| United Athletic Conference | |
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| Founded: | (Unofficially) (Officially) |
| Association: | NCAA |
| Division: | Division I |
| Subdivision: | FCS (football) |
| Teams: | 9 |
| Sports: | 1 |
| Mens: | 1 |
| Womens: | 0 |
| Region: | Southwestern United States Western United States Southern United States |
| Formerly: | WAC–ASUN Challenge (2021–2022) ASUN–WAC Football Conference (2022–2023) |
| Commissioner: | Oliver Luck |
| Since: | 2023 |
| Map: | ASUN WAC Football Conference states map.png |
| Map Size: | 250 |
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.
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.
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]
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.
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]
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.[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]
| 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 | 13,510 | Wolves | ASUN |
| Team | Location | Nickname | Joined | Departed | Current Primary Conference | Current Football Conference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jacksonville State University | Jacksonville, Alabama | Gamecocks | 2021 | 2022 | 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 | CUSA | ||
| Stephen F. Austin State University | Nacogdoches, Texas | Lumberjacks | 2021 | 2024 | Southland | ||
| University of Texas Rio Grande Valley | Brownsville & Edinburg, Texas | Vaqueros | 2021 | 2024 | Southland | ||
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:2020 till:2028
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<#
Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7)
id:line value:black
id:bg value:white id:AssocF value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football id:Full value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.5,0.691,0.824) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote) id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the twoPlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text: Southland bar:1 color:AssocF from:2021 till:end text:Abilene Christian (2021–Present)
bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text: Southland bar:2 color:AssocF from:2021 till:end text:Central Arkansas (2021–Present)
bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text: OVC bar:3 color:AssocF from:2021 till:end text:Eastern Kentucky (2021–Present)
bar:4 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text: OVC bar:4 color:AssocF from:2021 till:2022 text:Jacksonville State (2021-22) bar:4 shift:35 color:OtherC1 from:2022 till:2023 text: ASUN bar:4 color:OtherC2 from:2023 till:end text: CUSA
bar:5 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text: Southland bar:5 color:AssocF from:2021 till:2022 text:Lamar (2021–22) bar:5 shift:35 color:OtherC1 from:2022 till:end text: Southland
bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text: Southland bar:6 color:AssocF from:2021 till:2022 text:Sam Houston (2021–22) bar:6 shift:35 color:OtherC1 from:2022 till:2023 text: WAC bar:6 color:OtherC2 from:2023 till:end text: CUSA
bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text: Southland bar:7 color:AssocF from:2021 till:2024 text:Stephen F. Austin (2021–2024) bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:2024 till:end text: Southland
bar:8 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2022 text: OVC bar:8 color:AssocF from:2022 till:end text:Austin Peay (2022–Present)
bar:9 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2022 text: Big South bar:9 color:AssocF from:2022 till:2023 text:Kennesaw State (2022–23) bar:9 shift:25 color:OtherC1 from:2023 till:2024 text: Independent bar:9 color:OtherC2 from:2024 till:end text: CUSA
bar:10 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2022 text: Big South bar:10 color:AssocF from:2022 till:end text:North Alabama (2022–Present)
bar:11 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2022 text: Big Sky bar:11 color:AssocF from:2022 till:end text:Southern Utah (2022–Present)
bar:12 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text: Independent bar:12 color:OtherC2 from:2021 till:2023 text: WAC bar:12 color:AssocF from:2023 till:end text:Tarleton (2023–Present)
bar:13 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2021 text: Independent bar:13 color:OtherC2 from:2021 till:2023 text: WAC bar:13 color:AssocF from:2023 till:end text:Utah Tech (2023–Present)
bar:14 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:2024 text: Gulf South (D-II) bar:14 color:AssocF from:2024 till:end text:West Georgia (2024–Present)
bar:N color:white from:2020 till:2021 text:None bar:N color:orange from:2021 till:2023 text:WAC-ASUN Challenge bar:N color:yellow from:2023 till:end text:United Athletic Conference
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:2020
TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center) text:^"United Athletic Conference membership history"
This is a list of the champions since 2023.
| School | Football stadium | Capacity | |
| Abilene Christian | Anthony Field at Wildcat Stadium | ||
| Austin Peay | Fortera Stadium | ||
| Central Arkansas | Estes Stadium | ||
| Eastern Kentucky | Roy Kidd Stadium | ||
| North Alabama | Braly Municipal Stadium | ||
| Southern Utah | Eccles Coliseum | ||
| Tarleton | Memorial Stadium | ||
| Utah Tech | Greater Zion Stadium | [26] | |
| West Georgia | University Stadium |