While baseball fans may celebrate July 1 as “Bobby Bonilla Day,” it also marks the start of the new academic year for colleges across the country. And, as has been the case every year since Division I football split to two distinct classifications for the 1978 season, there have been some conference membership changes.
Some years, such as the dissolution of the Southwest Conference in 1995, saw 34 schools change conferences, move divisions or, in the case of Pacific, drop football altogether.
Other years, such as 2019, saw no conference movement at the FBS level, while just five schools changed conferences. Two joining the FCS ranks, while Savannah State ended its 18-year stint in Division I by returning to the SIAC in Division II.
Syndicate Sports is presenting a five-part series introducing readers to the teams changing conferences. This article focuses on sin. While some moves have been in the works for at least a year, others were announced only recently.
Big Sky Conference
The Big Sky Conference officially joined the NCAA ranks on July 1, 1963 with five members in its first season of competition. Although Idaho moved to the FBS ranks before rejoining in 2014, the other four schools have remained in the conference to this day.
The conference has won five national championships, including the 2025 champion Montana State which won its first title since 1984.
The conference has maintained relative stable football membership, losing only North Dakota and Southern Utah since 2014.
The Thunderbirds joined the WAC in 2022, but after that conference was again affected by realignment, the school announced it would return to the Big Sky Conference in 2026. This time, it would bring fellow WAC member Utah Tech with it.
The Trailblazers have struggled at the FCS level since joining in 2020, going 10-47 over the past five seasons and recording only five conference wins during that span.
Coastal Athletic Association
The story of the CAA football conference is an interesting one. The conference, which operates separately from the overall CAA, can trace its roots back to 1938 and the New England Conference. Three of that conference’s five members still call the CAA home, while Northeastern dropped football in 2009 and Connecticut State (now know as the University of Connecticut) competes at the FBS level.
Since the CAA took control of the conference from the Atlantic-10 in 2007, its has experienced constant membership changes, with Towson joining Rhode Island, Maine and New Hampshire as the only remaining members.
The conference is set to lose two members and has offered membership to one of the lone FCS independents. Sacred Heart became an independent in football after moving to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, which stopped sponsoring football in 2007. From the 2002 season through the sport’s discontinuation,
The Pioneers went 13-10 in two seasons as an independent and have recorded only one postseason victory. That win came when Sacred Heart defeated MAAC champion Duquesne in the 2001 ECAC Bowl to finish the season undefeated.
“We look forward to new rivalries, greater exposure and the incredible opportunities the CAA brings for our student-athletes and fans,” University President Dr. John Petillo said in a press release. “SHU football has been a great source of pride as well as a galvanizing element for our community. We’ve been inspired by many of the accomplishments of Pioneers on the football field.”
FCS Independents
While Merrimack remains an independent, it will have company in the 2026 season. Chicago State, which first fielded athletic programs in 1966 as an NAIA independent, has competed at the Division I level in all sports since 1984.
In January 2023, the university formed an exploratory committee to pursue Division I football. Fundraising began in September 2023 and the university attempted to join the MEAC, a conference that had lost five members over the previous five season, including founding member North Carolina A&T.
After conference presidents voted against adding the Cougars, Chicago State joined the Northeast Conference in July 2024. That move will allow the school’s football team to join the conference in 2027 after spending one year as an independent.
Patriot League
The conference, formed as the Colonial League in 1986, was originally a football-only league created to provide the Ivy League with additional nonconference opponents after it expanded to a 10-game schedule in 1980.
All five founding members still call the conference home, even after it changed its name to the Patriot League in 1990 and became an all-sports conference.
In 2025, Richmond became the first football-playing school to join the conference since Georgetown in 2001.
Two of the Spiders’ former CAA rivals followed them to the Patriot League: Villanova and William & Mary.
The Wildcats have experience a resurgence over the past five seasons, particularly after James Madison left for the Sun Belt Conference. Villanova has gone 36-15 and won the 2023 conference championship. The program advanced to the semifinals of the 2025 FCS playoffs, its deepest postseason run since 2010.
William & Mary has also seen improved over the past five seasons, compiling a 37-22 record. The Tribe enjoyed one of the best seasons in program history in 2022, going 11-2 and earning a national seed in the FCS playoffs before falling to Montana State in the quarterfinals. It was the deepest playoff run for the Tribe since 2004 and 2009.
Southern Conference
One of the oldest conferences in continuous operations has maintained stable membership. Since 1964, the conference has lost only six football playing members, all but Elon eventually moving to the FBS level. East Tennessee State left in 2005 to join the Atlantic Sun Conference but returned in 2014.
The conference addressed the departures of Appalachian State and Georgia Southern by adding Samford and Mercer, maintaining its status as one of the premier conferences in the FCS.
In August 2025, the conference announced it had approved the addition of Tennessee Tech as a full member. From a geographic prospective, adding the Golden Eagles gives the conference three schools in Tennessee while remaining within the conference’s traditional footprint.
“Tech’s impressive track record and shared values make them a natural fit for the SoCon, and we look forward to the rivalries and collaborative opportunities this partnership will create,” aid Western Carolina Chancellor Dr. Kelli Brown, Chair of the Council of Southern Conference Presidents.
United Athletic Conference
The conference was formed as a football alliance between the WAC and Atlantic Sun after leagues were unable to meet the NCAA’s six-member requirement for an automatic qualifier to the FCS playoffs.
The two conferences officially merged their football operations in 2023, creating a football-only conference that the NCAA still recognized as an extension of the alliance between the two leagues.
On June 26, 2025, both conferences announced a new organizational structure. Under the agreement, the WAC would rebrand as the UAC, incorporating the five football-playing members of the ASUN and the remaining all-sports members of the WAC. This allowed the UAC to retain the WAC’s NCAA Division I recognition and championship qualification status.
In April 2026, West Florida announced it would move all of its athletic programs to Division I and joining the UAC as a football-playing member.
The Argonauts have been dominant at the Division II level as members of the Gulf South Conference since debuting in 2016, going 46-13 over the past five seasons and winning the national championship in 2019.
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