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 August 15, 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.
| School(s)/Conference | News Item |
|---|---|
| Appalachian Athletic Conference | Named New Commissioner |
| Big 12 Conference | Will Crown Regular Season Wrestling Champion |
| Big Ten Conference | Extending Commissioner |
| Coast-to-Coast Conference | Expects to Regain AQ Bids in Future |
| FBS | New Football Calendar Rules |
| GLIAC | Partnership with NECC |
| Great American Conference | Launching Sports Network |
| Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference | Commissioner Steps Down |
| Manchester University | Joining NAIA, Crossroads League |
| Michigan-Flint | Adding Athletics |
| Midwest Conference | Will Sponsor Men’s Golf |
| NCAA Division 2 | Nonconference In-Region Proposal Not Supported |
| NECC | Partnership with GLIAC |
| Southern Conference | Commissioner Resigned |
| Unisun Sports | Media Rights Deal With ESPN |
NCAA Division 1 News
Big 12 Adds Regular Wrestling Championship
The Big 12 Conference will crown a regular season men’s wrestling champion beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. The team with the highest winning percentage in Big 12 dual meets will be crowned the regular season champions. Co-champions will be possible as the conference will not have tiebreakers.
Big Ten Extends Petitti
The Big Ten Conference has given a contract extension to commissioner Tony Petitti, who will serve through the 2032-33 academic year. Petitti was named the Big Ten commissioner in April 2023 and started in the role in June. UCLA and USC were already slated to join the Big Ten in 2024 before Petitti became the commissioner, but he also added Oregon and Washington to give the Big Ten 18 teams.
FBS Calendar Changes
The Division 1 Football Bowl Subdivision Oversight Committee adopted proposals to the FBS calendar. The most notable is that the 2027 season, and subsequent years, will begin on Thursday of Week 0 and end on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This change will align the FBS with the FCS calendar. The Committee also approved a new out-of-season activities calendar starting January 1 and going through the preseason. The new rules allow FBS teams to have two out-of-season practice periods with a total of 21 on-field practices. The two periods cannot exceed seven weeks and neither period on its own can exceed five weeks.
Teams will also have at least 9 volunteer weeks when athletes are not required to have athletic activities. The preseason will also be modified to have 21 practices over 27 calendar days leading to the first contest. This is a decrease from 25 practices under the old rules. Finally, the transfer portal will be reduced from 15 to 10 days and open on the first business day after January 1. The Division I Cabinet will vote on these rule changes at its meeting on October 6 and 7, with the changes going into effect on January 1, 2027.
SoCon Commissioner Resigns
Southern Conference commissioner Michael Cross has resigned, with an interim commissioner to be named later. Cross became commissioner at the start of the 2023-24 academic year and oversaw one realignment change: Tennessee Tech joined the SoCon in 2026 after more than 75 years in the Ohio Valley Conference.
Unisun Sports Announced Media Rights Deal With ESPN
Unisun Sports, the joint venture between the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) and United Athletic Conference (UAC), has signed a media rights deal with ESPN beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. Both the ASUN and UAC men’s and women’s basketball championship games will be shown on linear television, as will select men’s basketball regular season games. Each conference will get an additional select linear event in any sport, with the 2026-27 event being the Week 0 matchup between Prairie View A&M and Tarleton State.
NCAA Division 2 News
GAC Creates Sports Network
The Great American Conference will launch its own GAC Sports Network for the 2026-27 academic year. The GAC will partner with Hudl to provide broadcasts of home games for GAC institutions. The 2026-27 season pass is available for all regular season broadcasts and GAC tournament events through June 30, 2027.
GLIAC, NECC Announce Partnership
The Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) and the National Esports Collegiate Conference (NECC) announced a partnership. The NECC will oversee the GLIAC’s championship starting with the 2026-27 academic year. The GLIAC stated it will begin esports sponsorship during the 2026-27 academic year, but hosted a season-end Esports Tournament in the 2025-26 academic year.
Nonconference Proposal Not Supported
The NCAA Division 2 Management Council did not support the D2 Championship Committee proposal that would require an in-region nonconference opponent in all sports, except women’s rowing. The proposal would have also required men’s football to have one nonconference opponent, but the opponent would not need to be in-region. The Management Council noted concerns about the potential cost impact for certain conferences with large geographic footprints. In addition, the Council cited the NPI’s implementation during the 2026-27 academic year as another concern, with the potential impacts not clear under the new system.
NCAA Division 3 News
C2C Expects to Regain AQ Bids
The Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference (C2C) said it expects to regain NCAA automatic qualifier bids for some sports by the 2028-29 academic year… assuming there are no membership changes. Currently, the C2C has an AQ bid for women’s basketball, women’s soccer, and women’s volleyball. By 2028-29, when Johnson & Wales Charlotte becomes a full D3 member, the C2C will regain AQ bids for men’s basketball, men’s soccer, men’s tennis, women’s softball, and women’s tennis.
HCAC Commissioner Steps Down
The Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) announced that Commissioner Jay Jones has resigned and that Grace Schott will serve as interim commissioner. Jones will remain as a senior advisor for the next six months. Jones has served as commissioner since 2019, during which he has seen two membership changes. In 2024, Berea College joined, while Defiance College departed to join the NAIA. Manchester is also slated to depart for the NAIA at the start of the 2027-28 academic year.
Midwest Conference Brings Back Golf Championship
The Midwest Conference will bring back men’s golf as a sponsored sport for the 2026-27 academic year. The conference will have six teams for the 2026-27 season: Grinnell College, Illinois College, Knox College, Lake Forest College, Luther College, and Monmouth College (Illinois). Luther will join from the American Rivers Conference, while the other five will join from the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
NAIA News
AAC Names New Commissioner
The Appalachian Athletic Conference named Donny Mayfield as its next commissioner. Mayfield will start on October 1, after previously serving as the athletics director at Tennessee Wesleyan University. He will take over for Bill Popp and interim commissioner Jay Stancil. Popp left to become commissioner of the NCAA Division 2 Gulf South Conference. The AAC saw some realignment turnover during Popp’s tenure. Pikeville (2023) and Spartanburg Methodist (2025) both joined the conference, while Carolina University is set to join in 2027. Four schools have left: Point (GA) in 2023, Kentucky Christian and St. Andrews (NC) in 2025, and SCAD Atlanta in 2026 (see below for more information about SCAD Atlanta’s move).
Manchester Joining NAIA
Manchester University (North Manchester, Indiana) will move from the NCAA D3 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) to join the NAIA and the Crossroads League beginning with the 2027-28 academic year. 15 of Manchester’s existing sports will compete in the Crossroads, except for football, men’s swimming & diving, men’s wrestling, women’s swimming & diving, and women’s wrestling. Manchester is also adding women’s flag football beginning with the 2027-28 academic year, which the Crossroads doesn’t sponsor. The Crossroads will have 11 full members in 2027-28, while the HCAC will drop to 9 full members.
UM-Flint to Add Athletics
The University of Michigan-Flint will add intercollegiate athletics, following a grant from the Charles Steward Mott Foundation. UM-Flint is aiming to launch seven varsity programs in the 2028-29 academic year: men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, and women’s volleyball. UM-Flint plans to join the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC), which would have 11 full members by 2028. That assumes no additional full membership changes. The WHAC has seen three schools drop athletics or close over the past two academic years. Concordia University Ann Arbor dropped athletics at the start of the 2025-26 academic year, while Lourdes and Siena Heights closed.
Photo Courtesy of Manchester Athletics