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 May 31, 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
House Settlement Approved
The House v. NCAA settlement was approved by Judge Claudia Wilken on Friday night, less than a month before the start of the upcoming academic year on July 1. The NCAA, its members, and conferences have been gearing up for this approval for months, but now it’s a reality. The NCAA can officially begin sharing revenue with student-athletes, set roster limits, and more. Don’t think the legal ramifications of the settlement are over because there will be more lawsuits.
Utah Valley Moves to Big West
The long-awaited move from Utah Valley University (Orem, Utah) is now official. UVU will move from the Western Athletic Conference to the Big West Conference beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. All of UVU’s sports will move from the WAC to the Big West, except men’s wrestling, which will remain in the Big 12. The Big West has 11 full members slated to compete in 2026-27, but that number may continue to fluctuate as more changes occur because… Matt Brown of Extra Points reported this week that the remaining WAC teams are not of particular interest to the Big West, but Sacramento State could be in the future. The newsletter also discussed possible landing spots for the Texas-based WAC teams, the SoCon may add football-playing members, and possible moves out of the ASUN under the right circumstances.
The WAC is now in a perilous position with only five full members: Abilene Christian, Southern Utah, Tarleton State, UT Arlington, and Utah Tech. Four schools are set to leave over the next two years, starting with Seattle (West Coast) this year and Cal Baptist (Big West), Grand Canyon (Mountain West), and UVU (Big West) in 2026-27. There’s uncertainty around Grand Canyon’s move because the press release opens the door to it happening in 2025-26, but some of GCU’s fall sports are not included on conference schedules.
Central Arkansas Cuts Tennis
Tennis saw another round of cuts this week, with the University of Central Arkansas (Conway, Arkansas) discontinuing its women’s tennis program. UCA competed in the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN), which will have 9 women’s teams in 2025-26. NCAA D1 tennis has been hit hard with 8 teams dropped for 2025-26 so far, while no schools are adding the sport.
Merrimack Adds Women’s Diving
Merrimack College (North Andover, Massachusetts) has added a diving program to its women’s swimming & diving team. The school previously competed in swimming. Merrimack’s full swimming & diving team will compete as a member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC). Merrimack is the second school to add a diving portion in the past few weeks, following Pacific in May.
Villanova Football to the Patriot League
The Patriot League peeled another school from the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), but this move was expected. Villanova will join the Patriot League as a football-only member beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. Villanova follows Richmond (joining in 2025-26) and William & Mary (joining in 2026-27) to announce a football move to the Patriot League in the last 13 months. The Patriot League will be up to 10 football members, while the CAA will be at 12. The CAA’s membership number may be relatively high, but its standing among the FCS pecking order has fallen drastically after the high-profile departures of James Madison in 2022, Delaware and Richmond in 2025, and Villanova and William & Mary in 2026.
NCAA Division 2 News
Chestnut Hill College (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) and Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) will move to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) in men’s tennis beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. Both schools previously competed in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC). The additions put the PSAC at 7 men’s programs for the 2025-26 academic year. The CACC no longer has any men’s tennis programs with Dominican (NY) and Post not competing during the 2024-25 academic year.
NCAA Division 3 News
Luther College Changes Conferences
Luther College (Decorah, Iowa) is leaving the American Rivers Conference to join the Midwest Conference beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. This isn’t an earth-shattering move, but Luther was a charter member of the A-R-C in 1922, and leaves the conference with 8 full members in Iowa and Nebraska. Meanwhile, the Midwest Conference will grow to 10 full members across Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. Luther has 24 athletic teams, but not all will move to the Midwest Conference. Luther’s men’s and women’s bowling teams compete as independents, while the Midwest Conference does not sponsor golf and wrestling. It wasn’t immediately known if those programs would remain in the A-R-C as affiliates or move to a new conference.
SUNYAC Makes Big Realignment Moves
The SUNYAC made a big splash this week with the addition of 3 full members and 4 associate members. We’ll start with the 2025-26 associate member changes, which will end the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference’s (AMCC) swimming & diving sponsorship. The AMCC and SUNYAC had a joint championship in 2024-25, but the SUNYAC will take control of the swimming & diving championships going forward.
