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 October 15, 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 the corresponding section.
| School(s)/Conference | News Item |
|---|---|
| Conference Carolinas | Paywalling Championships |
| Denver | Joining West Coast Conference |
| Horizon League | Commissioner Leaving |
| Landmark | Extends Rights Deal with FloSports |
| Mountain West | Adding Two Sports |
| NCAA Division 1 Soccer | US Soccer White Paper Published |
| Ohio Valley Conference | Commissioner Resigned |
| South Atlantic Conference | Commissioner Retiring |
| WIAC | Paywalling Championships |
NCAA Division 1 News
Denver Joining WCC
The University of Denver (Denver, Colorado) will leave the Summit League and join the West Coast Conference beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. Denver will put the WCC at 10 full members in 2026-27 and that number will be boosted to 11 when UC San Diego joins in 2027-28. Not all of Denver’s sports will join the WCC, as the men’s hockey (NCHC), men’s and women’s lacrosse (Big East), women’s gymnastics (Big 12), women’s triathlon (independent), and coed skiing (RMISA) will keep their current affiliations.
The Summit League will be down to 8 full members and it’s fair to wonder how some current members, like Oral Roberts, will see the latest change. The Summit League and the Missouri Valley Football Conference (MVFC) agreed to a partnership earlier this year that allows any new Summit member to automatically join the MVFC. Whether or not that steers the Summit’s short or long-term realignment objectives remains to be seen.
Horizon League Commissioner Leaving for NBA Team
Horizon League Commissioner Julie Roe Lach will resign to take the Executive Vice President role with the Indiana Pacers’ Pacers Sports & Entertainment. Lach will remain as commissioner through the fall 2025 academic semester. Lach was named Horizon League commissioner in 2021 and has overseen only a handful of changes in her tenure. Before her tenure, Purdue Fort Wayne and Robert Morris joined in 2020, while Illinois Chicago left in 2022. Northern Illinois announced earlier this year that it will join in 2026 to put the Horizon back at 12 teams.
Mountain West Will Sponsor Two More Sports
The Mountain West Conference will begin sponsoring men’s soccer and men’s swimming & diving in the 2026-27 academic year as the conference undergoes a drastic membership change. In men’s soccer, Air Force, Grand Canyon, San Jose State, UC Davis, UNLV, and Utah Tech will compete. 5 of the 6 programs will move from the WAC, with UC Davis joining from the Big West. In men’s swimming & diving, Air Force, Grand Canyon, Hawaii, UNLV, and Wyoming will be competing. Grand Canyon and Hawaii will join from the Big West, while the other three will join from the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). Utah Tech is also joining the Mountain West as a baseball affiliate, as the Big Sky Conference does not sponsor the sport.
OVC Commissioner Resigned
Ohio Valley Conference Commissioner Beth DeBauche resigned on October 23, following the death of her father. Greg Walter was named the Acting Commissioner, as the conference will look for an interim replacement. DeBauche had been with the OVC since 2009 and her departure comes at a critical time. Eastern Kentucky (2021), Jacksonville State (2021), Austin Peay (2022), Belmont (2022), and Murray State (2022) departed from the OVC, while Lindenwood (2022), Little Rock (2022), Southern Indiana (2022), and Western Illinois (2023) joined the conference. Little Rock (UAC) and Tennessee Tech (SoCon) will leave after the 2025-26 academic year, putting the OVC at 9 full members for the moment.
The departures have also impacted the OVC’s football membership. OVC members Eastern Illinois, Lindenwood, Southeast Missouri State, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, UT Martin, and Western Illinois formed a Football Association with the Big South Conference’s Charleston Southern and Gardner-Webb. With Tennessee Tech leaving the OVC-Big South at 8 football members and the rumored future departures of SEMO and UT Martin would further reduce it to 6. We’ll see how the OVC responds on the full membership and football fronts soon, although the issues have been festering for a while.
U.S. Soccer Publishes White Paper for D1 Soccer
U.S. Soccer published a white paper on how it hopes to change soccer at the NCAA Division 1 level. The paper suggests regionalization of the men’s programs into 4 “clusters” comprised of 50-54 teams each. Each cluster would have 2 “regional divisions of the 9 most competitive teams,” while the remaining teams would be split into 4 “local divisions” of 8-10 teams each. This plan would also lengthen the season across the entire academic year, instead of only in the fall semester. Finally, there would be the introduction of promotion and relegation, “either through on-field performance similar to promotion/relegation or off-field analysis by a committee that objectively considers many factors.”
NCAA Division 2 News
Conference Carolinas Paywalls Championship Broadcasts
The Conference Carolinas announced that it will put some of its championships behind a paywall during the 2025-26 academic year. 19 championships will be put behind a paywall throughout the year. The prices will vary depending on the sport, with daily and tournament passes available. The Conference Carolinas are not the only NCAA conference to move championships behind a paywall this month, as the D3 WIAC is making a similar move.
Fall sports: Men’s football, men’s and women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball.
Winter sports: Men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s swimming & diving, spirit (coed cheerleading and dance), and men’s wrestling.
Spring sports: Men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s outdoor track & field, men’s volleyball, women’s acrobatics & tumbling, women’s flag football, and women’s softball.
South Atlantic Commissioner Retiring
South Atlantic Conference Commissioner Patrick Britz will retire after the current academic year. Britz will serve through May 31, 2026, after 17 years in charge. The SAC has seen a few changes in Britz’s tenure, but not nearly as many as other conferences. Brevard College (2017), Queens University of Charlotte (2022), and Limestone University (2025) departed. Brevard dropped to NCAA Division 3, Queens moved up to NCAA D1, and Limestone closed. Four schools have joined during Britz’s reign: Anderson University (SC) in 2010, Coker University in 2013, University of Virginia’s College at Wise in 2019, and Emory & Henry University in 2022. The SAC is currently at 12 full members across North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
NCAA Division 3 News
Landmark Extends Deal with FloSports
The Landmark Conference and FloSports extended their media rights deal through the 2031-32 academic year. Landmark became the first NCAA D3 conference to sign an agreement with FloSports back in July 2023, and FloSports hasn’t stopped scooping up deals since then. Whether that’s good or not for D3 exposure is another debate.
WIAC Moves to Paywall for Championships
The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) is introducing a paywall for championship events this academic year. The WIAC will begin charging viewers to watch tournament games and championship finals for men’s baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s swimming & diving, men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track & field, men’s wrestling, women’s gymnastics, women’s lacrosse, women’s softball, and women’s volleyball. The WIAC network is powered by Hudl, and this move to a paywall is only the most recent in a long trend of increasing subscription services outside NCAA Division 1.
NAIA News
There has been no major NAIA realignment news since the last report.
Photo courtesy of Denver Athletics