United Athletic Conference

United Athletic Conference

Formerly	WAC–ASUN Challenge (2021–2022) ASUN–WAC Football Conference (2022–2023)
Association	NCAA
Founded	February 23, 2021; 3 years ago (2021-02-23) (Unofficially) July 1, 2023; 17 months ago (2023-07-01) (Officially)
Commissioner	Brian Thornton (2022—2024) Jeff Bacon (2023—present)
Sports fielded	1 men's: 1 women's: 0
Division	Division I
Subdivision	FCS (football)
No. of teams	9
Region	Southwestern United States Western United States Southern United States
Official website	uacfootball.com
Locations

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.

History

Western Athletic Conference

On January 14, 2021, the WAC announced its intention to reinstate football as a conference-sponsored sport at the FCS level, as well as the addition of five new members to the conference in all sports, including football.^[1] The new members announced included the "Texas Four" of Abilene Christian University, Lamar University, Sam Houston State University, and Stephen F. Austin State University, then members of the Southland Conference, along with Southern Utah University, from the Big Sky Conference. Originally, all schools were planned to join in July 2022, but the entry of the Texas Four was moved to July 2021 after the Southland expelled its departing members.^[2] The WAC also announced that it would most likely add another football-playing institution at a later date.

On the same day, news broke that the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, a non-football-playing WAC member, had committed to creating an FCS football program by 2024.^[3] UTRGV later announced it would play an exhibition schedule in 2024 before starting full varsity play in 2025. However, UTRGV moved their athletics program, including football, from the WAC to the Southland in 2024 before they played a single game in the alliance.^[4]

The WAC ultimately partnered with the Atlantic Sun Conference (then officially branded as the ASUN Conference) to reestablish its football league, with the Texas Four being joined by three incoming ASUN members for at least the fall 2021 season in what it calls the ASUN–WAC (or WAC–ASUN) Challenge.^[5][6] The Challenge was abbreviated as "AQ7", as the top finisher of the seven teams would be an automatic qualifier for the FCS postseason.^[7] The two conferences renewed their alliance for the 2022 season, although both leagues will conduct separate conference seasons and then choose the alliance's automatic qualifier by an as-yet-undetermined process. Both the WAC and ASUN initially planned to have six playoff-eligible teams in 2022, but each lost such a member with the start of FBS transitions by Jacksonville State and Sam Houston.

See also: 2021 NCAA Division I FCS football season § Membership changes

On November 5, 2021, it was reported that New Mexico State (an FBS independent) and Sam Houston would be leaving the WAC for Conference USA in 2023.^[8] The WAC responded by adding football-playing Incarnate Word from the Southland Conference and non-football school UT Arlington from the Sun Belt Conference; however, UIW later reversed course and decided to stay with the SLC only days before the 2022-23 athletic season officially began.^[9][10] Lamar also announced that it too would return to its former home of the Southland Conference in 2023 roughly three months prior to UIW's announcement, on April 8, 2022; however, three months later, it was announced that the SLC and Lamar would be accelerating the rejoining process so that Lamar could return for the 2022 athletic season instead.^[11][12]

The WAC has been speculated to move back up to FBS in the future following the re-establishment of the football conference at the FCS level.^[13]

Atlantic Sun Conference

The ASUN Conference announced that it would be adding the University of Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky University, and former member Jacksonville State University, as incoming members on January 29, 2021, with the intent of sponsoring football in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) in 2022.^[14] However, with these three schools joining in 2021, the league partnered with another conference beginning to sponsor football also in 2022, the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), to allow the three teams to join the WAC as football affiliates for 2021, branding it interchangeably as the "ASUN–WAC Challenge" and "WAC–ASUN Challenge"; the two leagues will receive a combined bid to the FCS playoffs.^[5][6]

