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 July 31, 2026, and provide updates on previously discussed topics. As a reminder, all official moves starting with the 2026-27 academic year can be found here, and those starting in 2027-28 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.
NCAA Division 1 News
MAC Revises Basketball Tournaments
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) will have new basketball tournament formats beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. The top two seeds will receive automatic byes to the semifinals, with the 3rd and 4th seeds receiving byes to the quarterfinals. The top 8 teams will participate in both the men’s and women’s tournaments. The first round will feature the 5 versus 8 and 6 versus 7 games, with winners advancing to face the four and three seeds, respectively. The 2026 format saw an 8-team single-elimination bracket starting at the quarterfinals without any byes.
MEAC Extends Commissioner
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) extended commissioner Sonja Stills for five years through 2031. Stills was hired in October 2021 and started in the role on January 1, 2022. She helped add two new sports to the conference for the 2026-27 season: women’s golf and women’s flag football. The MEAC hasn’t seen any membership changes during her tenure, as the most recent departures happened at the start of the 2021-22 academic year. Bethune-Cookman and Florida A&M departed for the SWAC, while North Carolina A&T joined the Big South Conference and later joined the CAA.
NCAA Division 2 News
D2 Adopts New Eligibility Model
The NCAA Division 2 Executive Board has adopted a new eligibility model beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. The model is the same as the new D1 model and establishes a five-year eligibility period. Eligibility begins when an athlete enrolls full-time at the school or in the academic year that starts immediately after their 19th birthday, whichever occurs first. Like D1, there are exceptions for active-duty military service, pregnancy, and official religious missions.
East Coast Conference Drops Tennis
The East Coast Conference (ECC) will not sponsor men’s and women’s tennis championships for the 2026-27 academic year, according to the conference’s championship schedule release. The ECC was already facing low membership numbers after the 2025-26 academic year finished. On the men’s side, District of Columbia, Queens College (NY), and St. Thomas Aquinas (NY) will become independents. This could change in the future if any of those teams announce an affiliate membership. For women’s tennis, the same three schools were announced as affiliates of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. Daemen and D’Youville competed in the ECC in 2025-26, but had already announced a move to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) for 2026-27. Molloy had announced in 2024 that it would discontinue women’s tennis beginning with the 2026-27 academic year.
MIAA Extends Partnership With Hudl
The Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) and Hudl have agreed to extend their media rights agreement. The two partnered up in 2017, but did not put all sports behind a paywall until 2021. The MIAA says it distributed almost $1 million in revenues generated by the agreement to member institutions.
SIAC Extends Commissioner, Eliminates Divisions
The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) announced an extension for commissioner Anthony Holloman through 2029. Holloman in charge of the SIAC since September 2022. Only one membership change will occur in his tenure when Spring Hill College leaves at the start of the 2027-28 academic year to join the Gulf South Conference. The SIAC will also eliminate divisions in all sports, which it had previously done for football in the 2022-23 academic year.
NCAA Division 3 News
New Eligibility Model Proposed
The NCAA Division 3 Management Council discussed a new eligibility model proposed by the American Rivers Conference and Ohio Athletic Conference. The proposal seeks to move away from waivers to a five-year age-based model, similar to the one adopted by Divisions 1 and 2. The Management Council only held a discussion on what would be needed to form a recommendation for the Presidents Council at the October meeting. The proposal would be voted on at the NCAA Convention in January 2027.
Atlantic East Members to Join United East
The four remaining Atlantic East Conference members will join the United East Conference beginning with the 2027-28 academic year. As a result, the Atlantic East will dissolve following the 2026-27 academic year. Centenary (NJ), Gwynedd Mercy, Immaculata, and Marymount will bring the UEC membership up to 17, assuming no additional realignment moves. The United East will also add men’s and women’s swimming and diving championships beginning with the 2027-28 academic year.
The Atlantic East was formed in 2018 with 7 members. In 2021, Wesley College was acquired by Delaware State, but backfilled with Centenary (NJ). In 2024, Villanova acquired Cabrini University and discontinued athletics, but the AEC responded by adding Pratt and Saint Elizabeth. Marywood and Neumann departed the Atlantic East and joined the Middle Atlantic Conference at the start of the 2026-27 academic year, but the losses were set to continue in 2027-28 with Pratt and Saint Elizabeth joining the CUNYAC. The AEC was never able to add members, leading to a strategic partnership with the United East for certain sports in the 2026-27 academic year. The addition of the four teams wasn’t the biggest surprise, as the United East has been facing its own realignment pressures, even with 13 full members.
