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 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.
Stephen F. Austin State University is a public university in Nacogdoches, Texas. It was founded as a teachers' college in 1923 and subsequently renamed after one of Texas's founding fathers, Stephen F. Austin. Its campus resides on part of the homestead of Thomas Jefferson Rusk. On May 11, 2023, the university joined the University of Texas System; it was previously one of two public universities in the state not affiliated with one of Texas's seven university systems.
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 NCAA Bowling Championship is a sanctioned women's championship in college athletics. Unlike many NCAA sports, only one National Collegiate championship is held each season with teams from Division I, Division II, and Division III competing together. Seventeen teams, nine of them automatic qualifiers and the other eight being at-large selections, are chosen by the NCAA Bowling Committee to compete in the championship. The championship was first held in April 2004.
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 Youngstown State Penguins are the athletic teams of Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. The university is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I, and the Penguins compete in football as members of the Missouri Valley Football Conference. Most other sports compete as members of the Horizon League.
The Sam Houston Bearkats are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Sam Houston State University, located in Huntsville, Texas. Sam Houston's colors are orange and white. Sam Houston sports teams participate in NCAA Division I in Conference USA (CUSA), having joined that conference on July 1, 2023 after spending 34 years in the Southland Conference and two years in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). SHSU's primary rival is Stephen F. Austin (SFA) and tensions between the two schools can run high before major sporting events that pit one against the other.
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 Division I as a member of the Southland Conference (SLC), having rejoined that conference on July 1, 2024 after three years in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). The football team competes in the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision for football in the SLC. The only SFA sport not sponsored by the SLC is women's bowling, which competes in Conference USA (CUSA).
The 2015 Southland Conference men's basketball tournament, a part of the 2014–15 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, took place March 11–14 at the Merrell Center in Katy, Texas. The winner of the tournament received the Southland Conference's automatic bid to the 2015 NCAA tournament. Two programs in their second year of the transition from NCAA Division II to Division I, Abilene Christian and Incarnate Word, were ineligible for the tournament. Three programs were ineligible for the tournament for failure to meet enhanced NCAA Academic Performance Rating (APR) requirements. Those teams were Central Arkansas, Houston Baptist, and Lamar. The three teams are part of a group of nine NCAA teams ineligible for 2015 post season basketball play. With the departure of Oral Roberts to the Summit League, only eight conference teams remain eligible for the tournament.
The 2015 Southland Conference baseball tournament was held from May 20 through 23. The top eight regular season finishers of the league's ten teams met in the double-elimination tournament held at Constellation Field in Sugar Land, Texas. The event returned to Sugar Land as part of a two season contract after one season on campus. The winner of the tournament, Houston Baptist, earns the conference's automatic bid to the 2015 NCAA Division I baseball tournament. Abilene Christian and Incarnate Word are ineligible for postseason play as they transition from Division II.
The 2017 Southland Conference baseball tournament was held from May 24 through 27. The top eight regular season finishers of the league's thirteen teams met in the double-elimination tournament to be held at Constellation Field in Sugar Land, Texas. Sam Houston State won their sixth tournament championship to earn the conference's automatic bid to the 2017 NCAA Division I baseball tournament. Abilene Christian and Incarnate Word are ineligible for postseason play as they transition from Division II.
The 2018–19 Southland Conference men's basketball season, the conference's 56th, began with practices in October 2018, followed by the start of the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season on November 6, 2018. Conference play began on January 2, 2019 concluding on March 9, 2019. The Sam Houston State Bearkats won the regular season championship with a conference record of 16–2. The 2019 Southland Conference men's basketball tournament was held in Katy, Texas at the Merrell Center from March 13–17, 2019. The 2nd seeded Abilene Christian Wildcats won the conference tournament championship and received the conference automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Two other teams also received bids to post season tournaments. Conference regular season champion, Sam Houston State, received the conference automatic bid to the NIT tournament. New Orleans received a bid to the CIT tournament.
The 2021 NCAA Bowling Championship was the 17th edition of the NCAA Bowling Championship, the annual tournament to determine the national champion of women's NCAA collegiate ten-pin bowling. The tournament was hosted by the University of Central Missouri and played at the AMF Pro Bowl Lanes in North Kansas City, Missouri from April 7–10, 2021.
The 2022 NCAA Division I FCS football season, part of college football in the United States, is organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level. The regular season began on August 27 and ended on November 19. The postseason began on November 26, and ended on January 8, 2023, with the 2023 NCAA Division I Football Championship Game at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas. South Dakota State defeated defending champion North Dakota State, 45-21, to win the title.
Beginning in the 2021–22 academic year, extensive changes occurred in NCAA conference membership, primarily at the Division I level.
The 2003 Southland Conference men's basketball tournament took place March 10–14, 2003. The quarterfinal and semifinal rounds were played at the home arena of the higher seeded-teams, with the championship game played at Bernard Johnson Coliseum in Huntsville, Texas.
The United Athletic Conference (UAC) also known as The United is an NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) intercollegiate athletic 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, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.
The 2023 NCAA Bowling Championship was the 19th edition of the NCAA Bowling Championship, the annual tournament to determine the national champion of women's NCAA collegiate ten-pin bowling. The finals were hosted by UNLV and played at the South Point Hotel in Enterprise, Nevada from April 14 to 15, 2023. The championship game was streamed live on ESPNU. Vanderbilt beat Arkansas State in the championship game to win their third title.
The 2023–24 Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks basketball team represented Stephen F. Austin State University during the 2023–24 NCAA Division I women's basketball season. The Ladyjacks, who were led by first-year head coach Leonard Bishop, played their home games at the William R. Johnson Coliseum in Nacogdoches, Texas as members of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC).