As soon as it was announced, however, the football league was thrown into jeopardy, as Jacksonville State announced it would be leaving once again in 2023 for Conference USA (CUSA), an FBS conference. Liberty University was also invited to CUSA for 2023, but had already competed as an FBS independent for some time and was not included in the ASUN's new football league.^[15] With the WAC also losing Sam Houston, another football-sponsoring school, to CUSA, the two conferences announced they would be renewing their alliance for the 2022 season.^[16] On September 17, 2021, the ASUN announced Austin Peay State University, a football-sponsoring school, as a new member for the 2022–23 season.^[17]

Merger

ESPN reported on December 9, 2022, that the ASUN and WAC had agreed to form a new football-only conference that plans to start play in 2024. The initial membership would consist of 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. UTRGV was originally planned to become the 10th member upon its planned addition of football in 2025; however, they moved their athletics program, including football, from the WAC to the Southland in 2024 before they played a single game in the alliance.^[4][18] The new football conference also 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."^[19] On December 20, the two conferences confirmed the football merger, announcing that the new football league would start to play in 2023 under the tentative name of "ASUN–WAC Football Conference". The new football league played a six-game schedule in 2023 and planned to start full round-robin conference play in 2024, but this was before the league expanded beyond 9 members following the 2023 season. Neither conference's announcement mentioned any plans to move to FBS.^[20][21]

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.^[22]

On April 17, 2023, ASUN-WAC Football Partnership formally rebranded as the United Athletic Conference.^[23] The UAC's waiver request to be recognized as a single-sport FCS football conference was denied by the NCAA later the same month.^[24]

On September 8, 2023, the University of West Georgia announced it would transition from Division II and join the ASUN in 2024; accordingly, the UAC announced that the West Georgia football program would also join the conference the same year.^[25]

Utah Tech

Tarleton State

Abilene Christian

Southern Utah

Central Arkansas

Eastern Kentucky

North Alabama

Austin Peay

West Georgia

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Locations of United Athletic Conference members

Member schools

Current members

Institution	Location	Founded	Joined	Type	Enrollment	Nickname	Colors	Primary conference
Abilene Christian University	Abilene, Texas	1906	2021	Private (Church of Christ)	6,219	Wildcats		WAC
Austin Peay State University	Clarksville, Tennessee	1927	2022	Public	9,609	Governors		ASUN
University of Central Arkansas	Conway, Arkansas	1907	2021		9,913	Bears
Eastern Kentucky University	Richmond, Kentucky	1874			13,984	Colonels
University of North Alabama	Florence, Alabama	1830	2022		11,056	Lions
Southern Utah University	Cedar City, Utah	1897			14,330	Thunderbirds		WAC
Tarleton State University	Stephenville, Texas	1899	2023		13,995	Texans
Utah Tech University	St. George, Utah	1911			12,556	Trailblazers
University of West Georgia	Carrollton, Georgia	1906	2024		14,394	Wolves		ASUN

Former members

Team	Location	Nickname	Joined[a]	Departed	Current Primary Conference	Current Football Conference
Jacksonville State University	Jacksonville, Alabama	Gamecocks	2021	2022[b]	CUSA
Kennesaw State University	Kennesaw, Georgia	Owls	2022	2023	CUSA
Lamar University	Beaumont, Texas	Cardinals	2021	2022	Southland
Sam Houston State University	Huntsville, Texas	Bearkats	2021	2022[b]	CUSA
Stephen F. Austin State University	Nacogdoches, Texas	Lumberjacks	2021	2024	Southland
University of Texas Rio Grande Valley	Brownsville & Edinburg, Texas[c]	Vaqueros	2021[d]	2024	Southland

