Beginning on July 1, 2026, the Western Athletic Conference will officially become the United Athletic Conference. 

Following departures of many schools like Grand Canyon University and Southern Utah University, the WAC decided to rebrand as the UAC, which already exists as a football-only conference, but will now extend to all sports, as stated in a press release Thursday. 

The three remaining Texas WAC teams, University of Texas-Arlington, ACU and Tarleton State University, will be joined by five Atlantic Sun Conference teams in the UAC, who have been playing as a part of the football-only UAC.

Austin Peay State University, North Alabama University, Eastern Kentucky University, the University of Central Arkansas and the University of West Georgia are the five schools leaving the ASUN. 

The UAC and ASUN are entering a strategic alliance that Dr. Phil Schubert, president of the university, said will help them with recruiting and scheduling while remaining as two separate conferences. 

“So you have the strength of 15 schools, if you will, that are kind of aligned philosophically and strategically, and yet you’re still able to maintain separate conferences,” he said.

The advantages of keeping the conferences separate are that they will both retain their NCAA automatic bids for tournaments such as March Madness, and that the conferences will remain relatively small in size, allowing for easier scheduling and travel.

Zack Lassiter, vice president for athletics, said the new alignment has many benefits, including playing schools closer to home. 

“Our teams are going to be able to have a more regional competition during the regular season,” he said, “which means they travel less and their friends and family can watch them play more because we’re playing in areas where we’re generally recruiting student athletes as well.”

Schubert agreed with Lassiter and added that the closer games will benefit the athletes’ studies. 

“It’s always nice to try to reduce the geographic footprint, which reduces travel costs,” he said. “It reduces student-athlete missed class time.”

Lassiter said he is very interested to see how the UAC plays out after it has been in the works for a long time. 

“I think the concept in a theory was great, and now we’re going to find out in reality what it looks like,” Lassiter said.

Schubert said he has high hopes this conference will last for a while and that it will be appealing to potential future programs. 

“I hope that we see the growth and evolution of this conference commensurate with all of our schools continuing to play championship sports and compete at a high level and enjoy success,” he said.