Conference USA (CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose member institutions are located within the Southern United States and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas.
The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington.
The South Atlantic Conference (SAC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, which operates in the southeastern United States. The SAC was founded in 1975 as a football-only conference and became an all-sports conference beginning with the 1989–90 season.
The Southland Conference, abbreviated as SLC, is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the South Central United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I for all sports; for football, it participates in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). The Southland sponsors 18 sports, 10 for women and eight for men, and is governed by a presidential Board of Directors and an Advisory Council of athletic and academic administrators. Chris Grant became the Southland's seventh commissioner on April 5, 2022. From 1996 to 2002, for football only, the Southland Conference was known as the Southland Football League.
NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic powers, with large budgets, more elaborate and nicer facilities and a few more athletic scholarships than Divisions II and III as well as many smaller schools committed to the highest level of intercollegiate competition.
The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Division I FCS level in 2022. Originally established as the Trans America Athletic Conference (TAAC) in 1978, it was renamed as the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2001, and briefly rebranded as the ASUN Conference from 2016 to 2023. The conference still uses "ASUN" as an official abbreviation. The conference headquarters are located in Atlanta. On May 8th, 2024, the conference announced it would move its headquarters from Atlanta, Georgia to Jacksonville, Florida in the fall of 2024.
NCAA Division I independent schools are four-year institutions that compete in college athletics at the NCAA Division I level, but do not belong to an established athletic conference for a particular sport. These schools may however still compete as members of an athletic conference in other sports. A school may also be fully independent, and not belong to any athletic conference for any sport at all. The reason for independent status varies among institutions, but it is frequently because the school's primary athletic conference does not sponsor a particular sport.
The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) sponsored football and crowned a champion every year from 1962 to 2012. Once considered one of the best conferences in college football, steady attrition from 1999 to 2012 forced the WAC to drop football after fifty-one years.
The Eastern Kentucky Colonels are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Eastern Kentucky University (EKU), located in Richmond, Kentucky, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the NCAA Division I ranks, primarily competing in the ASUN Conference since the 2021–22 academic year. Its football team competes in the United Athletic Conference (UAC), which starts play in 2023 as a football-only merger of the ASUN and the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). The Colonels previously competed in the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) from 1948–49 to 2020–21.
The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks and Ladyjacks are composed of 16 teams representing Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA) in intercollegiate athletics. Stephen F. Austin teams participate in the Division I as a member of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), having joined that conference on July 1, 2021, leaving the Southland Conference. The football team competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision for football as a member of the United Athletic Conference (UAC). As of the 2023–24 season, the women's bowling team competes as a single-sport member of Conference USA.
The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks football program is the intercollegiate American football team for Stephen F. Austin State University (SFA) located in the U.S. state of Texas. The team competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) as members of the United Athletic Conference. The UAC, newly formed for the 2023 season, is a merger of the football leagues of SFA's primary home of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and the ASUN Conference. It replaces an alliance between the two conferences that operated in the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
The Abilene Christian Wildcats football program is the intercollegiate American football team for the Abilene Christian University located in the U.S. state of Texas. The team was a member of the Southland Conference through the 2020–21 season, but joined the Western Athletic Conference in July 2021, coinciding with that league's reinstatement of football as an official conference sport. After the 2022 season, the WAC fully merged its football league with that of the ASUN Conference, creating what eventually became the United Athletic Conference, and ACU accordingly moved its football team to the new league. The school's first football team was fielded in 1919. The team plays its home games at the on-campus Anthony Field at Wildcat Stadium.
The Tarleton State Texans football program, also known as the Tarleton Texans, is the intercollegiate American football team for Tarleton State University located in the U.S. state of Texas. Through the 2019 season, the team competed in NCAA Division II as members of the Lone Star Conference, but moved to the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) beginning in the 2020–21 NCAA Division I FCS football season. In fall 2021, Tarleton's full-time home of the Western Athletic Conference revived its football league at the FCS level, with Tarleton as one of the inaugural members.
The Queens Royals are the athletic teams that represent Queens University of Charlotte, located in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States, in NCAA intercollegiate sporting competitions. On July 1, 2022, the Royals began a four-year transition from NCAA Division II to Division I as new members of the ASUN Conference. Before then, Queens had competed in the South Atlantic Conference for 20 of their varsity sports; the men's and women's swimming and diving teams competed in the Bluegrass Mountain Conference and the men's volleyball team competed in the Independent Volleyball Association, a scheduling alliance among schools that are independents in that sport's National Collegiate division. Queens had been a member of the SAC since 2013, when it moved from Conference Carolinas.
The Cal Baptist Lancers are the athletic teams that represent California Baptist University, located in Riverside, California, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), primarily competing in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). The men's water polo team competes in the West Coast Conference (WCC), the women's water polo team competes in the Golden Coast Conference (GCC), and the men's wrestling team competes in the Big 12 Conference.
The Austin Peay Governors are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Austin Peay State University, located in Clarksville, Tennessee, United States. The Governors athletic program is a member of the NCAA Division I Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) for all sports except football, in which it competes in the United Athletic Conference (UAC). The latter conference started play in the 2023 season as a football-only merger between two conferences in the second tier of Division I football, the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)—the ASUN and the Western Athletic Conference. Before the 2022–23 school year, the Governors were members of another FCS league, the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC).
Beginning in the 2021–22 academic year, extensive changes occurred in NCAA conference membership, primarily at the Division I level.
The United Athletic Conference (UAC) is an NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) conference. The conference is a merger of the existing football leagues of the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) and Western Athletic Conference (WAC). The UAC covers the southwestern, western, and southern United States with member institutions located in Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah, with a future member located in Georgia.