Membership timeline

Full members Full non-playing members Other Conference Other Conference

Conference Champions

2024 United Athletic Conference standings v t e Conf Overall Team   W   L     W   L   No. 15 Abilene Christian $^   7 – 1     9 – 5   No. 14 Tarleton State ^   6 – 2     10 – 4   No. 22 Eastern Kentucky ^   6 – 2     8 – 5   Southern Utah   6 – 2     7 – 5   Central Arkansas   3 – 5     6 – 6   Austin Peay   3 – 5     4 – 8   North Alabama   3 – 5     3 – 9   West Georgia*   1 – 7     4 – 7   Utah Tech   1 – 7     1 – 11   $ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Note: West Georgia is ineligible for the UAC title and FCS postseason play due to transition from NCAA Division II. Rankings from STATS Poll
2023 United Athletic Conference standings v t e Conf Overall Team   W   L     W   L   No. 18 Austin Peay $^   6 – 0     9 – 3   Central Arkansas   4 – 2     7 – 4   Southern Utah   4 – 2     6 – 5   Eastern Kentucky   4 – 2     5 – 6   Tarleton State*   4 – 2     8 – 3   Abilene Christian   3 – 3     5 – 6   North Alabama   1 – 5     3 – 8   Utah Tech*   1 – 5     2 – 9   Stephen F. Austin   0 – 6     3 – 8   $ – Conference champion Note: Tarleton State and Utah Tech are ineligible for the UAC title and FCS postseason play due to transitions from NCAA Division II. Rankings from STATS Poll	2022 WAC–ASUN Challenge football standings v t e Conf Overall Team   W   L     W   L   Eastern Kentucky $^   4 – 1     7 – 5   Central Arkansas   4 – 1     5 – 6   Austin Peay   3 – 1     7 – 4   Stephen F. Austin   2 – 1     6 – 5   Abilene Christian   1 – 1     7 – 4   Kennesaw State   1 – 3     5 – 6   Southern Utah   0 – 3     5 – 6   North Alabama   0 – 4     1 – 10   $ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from STATS Poll	2021 WAC–ASUN Challenge football standings v t e Conf Overall Team   W   L     W   L   No. 5 Sam Houston $^   6 – 0     11 – 1   No. 21 Stephen F. Austin ^   4 – 2     8 – 4   Eastern Kentucky   4 – 2     7 – 4   Central Arkansas   3 – 3     5 – 6   Jacksonville State   3 – 3     5 – 6   Abilene Christian   1 – 5     5 – 6   Lamar   0 – 6     1 – 9   $ – Conference champion ^ – FCS playoff participant Rankings from STATS Poll

Football conference champions

This is a list of the champions since 2023.

Year	Regular Season Champion	Record	FCS Championship Result
2023	Austin Peay	9–3	First Round
2024	Abilene Christian	9–5	Second Round

Conference facilities

School	Football stadium	Capacity
Abilene Christian	Anthony Field at Wildcat Stadium	12,000
Austin Peay	Fortera Stadium	10,000
Central Arkansas	Estes Stadium	10,000
Eastern Kentucky	Roy Kidd Stadium	20,000
North Alabama	Braly Municipal Stadium	14,215
Southern Utah	Eccles Coliseum	8,500
Tarleton	Memorial Stadium	24,000
Utah Tech	Greater Zion Stadium	10,000[27]
West Georgia	University Stadium	10,000

Notes

1. The United Athletic Conference officially began in the 2023 season. The year joined reflects when the program joined the UAC or WAC-ASUN Challenge as a whole.
2. The ASUN Conference and Western Athletic Conference both held individual conference schedules (WAC 2021-22, ASUN 2022 only) which included schools that were ineligible for the FCS postseason due to D-II or FBS transitions.
   • Tarleton and Utah Tech transitioned from Division II and therefore played only in the WAC in the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
   • Sam Houston and Jacksonville State began transitioning to FBS and therefore played in the WAC and ASUN, respectively, for the 2022 season.
3. While UTRGV has multiple campuses within its service area, its athletic program is based at the Edinburg campus, which it inherited from its athletic predecessor, the University of Texas–Pan American. The football team plans to play home games in both Brownsville (home to a UTRGV campus inherited from the University of Texas at Brownsville) and Edinburg; when UTRGV confirmed the addition of football in late 2022, it committed to establishing separate marching bands and spirit programs for the two campuses.^[26]
4. When UTRGV first committed to adding a football program in 2021, it was announced as an inaugural but non-playing member of the UAC, with plans to begin conference play in 2025 once its program was fully established. However, UTRGV announced it would move its entire athletics program (including its football team) to the Southland Conference in 2024, before it had played a single game within the UAC.

