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 28, 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 and those starting in 2026-27 are 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.
| School(s)/Conference | News Item |
|---|---|
| Atlantic East | “New” Commissioner |
| Big East | New Media Deal with ESPN |
| Big Sky | Extends Commissioner |
| Bloomfield | Leaving NCAA D2 for USCAA |
| College Basketball Video Game | Possible return in 2028? |
| Grand Canyon | Joining MW in 2025-26 |
| Great Midwest | Rights Deal with FloSports |
| Louisiana Tech | Joining Sun Belt |
| North Texas at Dallas | Joining Red River |
| Northwest Conference | Rights Deal with FloSports |
| ODAC | Rights Deal with FloSports |
| Ohio Athletic Conference | Rights Deal with FloSports |
| Pacific West | Commissioner Resigns, New One Named |
| Saint Mary-of-the-Woods | Adding Football Program |
| Siena Heights | Closing after 2025-26 |
| SSAC | Extends Commissioner |
| Sun Belt | Adding Louisiana Tech |
| Sun Conference | New Media Deal with Urban Edge |
NCAA Division 1 News
Grand Canyon Joins Mountain West for 2025
Grand Canyon University (Phoenix, Arizona) will join the Mountain West Conference beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. GCU originally announced a move from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) to the West Coast Conference in May 2024. Six months later, GCU switched course and announced a move to the MW instead, beginning with the 2026-27 academic year, but left the door open to moving sooner. The move will give the Mountain West 12 full members for the 2025-26 academic year and will be at 10 in 2026-27.
Sun Belt Adds Louisiana Tech
The Sun Belt Conference will add Louisiana Tech University (Ruston, Louisiana) as a full member. Louisiana Tech will join no later than the 2027-28 academic year. There were reports that the MAC’s Ohio Bobcats might have been a possible target, but those were preliminary talks. Louisiana Tech was considered the favorite to join following Texas State’s departure. The Bulldogs are likely to become a member of the West Division as the Sun Belt will stay at 14 teams. La Tech’s departure from Conference USA opens up the door for Tarleton State or another school to join.
Big East Returns to ESPN
The Big East Conference and ESPN are back together thanks to a new media rights deal. The six-year deal will begin with the 2025-26 academic year and run through the 2030-31 academic year. ESPN+ will show at least 75 women’s basketball games and 200 Olympic sporting events. The Big East and ESPN were long-time partners until 2013, when the original Big East was torn apart by realignment and reformed later that year with less emphasis on football. The Big East was previously with FloSports, with an expanded partnership beginning in 2021-22 that led to an extension of the agreement in 2022-23.
Big Sky Extends Commissioner Wistrcill
The Big Sky Conference has extended the contract of commissioner Tom Wistrcill. The extension will keep Wistrcill in charge of the conference through the 2029-30 academic year. Wistricill has been the commissioner of the Big Sky since December 2018, which has seen some impact from realignment. North Dakota left the Big Sky in 2018 to join the Summit League, while Southern Utah left for the WAC in 2022. Southern Utah will return in 2026 alongside Utah Tech, while Sacramento State will leave for the Big West Conference.
College Basketball Game on the Way?
Just a year after the return of a college football video game, it appears that a college basketball game is on the horizon. According to Matt Brown of Extra Points, EA was one of three companies to submit a bid to create a college basketball video game. EA’s proposal would feature every men’s and women’s Division 1 basketball team. It was also reported that the game could be released every other year, but EA has the option to release as many as six video games beginning with the 2028-29 year.
Matt Brown also reported that 2K submitted a bid, but much smaller in scope. It would be incorporated into its NBA 2K series, starting with 16 teams and growing a maximum of 130 teams. 2K would also make it part of a DLC (downloadable content) within the NBA 2K games. 2K would also have fewer players compared to EA featured due to the smaller scope. 2K would consider making a standalone game as early as 2030.
Thoughts: I understand 2K’s thinking of creating what amounts to a pilot game before going all in, but it’s a lot harder to justify when EA is willing to all-in from the start. Given how cautious 2K’s approach is, I’m actually hoping for EA to win the bid. Think about that for a second: I (and probably the majority of those interested) would rather have EA create this game, even with all the likely flaws, than to see a half-hearted attempt from 2K. The best outcome would be a non-exclusive license, but I’m not sure if that will happen.
There are currently 365 D1 schools, which would give EA a three-year window if they began development today. I’m skeptical it gets released in 2028 because that’s a lot of developing: arenas, animations, player models, and school-specific traditions/chants (at least for P4 teams), to name a few. There will be some borrowing from the College Football series, but that franchise was also delayed a year and didn’t come out as polished as it should have with an extra year of development. I’m thinking this will be a 2029 release and probably a yearly release if it’s even half as popular as the college football title.
NCAA Division 2 News
Bloomfield Dropping to USCAA
The Bloomfield College of Montclair State University (Bloomfield, New Jersey) is no longer a member of the NCAA Division 2 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference. Bloomfield will join the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. Four sports will compete in the USCAA: men’s basketball, men’s soccer, women’s basketball, and women’s softball. Bloomfield and Montclair State merged in 2023-24. Bloomfield previously dropped both cross country and track & field teams, along with women’s bowling and soccer after the 2023-24 academic year. The CACC will have 11 full members for the 2025-26 academic year.
