouri Western State drops Track & Field

Missouri Western State University (St. Joseph, Missouri) has discontinued its men’s and women’s track & field programs. MWSU competed in both indoor and outdoor T&F in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA). The MIAA will now have 9 men’s teams and 10 women’s teams, with the standard caveat of assuming no further changes. MWSU is the second NCAA D2 school in the state to drop track & field this year, following Missouri-St. Louis (GLVC).

Ursuline Adding Men’s Golf

Ursuline College (Pepper Pike, Ohio) will add a men’s golf program beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. Ursuline will compete in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC), becoming the conference’s 11th men’s program. The school announced the first three men’s athletics teams in 2024: men’s cross country and men’s track & field, with the latter comprised of indoor and outdoor teams. Ursuline will be integrated as part of Gannon University (Erie, Pennsylvania) beginning with the 2026-27 academic year, but it does not appear to be impacting Ursuline’s athletic programs, at least not for right now.

NCAA Division 3 News

Lake Forest College (Lake Forest, Illinois) will add three varsity sports beginning with the 2026-27 academic year: coed cheerleading, coed competitive dance, and men’s volleyball. Lake Forest is likely to compete as an independent for cheerleading and dance, and will announce a conference affiliation for men’s volleyball in the future. The Foresters are the first team from the Midwest Conference to add men’s volleyball.

William Peace University (Raleigh, North Carolina) will add men’s volleyball beginning with the 2026-27 academic year and compete as an independent. WPU is a member of the USA South Athletic Conference, which does not sponsor men’s volleyball. The only other USA South member to offer volleyball is the reigning NCAA D3 champions Southern Virginia University. 11 NCAA D3 schools are adding men’s volleyball in the next two academic years and only two schools are discontinuing the sport (Fontbonne is closing and Bryn Athyn is dropping athletics).

NAIA News

Albizu Joins NAIA’s Pathway Program

Albizu University (Miami, Florida) is launching an intercollegiate athletics program for the 2025-26 academic year, with men’s and women’s soccer as the first two sponsored sports. Albizu will join the NAIA’s Pathway Program with the goal of joining the NAIA as a full member in the future. Albizu’s Miami campus is a branch of the main university located in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Men’s Club Rugby Shuffle

The University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy (St. Louis, Missouri) announced a move for its men’s club rugby team from National College Rugby (NCR) to the College Rugby Association of America (CRAA) beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. As part of the move, UHSP will join CRAA’s Heart of America (HoA) conference in Division 1AA. The press release also revealed additional moves, some of which were not previously announced. Oklahoma and Wayne State College (Nebraska) will also join the HoA, while Truman State is not listed as a participating team for the 2025-26 academic year. Finally, Missouri will move from the South to the North Division as a result of all the changes.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash