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 April 26, 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.
NCAA Division 1 News
The Pac-12 Conference finalized its media rights deal for the 2025 football season. The 13 home games featuring Oregon State and Washington State will be shown on CBS, ESPN, and the CW. CBS and ESPN will show two games apiece while the CW will have the remaining 9 matchups. The Pac-12 will be rebuilt in time for the 2026-27 academic year but still needs one more football-playing member to satisfy FBS requirements. When will that decision be made and announced? Your guess is as good as mine.
Sports Changes
Grand Canyon University (Phoenix, Arizona) will transition its men’s volleyball team from varsity to a club team beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. GCU competed in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). The MPSF will have 8 members in 2025-26: BYU, Concordia Irvine, Menlo, Pepperdine, Stanford, UCLA, USC, and Vanguard. Jessup University is expected to join in the future but a firm timeline has not been set for their arrival. Grand Canyon is making a full membership move from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) to the Mountain West Conference in 2026-27.
Liberty University (Lynchburg, Virginia) will move its men’s soccer team from the Ohio Valley Conference to the Southern Conference beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. Just a day later, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) (Edinburg, Texas) announced it will move its men’s soccer from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) to the Ohio Valley Conference beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. The growing prospect of the WAC not surviving is the obvious reason for the move and will put the OVC at 8 teams in 2026 with UTRGV replacing Liberty. The SoCon will be 7 members for the 2026 season.
The University of Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah) will discontinue women’s beach volleyball at the end of the current 2024-25 academic year. Utah competes in the Big 12, which now has only three beach volleyball programs: Arizona, Arizona State, and TCU.
NCAA Division 2 News
Limestone University (Gaffney, South Carolina) will officially close at the end of the 2024-25 academic year. The school could not secure the funding needed to continue operations by the end of April. Limestone had attempted to delay the closure by asking for funds to keep its online courses up but to no avail. Limestone was a member of the South Atlantic Conference, which will have 12 full members for the 2025-26 academic year. Limestone is the 11th NCAA or NAIA school to announce it will close or drop athletics.
| School | Affiliation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Academy of Art | NCAA D2 – Pacific West | Dropping Athletics |
| Bryn Athyn | NCAA D3 – United East | Dropping Athletics |
| Cal Maritime | NAIA – Cal Pac | Merging with Cal Poly? |
| Concordia Ann Arbor | NAIA – WHAC | Dropping Athletics |
| Fontbonne | NCAA D3 – SLIAC | Closing |
| Limestone | NCAA D2 – South Atlantic | Closing |
| Multnomah | NAIA – CCC | Dropping Athletics |
| Northland College | NCAA D3 – UMAC | Closing |
| Rosemont College | NCAA D3 – United East | Merging with Villanova |
| Sonoma State | NCAA D2 – CCAA | Dropping Athletics |
| St. Andrews | NAIA – Appalachian | Closing |
Sports Changes
Molloy University (Rockville Centre, New York) will discontinue its women’s tennis program at the end of the 2025-26 academic year and no longer sponsor it beginning in 2026-27. Molloy competes in the East Coast Conference, which will have only five teams in 2025-26, but Molloy is not the latest team to end a tennis program…
Shepherd University (Shepherdstown, West Virginia) has also discontinued its men’s and women’s tennis programs, effective immediately. Both teams competed in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC), which now has 5 men’s programs and 13 women’s programs. Last week, Dallas Baptist announced it would transition its men’s and women’s tennis teams to club status in 2025-26. NCAA and NAIA schools have announced that 24 tennis programs will be discontinued over the next two academic years, while only 12 programs will be added.
Montana State University Billings won’t bring back men’s soccer for the 2025-26 academic year despite a strong fundraising effort from supporters. The school announced the discontinuation of the sport in November, “following an analysis to align the department’s expenses and resources.” MSUB athletic director Mike Bazemore said the $224,000 in pledges is only a fraction of what is needed to bring the sport back. Bazemore said $1.1 million would be needed to maintain the sport for five years. If the fundraising goal is reached by January 1, 2026, MSUB would bring back men’s soccer with the 2026-27 academic year.