PacWest Commissioner Resigns, New One Named
Pacific West Conference commissioner Jessica Harbison Weaver announced her resignation on July 8, with an effective date of July 15. On Monday, July 14, the PacWest named Brad Jones as the next commissioner. Jones was previously the Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletes at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, California. The Academy of Art dropped athletics after the 2024-25 academic year.
Weaver led the conference for two years, beginning her stint in July 2023 after the retirement of former commissioner Bob Hogue. The conference has seen several changes over the past few years, with Holy Names University (Oakland, California) closing in 2023 and the Academy of Art (San Francisco, California) dropping athletics after the 2024-25 academic year. Two other schools will leave the PacWest in 2026: Azusa Pacific (Azusa, California) will join the NCAA D3 SCIAC and Fresno Pacific (Fresno, California) will leave for the D2 California Collegiate Athletic Association. Four schools left the NAIA’s then-named Golden State Athletic Conference to join the PacWest: Jessup (2024), Menlo (2024), Vanguard (2024), and Westmont (2024). The PacWest will have 11 full members in 2026-27, provided no additional realignment changes occur.
NCAA Division 3 News
Four NCAA Conferences Join FloSports
It was a busy start to July for FloSports. Although the Big East left for ESPN, four NCAA D2 and D3 conferences signed a media rights deal with the company. The Great Midwest Athletic Conference (D2), the Northwest Conference (D3), the Ohio Athletic Conference (D3), and the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (D3) will start a five-year media rights agreement in the 2025-26 academic year and will run through the 2029-30 academic year. FloSports has media rights agreements with 18 NCAA conferences as shown in the table below.
| NCAA D1 (1) | NCAA D2 (8) | NCAA D3 (9) |
|---|---|---|
| CAA | CCAA | Landmark |
| East Coast | Little East | |
| GLIAC | NEWMAC | |
| G-MAC | Northwest | |
| Gulf South | ODAC | |
| Lone Star | Ohio Athletic | |
| Northeast-10 | SCAC | |
| SAC | SCIAC | |
| UAA |
NAIA News
Atlantic East Selects Mullen for Full-Time Commissioner
The Atlantic East Confernece didn’t have to look far for its next full-time commissioner. The AEC named interim commissioner Rebecca Mullen to the role permanently on July 7. Mullen took over in July 2024, following the resignation of former commissioner Jessica Huntley. The Pratt Institute joined the AEC in 2024, while Saint Elizabeth joined for the 2025-26 academic year. Marywood and Neumann will depart in 2026-27 for the Middle Atlantic Conferences, leaving the AEC at 6 full members.
North Texas at Dallas Moves to RRAC
The University of North Texas at Dallas moved from the Sooner Athletic Conference to the Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC) on the first day of the new academic year. The RRAC will have 15 full members in 2025-26, but Huston-Tillotson (HBCUAC), Paul Quinn (HBCUAC), and Xavier University of Louisiana (SSAC) are leaving in 2026-27. The Sooner Athletic Conference has 12 full members.
Siena Heights to Close
Siena Heights University (Adrian, Michigan) will close after the 2025-26 academic year due to financial issues. Siena Heights is a full member of the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC), which also saw Concordia University Ann Arbor (Michigan) drop athletics after the 2024-25 academic year. With SHU closing, the WHAC will have 11 full members, assuming no further changes.
SMWC to Add Football
Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College (Indiana) will transition its sprint football to a full-fledged football program beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. SMWC will join the Mid-State Football Association (MSFA) in 2026, allowing the MSFA to maintain 12 teams. Siena Heights will close after the 2025-26 academic year, which would have left an unbalanced two-division split of 11 teams. The MSFA didn’t state whether SMWC will replace Siena Heights in the Mideast League division or if there will be a changing of the divisions starting in 2026.
SSAC Extends Commissioner
Mike Hall received an extension from the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) to remain commissioner through the 2027-28 academic year. Hall was originally named commissioner in 2013 and has seen extensive changes in membership since he took over. 15 schools have departed the SSAC since 2013: Lee (TN, 2013), Truett-McConnell (2013), Emmanuel (GA) (2014), Southern Polytech (2014), Southern Wesleyan (2014), Spring Hill (2014), Belhaven (2015), Auburn Montgomery (2016), Brenau (2017), College of Coastal Georgia (2017), Bethel (TN) (2020), Florida College (2021), Talladega (2023), Stillman (2024), and Middle Georgia State (2025). Joining since 2013 have been: Blue Mountain Christian (2013), Dalton State (2014), Life (GA) (2022), Thomas (GA) (2023), Point (GA) (2023), and Abraham Baldwin (2024). Tennessee Southern joined in 2013, left in 2019, and returned in 2023.
Sun Conference Partners with Urban Edge Network
The Sun Conference will partner with the Urban Edge Network to provide 24/7 access to events from the conference. UEN recently announced media rights deals with the Heart of America Athletic Conference, Southern States Athletic Conference, and the NAIA in June.
Photo by Grand Canyon Athletics