References

1. "WAC Announces Expansion, Plans to Reinstate Football". Western Athletic Conference (Press release). 14 January 2021.
2. Blum, Sam (January 14, 2021). "As WAC announces addition of 5 schools, Frisco-based Southland Conference left in no man's land". The Dallas Morning News. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
3. Jeyarajah, Shehan. "UTRGV commits to add FCS football by 2024". Dave Campbell's Texas Football. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
4. "UTRGV Athletics Accepts Invitation to Join Southland Conference in 2024-25" (Press release). UTRGV Vaqueros Athletics. March 25, 2024. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
5. "ASUN, WAC Conferences Announce Football Partnership for 2021" (Press release). ASUN Conference. February 23, 2021. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
6. "From the Commissioner's Desk: @ASUN_Football Update" (Press release). ASUN Conference. February 23, 2021. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
7. "FCS college football 2021: AQ7 preview". KRQE. Stats Perform. August 20, 2021. Retrieved September 5, 2021.
8. "C-USA picks Liberty among four new additions". ESPN. 5 November 2021.
9. "University of Texas at Arlington Accepts Invitation to Join WAC". WAC (Press release). 21 January 2022.
10. "UNIVERSITY OF THE INCARNATE WORD STAYING IN THE SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE" (Press release). Southland Conference. June 24, 2022. Retrieved June 24, 2022.
11. "Lamar University Is Coming Home to the Southland Conference" (Press release). Southland Conference. April 8, 2022. Retrieved April 8, 2022.
12. Thomas Scott (July 11, 2022). "Lamar moving to Southland Conference -- immediately". Hearst. Retrieved July 11, 2022.
13. Deaver, Colin (7 January 2021). "Reports: WAC football to return in 2022, rise to FBS later in decade". KTSM.com. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
14. "ASUN Conference Announces Three New Institutions; Adds Football as 20th Sport" (Press release). ASUN Conference. January 29, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
15. "Conference USA to add Liberty, Jacksonville State, New Mexico State, Sam Houston State beginning in 2023". ESPN. 5 November 2021.
16. "ASUN and WAC Renew Football Alliance" (Press release). ASUN Conference. May 18, 2022. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
17. "ASUN Conference Welcomes Austin Peay State University as its Newest Member" (Press release). ASUN Conference. September 17, 2021. Retrieved September 17, 2021.
18. "FCS Daily Dose: FCS Startup UTRGV To Join The Southland Conference" HERO Sports. Retrieved 2024-04-25.
19. Thamel, Pete (December 9, 2022). "Atlantic Sun, WAC teams pairing up to attempt move to FBS, sources say". ESPN.com. Retrieved December 9, 2022.
20. "@ASUN_Football and WAC Release 2023 Schedule" (Press release). ASUN Conference. December 20, 2022. Retrieved December 22, 2022.
21. "ASUN And WAC Unveil 2023 Football Schedule" (Press release). Western Athletic Conference. December 20, 2022. Retrieved December 22, 2022.
22. "ASUN-WAC Football Names Executive Director and New Conference Structure" (Press release). ASUN Conference. January 5, 2023. Retrieved January 9, 2023.
23. "ASUN-WAC Football Partnership Formally Rebrands As The United Athletic Conference" (Press release). Western Athletic Conference. April 17, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2023.
24. Vannini, Chris (April 27, 2023). "NCAA denies United Athletic Conference's waiver request to be single-sport conference". The Athletic. Archived from the original on July 5, 2023. Retrieved July 5, 2023.
25. "UAC Welcomes West Georgia as its 11th Member" (Press release). United Athletic Conference. September 8, 2023. Retrieved September 8, 2023.
26. "UTRGV announces approval of football, women's aquatics, band, spirit programs" (Press release). UTRGV Vaqueros. November 18, 2022. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
27. "University Quick Facts" (PDF). 2018 Dixie State Men's Soccer Media Guide. Dixie State Trailblazers. p. 1. Retrieved January 23, 2019.

External links

• Official website