This is not the first merger for the United East, which previously merged with the Colonial State Athletic Conference (CSAC) at the start of the 2023-24 academic year and kept the United East name. At the time, the CSAC had 10 members: Bryn Athyn, Cairn, Cedar Crest, Clarks Summit, Keystone, Notre Dame (MD), Rosemont, Saint Elizabeth, Valley Forge, and Wilson (PA). Since the merger, Bryn Athyn (2025), Clarks Summit (closed in 2024), Rosemont (2026), and Valley Forge (2026) have dropped athletics in one way or another. In total, 10 full members have departed the UEC since 2020.
Atlantic East Tennis Membership Dwindling, Joining AMCC?
The Atlantic East Conference released a tentative championship schedule for the 2026-27 academic year. The men’s and women’s tennis championships show that Neumann University (Aston, Pennsylvania) will host, while also noting “(with AMCC TBD)”. The host is likely a copy from the 2025-26 academic year, as Neumann hosted both tournaments but left to join the Middle Atlantic Conference this year.
The AEC has only three men’s tennis teams left: Immaculata, Marymount, and Pratt, while Immaculata and Marymount are the only remaining teams for women’s tennis. The Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) has five members left for both sports: Carlow, Mt. Aloysius, Penn State Altoona, Penn State Behrend, and Pittsburgh-Greensburg. La Roche had a women’s tennis program for 2025-26, but has discontinued it. The AMCC is listed as the conference affiliation for Marymount’s men’s and women’s tennis teams in the NCAA Membership Directory.
AMCC Drops Men’s Wrestling
The Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) is no longer sponsoring men’s wrestling beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. Four of the five remaining teams that competed in the AMCC during 2025-26 will join the SUNYAC: Alfred State (previously announced), Penn State Altoona, Penn State Behrend, and Pittsburgh-Bradford. The fifth team that competed in the AMCC was Penn College, but it’s not known which conference they will compete in.
Heartland, OAC Announce Strategic Partnership
The Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) and the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) announced a strategic partnership, which will include a scheduling alliance, affiliate membership arrangements, and strategic initiatives. The announcement did not provide any additional details on the scheduling practices or the affiliate membership plans. Two other NCAA D3 conferences announced a similar strategic partnership earlier in 2026. The Atlantic East Conference and the United East Conference are working together to keep NCAA Championship access to all teams in both conferences, with some sports partnerships already determined.
SUNYAC Adds Soccer Divisions and Expands Playoffs
The SUNYAC has added divisions for men’s and women’s soccer, while expanding the playoff format to include 8 teams. As a result, the conference schedule will be 8 games instead of 9. The Eastern Division will have Canton, Cobleskill, Delhi, Oneonta, Plattsburgh, and Potsdam, while the Western Division will consist of Alfred State, Buffalo State, Cortland, Fredonia, Morrisville, and Oswego. Each team will play a round-robin against the five divisional opponents and three games against opponents from the other division.
As for the new playoff format, the SUNYAC will place the division winners as the top seeds based on conference record. The second-place teams in each division will be guaranteed a spot in the playoffs, while the next four-best teams will earn wild card berths. Those six teams will then be seeded 3 through 8 to determine the first round matchups featuring the 5/8 and 6/7 matchups. The second round will consist of the 5/8 winner at the 4 seed, with the 6/7 winner playing at the 3 seed. The top two seeds will be placed in the semifinals as hosts, and the highest remaining seed will host the championship.
Trinity Washington Leaves NCAA
Trinity Washington University (Washington, D.C.) appears to have left the NCAA. The school is not listed in the NCAA’s active membership directory for the 2026-27 academic year and will compete in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA). TWU was previously an NCAA Division 3 independent, with five women’s teams: basketball, lacrosse, soccer, tennis, and volleyball.
NAIA News
Mid-South Adding Flag Football
The Mid-South Conference will begin sponsoring women’s flag football for the 2026-27 academic year. Full members Campbellsville, Cumberland, Freed-Hardeman, and Lindsey Wilson will be joined by affiliates Defiance, Indiana Wesleyan, Midway, Northwestern Ohio, Saint Francis (IN), and Wilberforce for the inaugural season.
NAIA Makes A Few Championship Changes
The NAIA‘s National Administrative Council (NAC) approved women’s beach volleyball as a championship sport beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. The first championship will feature an 8-team format with two pools of 4 teams. The top 3 teams in each pool will advance to the bracket. In football, conferences with 9 or fewer football members must play a conference round-robin schedule, while conferences with 10 or more football teams must play at least 7 conference games. Beginning in the 2027-28 academic year, conferences with 6 or more football members will receive one automatic berth, and conferences with 12 or more football members will receive two automatic berths.
Stillman Adds Football
Stillman College (Tuscaloosa, Alabama) will bring back football. No timeline or conference affiliation was provided. Stillman is a member of the HBCU Athletic Conference, which does not sponsor football. Stillman previously had a team from 1999 through 2015, going 90-84 overall. The school dropped football and every other team except men’s and women’s basketball due to financial issues.
Photo courtesy of Centenary Athletics