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 June 14, 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.
Editor’s note: The Realignment Report will move to a monthly format starting in July 2025. The new format will provide a big picture look at realignment with less focus on each individual sporting change. News items such as full membership moves, commissioner changes, and TV rights deals will continue to appear in the monthly posting.
NCAA Division 1 News
Sacramento State Joins Big West, Western Realignment Flaring Up
Sacramento State (Sacramento, California) will leave the Big Sky Conference and join the Big West Conference beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. The football team will compete as an FCS independent, with its FBS waiver unlikely to be approved. The Big Sky will have 9 full members and 11 football-playing members in 2026-27, but that number could fluctuate. Matt Brown of Extra Points stated that the Big Sky prefers to have an even number of teams for scheduling. The Big West will have 12 full members in 2026. While Hawaii and UC Davis will leave for the Mountain West, the trio of Cal Baptist, Sacramento State, and Utah Valley will join the Big West.
Beyond the Sacramento State news, ESPN reported that the Pac-12 is focusing on Texas State as the conference’s 8th football-playing member. The Pac-12 needs that 8th member by the start of the 2026-27 academic year, and is also reportedly close to a TV rights deal announcement. If Texas State moves to the Pac-12, it’s likely to set off another chain of realignment as the Sun Belt would seek a 14th member, likely from Conference USA (Louisiana Tech or Western Kentucky), with a stretch goal of an AAC member (East Carolina maybe?). In turn, C-USA would try to find its backfill (Tarleton State as the top choice?), and the cycle continues.
The Pac-12 may not stop at Texas State for additions. Memphis and Tulane from the AAC were frequently mentioned as top targets, but were not able to make a full membership work. However, the Pac-12 may try to add Memphis as a football-only team while the rest of Memphis’s teams join the Big East. That means the AAC would look for a replacement, and there we go again.
IMG Academy Releases White Paper
The IMG Academy posted a long white paper on its website this week, which discussed how college athletics has reached an inflection point. The paper, authored by former college athletes Brent Richard (Vanderbilt soccer player) and Drew Weatherford (Florida State quarterback), makes various proposals with the House settlement now finalized. Some suggestions from the paper include:
- Using all roster spots available under the new roster limits. The paper also calls for the removal of roster limits if the NCAA wants to go further to help student-athletes.
- Using more “varsity clubs” to enhance the student-athlete experience without the full burden of a varsity commitment.
- Focus more on the education model rather than the athletic model, as most student-athletes will go pro in something other than sports.
- Take cues from the youth sports market to help sustain college athletics.
- Building, maintaining, and using facilities year-round to maximize revenue, without increasing tuition or student fees to fund athletics.
- Allow schools to have multiple teams play across multiple divisions.
On the final point, this is related to another topic I’ve discussed before: junior varsity teams. The IMG idea would be like this: North Carolina would have a team playing in NCAA Division 1 as it currently is, but also allow them to have a second team in NCAA Division 2 or D3. The problem with that is what I’ve mentioned before, which is that coaches will stockpile talent on the D2 or D3 teams. Combine that with the suggestion to remove roster limits, and it’s not difficult to see what happens. This is one of those ideas that sounds great in theory, but the practical implications make it difficult to support. Do we expect the NCAA to craft well-defined, easily enforceable rules (or punishments for rulebreakers) for schools in this scenario? Given the many outstanding issues from the finalized House settlement, the answer is definitely no.
Cal Poly Not Bringing Back Two Programs
Cal Poly (San Luis Obispo, California) will not reinstate its men’s and women’s swimming and diving programs. The school set a $15 million fundraising goal to bring the sports back, but only $9 million was raised. Cal Poly competed in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) for swimming & diving.
Louisiana-Monroe Cuts Tennis
The University of Louisiana-Monroe (Monroe, Louisiana) will discontinue women’s tennis beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. ULM competed in the Sun Belt Conference, making ULM the only member without a women’s tennis program (at least for now). Tennis has been crushed in the realignment, with 40 schools across the NCAA and NAIA dropping the sport for next season.
Tulsa Bringing Back Men’s Golf
The University of Tulsa (Tulsa, Oklahoma) is bringing back men’s golf beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. Tulsa discontinued men’s golf beginning with the 2016-17 academic year to “…readjust their programs as needed to align themselves with financial realities…” The Golden Hurricane will compete in the American Athletic Conference, which will have 12 men’s golf teams.
Two Schools Join MPSF in Water Polo
Connecticut College (New London, Connecticut) and Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland) are joining the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) in men’s water polo beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. Even though both are NCAA Division 3 schools, there is only a single collegiate division for men’s water polo, making it a de facto Division 1 sport. Connecticut College is leaving the Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) to join the MPSF, while Johns Hopkins will leave the Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC).
Wazzu Scales Back T&F Teams
Washington State (Pullman, Washington) announced that its track & field teams will focus more on track than field going forward. The Cougars will continue to support indoor and outdoor teams, but with a long-distance program. Sprinting will be “limited”, while the field events have been eliminated.
NCAA Division 2 News
MoSo Adds Women’s Flag Football
Missouri Southern State University (Joplin, Missouri) will add a women’s flag football team for the 2025-26 academic year. The team will compete as a club team for 2025-26 and elevate to varsity status beginning in 2026-27. MSSU is the first school from the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) to add the sport.
NCAA Division 3 News
UAA Signs With FloSports
The University Athletic Association (UAA) has agreed to a five-year media rights deal with FloSports that will run from 2025-26 through 2029-30. The UAA becomes the 16th NCAA conference to sign a rights agreement with FloSports. The NCAA D1 Big East Conference only has some sports on FloSports, while the other 15 conferences are exclusively (or almost exclusively) with the streaming service.
| NCAA D1 (2) | NCAA D2 (8) | NCAA D3 (6) |
|---|---|---|
| Big East | CCAA | Landmark |
| CAA | East Coast | Little East |
| GLIAC | NEWMAC | |
| Gulf South | SCAC | |
| Lone Star | SCIAC | |
| Northeast-10 | UAA | |
| SAC | ||
| SCAC |
Saint Francis Adding Men’s Swimming
Saint Francis University (Loretto, Pennsylvania) will add men’s swimming beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. SFU will compete in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference and become the 8th member alongside Allegheny, Bethany, Chatham, Grove City, Saint Vincent, Westminster (PA), and Washington & Jefferson. Saint Francis is making the move from NCAA Division 1 and the Northeast Conference to the NCAA Division 3 PAC in 2026-27.
NAIA News
There was no realignment news across the NAIA over the previous week.
Photo Courtesy of Sacramento State Athletics