History
2021 season as "AQ7"
After sponsoring major-college football (ultimately at the FBS level) from 1962 through 2012, the WAC suffered membership changes that transformed it into a non-football conference as of 2013, and it remained so for eight seasons. On January 14, 2021, the WAC announced the addition of five new members, all of which were already playing FCS football, and declared its intention to reinstate football as a conference sport at the FCS level. [1] The new members included the "Texas Four" of Abilene Christian University, Lamar University, Sam Houston State University, and Stephen F. Austin State University, all from the Southland Conference, along with Southern Utah University, from the Big Sky Conference. Initially, all five planned to join the WAC in July 2022, but the entry of the Texas Four was moved up to July 2021 after the Southland expelled its departing members. [2]
The same week that the WAC announced its plans to resume football, the Atlantic Sun Conference (then officially branded as the ASUN Conference) revealed plans to sponsor the sport for the first time, also at the FCS level. On January 29, 2021, the ASUN announced that it would be adding three football-playing schools: Eastern Kentucky University, the University of Central Arkansas, and former member Jacksonville State University. [3]
Both the WAC and the ASUN thus fell short of the minimum six football-playing members needed for an automatic qualifier to the FCS postseason. On February 23, 2021, they announced a partnership in which the WAC's Texas Four would join the three incoming ASUN football members for at least the 2021 season, in what was called the ASUN–WAC (or WAC–ASUN) Challenge. [4] [5] The Challenge was abbreviated as the "AQ7", as the top finisher of the seven teams would be an automatic qualifier for the FCS postseason. [6]
2022 season: AQ alliance renewed
For the 2022 season, the ASUN added former Big South members North Alabama and Kennesaw State, along with former Ohio Valley Conference member Austin Peay. [7] Meanwhile, the WAC added Southland Conference member Incarnate Word, former Division II schools Tarleton State and Utah Tech, and non-football playing UT Arlington from the Sun Belt Conference, [8] along with previously-announced Southern Utah. These additions should have given both conferences the minimum six eligible FCS football schools needed for a postseason AQ in 2022, but unexpected departures, and announcements of departures, left them short of this goal. On November 5, 2021, it was reported that Jacksonville State of the ASUN and Sam Houston State of the WAC would be leaving the FCS ranks for Conference USA, effective in fall 2023. [9] Then, on April 8, 2022, Lamar announced it was leaving the WAC after just one season to return to its former home, the Southland Conference. [10] [11] Finally, on June 24, 2022, Incarnate Word made a last-minute decision to stay in the Southland rather than join the WAC. [12]
The net result still left the WAC and ASUN each with six football-playing members, but the FBS transitions of Sam Houston State and Jacksonville State made them ineligible for the FCS postseason, and the WAC could not yet count Tarleton State and Utah Tech, both also ineligible because of their transitions from D2 to FCS. The mutual setbacks led the two conferences to renew their AQ alliance for the 2022 season with their eight remaining playoff-eligible members, five from the ASUN and three from the WAC. They kept separate football standings (with Jacksonville State eligible for the ASUN title and Sam Houston State eligible for the WAC title) but for playoff qualification purposes, only the joint ASUN-WAC Challenge standings mattered.
Merger as United Athletic Conference
On December 9, 2022, ESPN reported that the ASUN and WAC had agreed to form a new football-only conference to start play in 2024, with an initial nine-team lineup including Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, and North Alabama from the ASUN, and Abilene Christian, Southern Utah, Stephen F. Austin, Tarleton State, and Utah Tech from the WAC. [13] The ASUN's fifth AQ alliance participant from the 2022 season, Kennesaw State, was not included after announcing in mid-October that it would be following Jacksonville State and Sam Houston State to Conference USA, effective in fall 2024. [14] Kennesaw ended up playing the 2023 season as an FCS independent.
The new football conference reportedly planned to move "from what is currently known as FCS football to what is currently known as FBS football at the earliest practicable date." [15] On December 20, the ASUN and WAC confirmed their football merger, announcing that the new league would start to play in 2023 under the tentative name of "ASUN–WAC Football Conference." League members drafted a six-game schedule in 2023 and planned to start full round-robin play in 2024. Neither conference's official announcement of the football merger mentioned any plans to move to FBS. [16] [17]
The ASUN and WAC jointly announced on January 5, 2023, that the football conference had established a basic governing structure and had hired Oliver Luck as executive director. [18] On April 17, 2023, the ASUN-WAC football partnership formally rebranded as the United Athletic Conference (UAC). [19] Later the same month, the NCAA denied the UAC's waiver request to be recognized as a single-sport FCS football conference. [20] The UAC operated under its new name nevertheless, with the NCAA officially recognizing only the continuation of the ASUN-WAC partnership formed in 2021.
On September 8, 2023, the University of West Georgia announced it would transition from Division II and join the ASUN in 2024, with its football program joining the UAC. [21] Non-football WAC member UT Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) also planned to add the sport at the FCS level and join the UAC for 2024, [22] [23] but on March 25, 2024 announced its football program would debut instead in the Southland Conference, UTRGV's new all-sports home as of 2024–25. [24] Then, on May 29, 2024, Stephen F. Austin announced its intention to return to the Southland Conference, effective in fall 2024. [25] Thus, for the 2024 season, the UAC remained a nine-team league, with eight continuing members plus West Georgia replacing Stephen F. Austin.
Absorption Into an all-sports conference
On June 26, 2025, the ASUN Conference and the Western Athletic Conference jointly announced the formation of a new all-sports framework that will start operating on July 1, 2026. Under the agreement, the Western Athletic Conference will adopt the United Athletic Conference name and continue as an NCAA Division I multi-sport conference, retaining the membership core, historical continuity, and Division I status of the WAC.
As part of this transition, the existing football-only United Athletic Conference—which had been jointly operated by the ASUN and WAC since 2021—will become the football subdivision of the rebranded conference. Its membership, administration, and competitive structure will be absorbed into the new United Athletic Conference, creating a single unified all-sports league with an integrated football division. The ASUN institutions that play in Division I FCS and award football scholarships (Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama, and West Georgia) and the remaining WAC football members (Abilene Christian and Tarleton State) will compete together in the UAC football division beginning in the 2026 season. Non-football ASUN institutions, plus Stetson (a non-scholarship Division I FCS program) and Bellarmine (which plays the weight-restricted and non-NCAA variant of sprint football), will remain ASUN members, while the UAC will serve as the all-sports home for the combined football-playing membership.
The joint ASUN–WAC announcement emphasized continuity, describing the 2026–present conference as an expansion and rebranding of the WAC rather than the creation of a new league. The football division’s integration into the UAC allows the rebranded conference to maintain NCAA automatic qualification status and continue the WAC’s long-standing Division I tournament placements. [26] [27] By the 2025 football season, the UAC football league was co-directed by ASUN commissioner Jeff Bacon and WAC executive Rebekah Ray, both of whom transitioned into leadership roles under the consolidated 2026 structure.
Locations of United Athletic Conference members. Blue markers indicate football-only members that will become, or remain, members of all sports UAC in 2026. Red markers indicated members departing in 2026.