South Atlantic, FloSports Extend Agreement
The South Atlantic Conference will continue its media rights deal with FloSports through the 2031-32 academic year. The SAC first partnered with FloSports in 2022-23 and is one of fourteen NCAA conferences to have a media rights deal with the company. The full list of those conferences by NCAA Divisional alignment is provided in the table below.
| NCAA D1 (2) | NCAA D2 (8) | NCAA D3 (4) |
|---|---|---|
| Big East | CCAA | Landmark |
| CAA | East Coast | Little East |
| GLIAC | NEWMAC | |
| Gulf South | SCIAC | |
| Lone Star | ||
| Northeast-10 | ||
| SAC | ||
| SCAC |
NCAA Division 3 News
Saint Elizabeth University (Morris Township, New Jersey) is changing conferences. SEU will move from the United East Conference to the Atlantic East Conference, beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. SEU sponsors 14 sports, including coed cheerleading, and 11 will move to the Atlantic East. Cheerleading and STUNT compete as independents while men’s volleyball competes in the United East. The press release did not state if the men’s volleyball team would remain in the UEC or play in a different conference.
Two weeks ago, Neumann University announced it would leave the Atlantic East to join the Middle Atlantic Conferences in 2026-27. As noted at the time, the AEC was responsive to the move and the addition of Saint Elizabeth puts the membership back up to 7. For the UEC, there has to be a bit of worry given the string of departures the past few years. The Colonial States Athletic Conference and United East merged effective with the 2023-24 academic year under the United East Conference name. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been great for the former CSAC schools.
SUNY Morrisville left for the SUNYAC in 2023, Wells College left in 2023 (closed in 2024), and Clarks Summit left in 2024 (also closed). Bryn Athyn College announced it will drop athletics beginning with the 2025-26 academic year while Rosemont College will drop varsity athletics in 2026-27 as it merges with Villanova. Finally, Keystone College is facing accreditation issues that place its long-term future in doubt. Morrisville and Wells College weren’t members of the CSAC but the other five schools – Bryn Athyn, Clarks Summit, Keystone, Rosemont, and Saint Elizabeth – were part of the old conference. The United East has the numbers to withstand and remains at 14 (Cedar Crest College only sponsors women’s sports) but the constant departures have to warrant a bit of concern.
Beloit College Hockey Teams to WIAC
Beloit College (Beloit, Wisconsin) will join the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) in men’s and women’s hockey beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. As reported in February, Beloit’s teams are essentially taking the spot of Northland College, which is set to close at the end of the 2024-25 academic year. The WIAC will have 6 men’s teams and 5 women’s teams for the 2025-26 academic year, assuming no further membership changes.
NAIA News
Bismarck State College (Bismarck, North Dakota) will add coed competitive dance beginning with the 2025-26 academic year and compete in the American Midwest Conference. The AMC will have 7 competitive dance members in 2025-26: Bismarck State, Campbellsville (KY), Columbia (MO), Cumberlands (TN), St. Ambrose (IA), St. Francis (IL), and Viterbo (WI). Missouri Baptist and William Woods (MO) will leave the AMC to join the HAAC in 2025-26. Bismarck State will begin its transition to the NAIA and Frontier Conference in 2025-26 (the Frontier doesn’t sponsor competitive dance).
Northwestern College (Orange City, Iowa) will add women’s wrestling beginning with the 2026-27 academic year and compete in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC). Northwestern will join the current GPAC women’s wrestling members Dakota Wesleyan (SD), Doane (NE), Hastings (NE), Midland (NE), Morningside (IA), and Waldorf (IA). 29 schools are adding women’s wrestling over the next two academic years, with 8 of those being NAIA programs.
Photo by Ben Hershey on Unsplash