Penn State Altoona, Penn State Behrend, and Pittsburgh-Bradford will leave the AMCC and join the SUNYAC in men’s and women’s swimming & diving. SUNY Delhi will also join the SUNYAC for men’s and women’s swimming & diving in 2025-26 after competing in the Little East Conference. Alfred State is winding down its swimming & diving teams starting next year. Alfred State will no longer sponsor swimming for the 2025-26 academic year; the diving programs will compete in the SUNYAC, and then the diving team will be discontinued beginning with the 2026-27 academic year.
Elmira College will join the SUNYAC in men’s wrestling for 2025-26 after competing as an independent. Elmira and John Carroll University will join the AMCC in 2025-26 for women’s wrestling after competing as independents. The AMCC will have six women’s wrestling members in 2025-26, which allows them to sponsor a championship. Alfred State, Buffalo State, Elmira, Hiram, John Carroll, and Penn State Altoona will compete for the AMCC women’s wrestling title next season. Finally, SUNY Cobleskill will add women’s field hockey and lacrosse in 2026-27, according to the SUNYAC’s press release.
For full membership changes, Alfred State will leave the AMCC while SUNY Cobleskill and SUNY Delhi will leave the North Atlantic Conference to join the SUNYAC beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. The AMCC and North Atlantic will both have 8 members after the changes with the SUNYAC set to increase to 12 full members in 2026-27. The SUNYAC will lose SUNY New Paltz to the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) in 2026-27.
Franciscan Adds Men’s Volleyball
Franciscan University of Steubenville (Ohio) will add men’s volleyball beginning with the 2026-27 academic year and compete in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference (PAC). The PAC currently has seven members: Bethany (WV), Chatham, Geneva, Grove City, Hiram, Saint Vincent, and Thiel. The membership will expand to 10 in 2026-27 when Saint Francis moves to NCAA Division 3, and Washington & Jefferson and Franciscan begin competing in the sport.
LaGrange Adds 6 Teams
LaGrange College (LaGrange, Georgia) will add six athletic teams beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. The Panthers will begin competing in men’s and women’s cross country and track & field as a member of the Collegiate Conference of the South (CCS). The CCS will have 7 men’s cross country and track teams and 8 women’s and cross country programs for 2025-26.
New England College Switches Alpine Skiing Divisions
New England College (Henniker, New Hampshire) will switch divisions for alpine skiing. The coed team will compete in the MacConnell Division beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. The Pilgrims previously competed in the Reynolds Division for four seasons (2021-22 through 2024-25) and were in the MacConnell Division from 2015-16 through 2019-20. The MacConnell Division is more competitive than the Reynolds Division among eastern teams.
NAIA News
Two NAIA conferences are signing a media rights deal with Urban Edge Network (UEN). The Heart of America Athletic Conference announced a five-year deal that’s expected to bring in seven figures in review. The other conference to announce a deal with UEN is the Southern State Athletic Conference (SSAC), although additional details were not provided in the SSAC’s press release. The UEN also partners with the HBCU Athletic Conference and streams the NAIA Championships. The NAIA also announced this week that it would expand its partnership with UEN, which will allow UEN to repackage as many as 12 NAIA competitions each year to broadcast and showcase a “Game of the Week” starting in the 2026-27 academic year. The current NAIA-UEN deal will continue through the 2028-29 academic year.
Union Commonwealth Cuts Tennis Programs
Union Commonwealth University (Barbourville, Kentucky) has discontinued its men’s and women’s tennis programs. UCU also confirmed it is ending the men’s and women’s swimming & diving teams, as reported in mid-April. The tennis teams competed in the Appalachian Athletic Conference, which will have 8 men’s teams and 9 women’s programs. Tennis has been the most impacted sport for the 2025-26 academic year, with a net of 27 programs not returning next year across the NCAA and NAIA.
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