Looking ahead to the upcoming football season, the Wildcats prepare for a season highlighted by a new conference, a season finale against Texas A&M, and some high-level recruits.

Although the Wildcats lost in the WAC championship to Stephen F. Austin at the end of the last season, the team exceeded expectations in its second year in the WAC. The Wildcats had their first winning season in four years and won seven games for the first time since 2012.

During Keith Patterson’s second season as head coach, ACU will look to build off last year’s success in a season that should be filled with excitement for many different reasons. 

New Conference

The Western Athletic Conference and the ASUN Conference have officially announced their formal partnership known as the United Athletic Conference.  The two conferences had previously partnered in football for the last two years due to low conference membership numbers. In this partnership, the first-place team landed an automatic bid to the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. 

According to the UAC release, “​​the United Athletic Conference now fully operates like a single-sport conference with an independent budget, policies and governing documents. The group will recognize its own league champion and at-large FCS playoffs automatic qualifier under a singular conference banner beginning with the 2023 football season.”

Zach Lassiter, vice president for athletics, said the partnership was a long time coming. 

“There had been a scheduling alliance and conversations for a while because we had been sharing an automatic bid,” Lassiter said. “So those conversations over time led to a desire to formalize that in a better way. That had been going on for a while, but taking the step and actually forming the conference was something that came out of last year.”

For now, the conference operates with nine teams: ACU, Austin Peay State, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama, Southern Utah, Stephen F. Austin, Tarleton and Utah Tech. The UT-Rio Grande Valley will join the conference in 2025 when it adds a football program. 

“We got to the stage where these ten schools were like, ‘Hey, we all have a desire to play a high level of football. Let’s create some stability in an environment that’s highly unknown.'” Lassiter said.  We just wanted to formalize that in more detail.”

The 2023 season will consist of six conference games with the 2024 season consisting of eight games. The team with the best conference record and that owns any tiebreakers will be crowned as the UAC champion. 

With media speculation that the league possibly could have become the 11th FBS conference, those ideas quickly fell through because the ten current conferences are hesitant to share NCAA College Football Playoff revenue. 

The conference has hired Oliver Luck, former NFL quarterback and athletic director at West Virginia, as the executive director in navigating how the two leagues come together. This puts him on the leadership team with WAC commissioner Brian Thorton and ASUN commissioner Jeff Bacon. The leadership structure also features co-chairs of the Council of Presidents, Dr. James Hurley from Tarleton State and Dr. David McFaddin from Eastern Kentucky.

New Schedule

With ACU football now set to be a part of the UAC for the upcoming season, it means the Wildcats will face some familiar opponents along with some new faces on top of an already stacked non-conference schedule. 

The Wildcats will kick off the 2023 season on a Thursday night matchup when they take on the Northern Colorado Bears at 7 p.m. on  Aug. 31 at Anthony Field at Wildcat Stadium. 

ACU will take on Prairie View A&M on Sept. 9 before coming back and facing former Southland Conference foe Incarnate Word at home on Sept. 16 for Family Weekend. The Red Cardinals had a successful 2022 season, going 12-2 before losing in the FCS playoff semifinal. 

The Wildcats find themselves on the road for their next two matchups, including their first look at a UAC opponent when they take on Central Arkansas at 6 p.m. on Sept. 23 and then head to Denton to take on North Texas on Sept. 30. UNT capped off its 2022 season with a three-point loss in the Frisco Bowl.

After a week off, the Wildcats will host North Alabama for Homecoming Weekend taking on the Lions at 3 p.m. on Oct. 14. This will mark ACU’s second of two ASUN opponents who it will face next season. 

The Cats go back on the road for back-to-back weeks, taking on Stephen F. Austin on Oct. 21 and Southern Utah on Oct. 28. ACU will look for some revenge as the Wildcats lost both matchups to SFA last season, including the WAC Championship game. 

The Wildcats then head back home to finish conference play and their remaining two home games when they take on Utah Tech and Tarleton on Nov. 4 and Nov. 11, respectively. 

ACU will cap the regular season with its most anticipated game of the season when it takes on Texas A&M on Nov. 18 in College Station. The Aggies are coming off a disappointing 2022 season, with a 5-7 record, yet come into the new season with the 11th highest recruiting class in the nation. 

New Transfers

Along with the new conference and schedule alignment, the team is adding some new faces from the transfer portal that should have a direct impact on next season. 

Starting off the list of notable transfers is freshman wide receiver Jacoby Boykins. He was a four-star recruit out of Lamar High School in Houston and originally walked on to the University of Alabama. The speedy wide receiver did not see playing time in Tuscaloosa, playing behind a stacked receiving core but should play a large role in the Wildcat offense come fall. 

A big addition on the defensive side of the ball comes in sophomore defensive back and University of Oklahoma transfer Jordan Mukes. Also a four-star recruit out of high school, Mukes played in 12 games in the 2021 season and will play a key role on the defensive side of the ball next year. 

A pair of high-level running backs have also made their way to Abilene in sophomore Jay’veon Sunday and sophomore Javion Hunt. Sunday comes in as a three-star from the University of Washington, and Hunt comes in as a three-star from The University of Arkansas. The two backs will be able to take some of the load off the already solidified Wildcat running back core. 

Other notable transfers include sophomore wide receiver Marcayll Jones from the University of Memphis, sophomore offensive lineman Carson Walker from the University of Houston, and redshirt freshman defensive lineman Syncere Massey from Texas Tech University.