In the 2010s, many college or university athletic programs have changed membership from one National Collegiate Athletic Association athletic conference to another.
In the 2010s, many college or university athletic programs have changed membership from one National Collegiate Athletic Association athletic conference to another.
| School | Sport(s) | Former Conference | New Conference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bemidji State Beavers | Men's ice hockey | CHA | WCHA |
| Duquesne Dukes | Baseball | Atlantic 10 | Dropped baseball |
| Georgia State Panthers | Football | (non-football) | Division I FCS Independent |
| High Point Panthers | Women's lacrosse | Club team | National Lacrosse Conference |
| Hofstra Pride | Football | CAA | Dropped football |
| Lamar Cardinals | Football | (non-football) | Division I FCS Independent |
| Old Dominion Monarchs | Football | (non-football) | Division I FCS Independent |
| New Orleans Privateers [374] | All sports (non-football) | Sun Belt | Independent |
| Niagara Purple Eagles | Men's ice hockey | CHA | Atlantic Hockey |
| Northeastern Huskies | Football | CAA | Dropped football |
| Robert Morris Colonials | Men's ice hockey | CHA | Atlantic Hockey |
| SIU Edwardsville Cougars | Men's soccer | Division I Independent | Missouri Valley Conference |
| UAH Chargers | Hockey | CHA | Division I Independent |
| UNO Mavericks | Hockey | CCHA | WCHA |
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 Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) is a collegiate athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern and Southeastern United States. It participates in Division I of the NCAA; the conference's football programs compete in partnership with the Big South Conference in the Football Championship Subdivision, the lower of two levels of Division I football competition. The OVC has 11 members, six of which compete in football in the conference.
The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the states of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), and began operating the Big South–OVC Football Association in partnership with the Ohio Valley Conference in 2023. The Big South, founded in 1983, is firmly rooted in the South Atlantic region of the United States, with full member institutions located in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Associate members are located in Georgia and South Carolina.
The Gulf South Conference (GSC) 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.
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 Jacksonville. On May 8, 2024, the conference announced it would move its headquarters from Atlanta, Georgia to Jacksonville, Florida in the fall of 2024.
The Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Its fifteen member institutions are located in the U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Missouri. There are also four associate members who participate in sports not sponsored by their home conference.
The ECAC Lacrosse League was an American NCAA Division I college athletic conference and part of the Eastern College Athletic Conference. Founded in 1999 with play beginning in 2000, this part of the conference only sponsored men's lacrosse. It disbanded at the end of the 2014 season as an indirect result of the early-2010s NCAA conference realignment.
College lacrosse is played by student-athletes at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. In both countries, men's field lacrosse and women's lacrosse are played at both the varsity and club levels. College lacrosse in Canada is sponsored by the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association (CUFLA) and Maritime University Field Lacrosse League (MUFLL), while in the United States, varsity men's and women's lacrosse is governed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). There are also university lacrosse programs in the United Kingdom sponsored by British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) and programs in Japan.
The Air Force Falcons are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the United States Air Force Academy, located in El Paso County, Colorado north of Colorado Springs. The athletic department has 17 men's and 10 women's NCAA-sanctioned teams. The current athletic director is Nathan Pine. The majority of Falcon teams compete as members of the Mountain West Conference.
The NJIT Highlanders, formerly the New Jersey Tech Highlanders, are the varsity sport members of the Division I NCAA-affiliated sports teams of New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). There are ten men's teams, seven women's teams, and three club teams along with a variety of intramural teams. The school's primary conference is the America East Conference. In November 2017 NJIT opened the Wellness and Events Center (WEC) which incorporates upgraded facilities for most Division 1 sports including a 3,500-seat arena for basketball and volleyball.
The Denver Pioneers are the sports teams of the University of Denver (DU). They play in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, and have amassed 35 NCAA titles as of 2024, which is in the top 15 among all schools. Denver is a member of The Summit League for men's and women's basketball, swimming and diving, men's and women's soccer, tennis and golf for both men and women, plus women's volleyball. Other DU teams play in various conferences in the sports that are not sponsored by The Summit. The men's ice hockey team is a charter member of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC), which formed in 2011 with play beginning in 2013. The lacrosse teams for men and women are members of the Big East Conference; the men began Big East play in the 2013–14 school year, while the women left the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) after the 2016 lacrosse season. Men's and women's skiing compete in the Rocky Mountain Intercollegiate Ski Association, while the women's gymnastics team became an affiliate of the Big 12 Conference starting with the 2015–16 season.
The Furman Paladins are the varsity athletic teams representing Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, in intercollegiate athletics.
The Liberty Flames and Lady Flames are the athletics teams of Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. They are a member of the NCAA Division I level in 20 sports. As of July 1, 2023, LU is a member of Conference USA (CUSA) for most sports, joining that league after five years as a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN).
The Bellarmine Knights are the teams representing Bellarmine University, located in Louisville, Kentucky, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the NCAA Division I ranks, primarily competing in the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) for most sports, as of the 2020–21 academic year. The Knights previously competed in the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) of the NCAA Division II ranks from 1978–79 to 2019–20.
The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the 11 full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and Midwest metropolitan areas. The conference was officially recognized as a Division I multi-sport conference on August 1, 2013, and since then conference members have won NCAA national championships in men's basketball, women's cross country, field hockey, men's lacrosse, and men's soccer. Val Ackerman is the commissioner.
The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate athletic conference in The United States of America featuring 13 full member universities and six affiliate member universities that compete in The National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I, with its football teams competing in The Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). Member universities represent a range of private and public research universities of various enrollment sizes located primarily in urban metropolitan areas in the Northeastern, Midwestern, and Southern regions of the United States.
"This is an important year for our program as we start our transition to the FBS", said fifth-year head coach Joe Moglia. "However, we are still an FCS independent this year and have put together a nationally-competitive schedule to reflect that.
Lincoln Memorial will begin its inaugural season of men's volleyball in January, 2017 and become the University's 21st sport.
"We have been working extremely hard to gear up for our inaugural season as full NCAA members competing in NCAA DI/II this coming fall." (AB head coach Greg Walker)
Established in 2013, and going into effect starting with the 2013–14 season, charter members in the PRC are the U.S. Air Force Academy, TCU, Ohio State, Nevada, UTEP, and the University of Alaska.
The Western Athletic Conference today announced that an invitation for affiliate membership has been issued to and accepted by CSU Bakersfield and Dallas Baptist to join the conference in baseball starting with the 2012–13 academic year.