United Athletic Conference

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 UAC will become a full-sports conference in 2026 with 8 members from the WAC and ASUN.

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 was called 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.

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 had ambitions to move back up to FBS in the future following the re-establishment of the football conference at the FCS level.^[13]

The ASUN Conference announced on January 29, 2021, that it would be adding the University of Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky University, and former member Jacksonville State University, with the intent of sponsoring football in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) in 2022.^[14] However, with these three schools joining in 2021, the ASUN sought a partnership with the WAC, which likewise planned to operate its own football league in 2022 but was short of members for 2021. The "ASUN–WAC Challenge," also known as the "WAC–ASUN Challenge" or AQ7, enabled the two conferences to share an automatic qualifier to the 2021 FCS playoffs.^[5][6]

As soon as it was created, the ASUN's 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 2022–23.^[17]

ESPN reported on December 9, 2022, that the ASUN and WAC had agreed to form a new football-only conference 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 to become the 10th member upon its planned addition of football in 2025 but moved its athletics program, including football, from the WAC to the Southland in 2024 before playing 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 official 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 (UAC).^[23] Later the same month, the NCAA denied the UAC's waiver request to be recognized as a single-sport FCS football conference.^[24] 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; accordingly, the UAC announced that the West Georgia football program would also join the conference the same year.^[25]

On June 26, 2025, shortly after Utah Tech University and Southern Utah University announced that they would be leaving the WAC and UAC to join the Big Sky Conference for all sports including football, the WAC and ASUN announced that the three remaining members of the WAC (Abilene Christian University, Tarleton State University, and non-football University of Texas Arlington) and the five football-playing members of the ASUN (Austin Peay State University, University of Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky University, University of North Alabama, and University of West Georgia) would become members of an all-sports version of the United Athletic Conference, effective July 1, 2026. The UAC would inherit the WAC's automatic qualifiers to NCAA championships, most importantly to the men's and women's Division I basketball tournament.^[26] The joint statement framed the demise of the WAC as a "strategic alliance" of the WAC and the ASUN, under which the WAC would "rebrand" as the UAC while the non-football playing members of the ASUN continued to operate after July 1, 2026 as a non-football conference under the Atlantic Sun name. The "rebranding" tactic enabled the new all-sports UAC to avoid a new conference's customary waiting period to be eligible for NCAA automatic qualifiers. The UAC and ASUN were to operate as a "consortium" under ASUN commissioner Jeff Bacon.^[27]

  Members departing for the Big Sky Conference on July 1, 2026.
  Members becoming all-sports members of the UAC on July 1, 2026.

Full members Full non-playing members Assoc. members (football only)  Assoc. members (other sports)  Other Conference Other Conference

Member-by-member sponsorship of men's sports sponsored by UAC Schools. It has not been announced which sports will be sponsored by the UAC when the conference expands to a full sports conference. The current conference affiliation is listed for each sport.

Member-by-member sponsorship of women's sports sponsored by UAC Schools. It has not been announced which sports will be sponsored by the UAC when the conference expands to a full sports conference. The current conference affiliation is listed for each sport.

This is a list of the champions since 2023.

• Official website