Since 2020 many college or university athletic programs have changed membership from one National Collegiate Athletic Association athletic conference to another.
Since 2020 many college or university athletic programs have changed membership from one National Collegiate Athletic Association athletic conference to another.
The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twelve full member schools are in Ohio and Michigan, with single members located in Illinois, Indiana, and New York. For football, the MAC participates in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision.
The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Participating schools are located principally in the Northeastern United States, from which the conference derives its name.
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 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF) is a college athletic conference with members located mostly in the western United States, although it has added members as far east as Pennsylvania. The conference participates at the NCAA Division I level, primarily in Olympic sports that are not sponsored by a school's primary conference.
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 facilities and more athletic scholarships than Division II and Division 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 East Coast Conference (ECC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located primarily in the state of New York, with a single member located in the District of Columbia.
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 Missouri State Bears and Lady Bears are the athletic teams representing Missouri State University. Missouri State's athletics programs date back to 1908. Missouri State competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, but started a transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision on July 1, 2024. The majority of sports play in the Division I Missouri Valley Conference. Missouri State football competes in the Missouri Valley Football Conference and the women's beach volleyball team, nicknamed Beach Bears instead of "Bears" or "Lady Bears", competes in Conference USA (CUSA), having moved from the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association after the spring 2023 season. Men's swimming & diving had competed in the Mid-American Conference through the 2023–24 season, but sponsorship of that sport transferred from that conference to the MVC in July 2024. Missouri State will become a full member of CUSA on July 1, 2025.
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.
Conference Carolinas, formerly known as the Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference (CVAC) or the Carolinas Conference, is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) primarily at the Division II level. It is also considered as one of the seven Division I conferences for men's volleyball. Originally formed in 1930, the league reached its modern incarnation in 1994. Member institutions are located in the southeastern United States in the states of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The Conference Carolinas membership currently consists of 15 small colleges or universities, 13 private and two public.
The Grand Canyon Antelopes are the 21 athletic teams representing Grand Canyon University, located in Phoenix, Arizona. Most of the university's athletic teams compete at the NCAA Division I level in the Western Athletic Conference. Beach volleyball and men's volleyball compete in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), with men's volleyball having joined in the 2017–18 academic year and beach volleyball in 2024–25, the first season for MPSF beach volleyball. The university will become a full member of the Mountain West in 2026.
The Southern Virginia Knights are the athletic teams that represent Southern Virginia University, located in Buena Vista, Virginia, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the Division III level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), primarily competing in the USA South Athletic Conference for most of its sports since the 2021–22 academic year; while its men's volleyball team competes in the Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC).
The Mountain East Conference (MEC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level and officially began competition on September 1, 2013. It consists of 11 schools, mostly in West Virginia with other members in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
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 American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and six affiliate member universities that compete in The National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. Its football teams compete 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.
The LIU Sharks are the athletics teams representing Long Island University's (LIU) campuses in Brooklyn and Brookville, New York. The Sharks compete in NCAA Division I athletics and are members of the Northeast Conference. The LIU Sharks are the result of the July 1, 2019 unification of the athletic departments which had previously represented two separate campuses of LIU, the NCAA Division I LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds and the NCAA Division II LIU Post Pioneers.
Beginning in the 2021–22 academic year, extensive changes occurred in NCAA conference membership, primarily at the Division I level.
The full NEC conference membership will be for 13 of CSU's men's and women's sports while men's and women's tennis will remain in the Horizon League for one more season.
In Olympic Sports, the directors approved affiliate members in men's lacrosse, (Massachusetts & Delaware) beginning with the 2026 season.
{{cite press release}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)The Warriors will play a robust 11-game schedule as an independent Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) team.
The Pioneers, in their first season as an FCS Independent, begin 2024 with three straight home games, including the opener against Delaware State on Aug. 31.
The league serves up its second season with opening matches this weekend featuring (16) FIU, (12) Florida Atlantic and UAB, along with new members Jacksonville State and (ARV) Tulane.
The Dukes will be playing the 2022 season as an independent team and will play 17 games...
Stephen F. Austin begins its first season in the league and is set to open its 2022 campaign at the Kingsville Tournament where they face Ottawa, Texas A&M Kingsville, Missouri Baptist and Colorado Mesa.
The Saints will still maintain a relationship with Conference Carolinas as an associate member in acrobatics and tumbling. The Limestone field hockey and men's wrestling teams will also continue in their respective leagues that are sponsored by Conference Carolinas and the South Atlantic Conference.This press release made no mention of a men's volleyball affiliation.