College Football Conference Realignment for 2026: Every FBS, FCS, D2, D3, and NAIA Move

By: Steve Pugh, Founder, Versus Sports Simulator
July 4, 2026

The 2026 season opens with the most consequential wave of conference realignment college football has seen since the power-conference exodus of the mid-2020s, and it isn't confined to the sport's glamour tier. While the Pac-12 completes an improbable rebuild into a full eight-team league, smaller-conference football is absorbing just as much change: two Football Championship Subdivision programs are jumping straight to the FBS, a decades-old league is reclaiming its old name, and NCAA Division II, Division III, and NAIA programs are launching, reviving, reclassifying, and in two cases, shutting down for good. Here's a complete rundown of what changed, who's affected, and where a couple of questions remain unsettled heading into the season.

The Pac-12 Finally Looks Like a Conference Again

For two seasons the Pac-12 existed mostly on paper, with Oregon St and Washington St playing an all-sports-except-baseball slate through the West Coast Conference while the rest of the league's old membership scattered across the country. That era ends in 2026. Boise St, Colorado St, Fresno St, San Diego St, and Utah St all arrive from the Mountain West, while Texas St-San Marcos jumps over from the Sun Belt, giving the conference the eight full football members it needs to hold onto its FBS classification — and giving Oregon State and Washington State a real conference schedule for the first time since realignment gutted the league in 2024.

The move has been in motion since September 2024, when the first wave of Mountain West programs agreed to jump, but it becomes reality on the field this fall. (Source)

Mountain West, Sun Belt, and Conference USA Reshuffle

Losing five members to the Pac-12 forced the Mountain West to backfill, and it did so with UTEP, arriving from Conference USA, and Northern Illinois, a football-only addition from the MAC. That pushes the conference to ten members for 2026.

Conference USA's other high-profile departure was far messier. Louisiana Tech spent much of the past year in a legal standoff with the league over an early exit to the Sun Belt — the University of Louisiana System even filed suit on the school's behalf in March 2026 — before the two sides reached a settlement that let the Bulldogs leave on their preferred timeline. Louisiana Tech becomes the Sun Belt's 13th member and lands in the seven-team West Division alongside Louisiana, Louisiana-Monroe, Arkansas St, Southern Miss, South Alabama, and Troy. (Source, division alignment)

North Dakota State and Sacramento State Jump to the FBS

Two FCS programs are skipping straight to the top division this year, and they got there by very different roads. North Dakota St — winner of ten FCS national titles since 2011, more than any program has managed in the modern era of the sport — joins the Mountain West as a football-only member, paying a $5 million FCS-to-FBS transition fee on top of more than $12 million in league entry costs. Sacramento St took the longer way around: after the Hornets' bid to reclassify as an independent was denied by the Division I Council in mid-2025, the school spent months assembling a stopgap independent schedule before the MAC voted in February 2026 to add them as a football-only member for a reported $23 million in total fees.

Both programs also benefit from a rule change that took effect this cycle: reclassifying FCS-to-FBS teams are now immediately bowl-eligible during their transition window, rather than sitting out the old multi-year postseason ban. (Source, rule change)

FCS Realignment: Patriot League, CAA, Big Sky, SoCon, and More

The Patriot League grows to ten football members as Villanova and William & Mary leave CAA Football to join as football-only members, following Richmond's identical move a year earlier. Neither school's other athletic programs are affected — Villanova's non-football sports stay in the MAAC, and William & Mary's stay in the CAA.

Sacred Heart, an FCS independent since bolting the Northeast Conference for the MAAC in its other sports back in 2024, finally lands a full-time football home in the CAA, which grows to 13 members. The Big Sky, meanwhile, adds Southern Utah and Utah Tech as both leave the United Athletic Conference, pushing that league to 13 football members — the most in the FCS.

Tennessee Tech leaves the newly-renamed Ohio Valley Conference's football partnership (more on that below) for the Southern Conference in an all-sports move. West Florida, a Division II power that won the 2019 national championship and reached the title game in 2017, reclassifies up to the FCS; its football team lands in the United Athletic Conference while its other sports move to the ASUN. Heading the opposite direction, St Francis PA drops from the FCS Northeast Conference to Division III, joining the Presidents' Athletic Conference.

And Division I football gets a brand-new program: Chicago State launches its first-ever FCS football team in 2026, playing an independent schedule before an expected move to the Northeast Conference in 2027. (Source, NCAA.com)

The Ohio Valley Conference Reclaims Its Name

For three seasons the Ohio Valley Conference's football members played under a hybrid identity shared with the Big South Conference — first as the Big South-OVC Football Association, then, since 2025, as the OVC-Big South Football Association. That ends in 2026. With six OVC schools and only two Big South programs left in the football partnership, the league announced it's reclaiming its traditional name and logo outright. The scheduling partnership with the Big South is unaffected on paper and runs through 2030, but the football-facing brand is simply the Ohio Valley Conference again. The 2026 membership: Eastern Illinois, Lindenwood, SE Missouri St, Tennessee St, Tennessee-Martin, and Western Illinois representing the OVC, plus Charleston Southern and Gardner-Webb representing the Big South. (Official announcement, additional coverage)

Division II: Two Junior Colleges Make the Leap

Two programs are stepping up into Division II football for the first time from the junior-college ranks, and neither is a simple label change.

Lackawanna College becomes the first football-sponsoring program to jump directly from the NJCAA to NCAA Division II. The Falcons received their invitation to the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference in June 2025 and will play a full PSAC East Division schedule starting in 2026 — but they aren't full conference or NCAA members yet. Per the school's own athletics department, full PSAC and Division II membership, including postseason eligibility, is expected to take three to five years to complete. Lackawanna's arrival in the East also means a division rebalancing: Lock Haven shifts from the PSAC East to the PSAC West for 2026.

Monroe University is making a similar move on a smaller scale. The university's overall athletic program is joining the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference for 2026-27, but the CACC doesn't sponsor football, so the Mustangs will compete as a Division II independent in football while the rest of the athletic department settles into its new home. (Lackawanna, PSAC division realignment, Monroe)

Division III: Arrivals, Revivals, and a Closure

Gallaudet's football program is leaving the Old Dominion Athletic Conference for an unusual arrangement with the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference: the Bison will play an independent schedule for most of the year but remain eligible for the SCAC's championship weekend, giving the conference the sixth football member it needs to qualify for an automatic playoff bid. Gallaudet's other sports stay in the United East.

Luther is swapping the American Rivers Conference for the Midwest Conference, and McMurry is leaving the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference for the American Southwest Conference — a move that, combined with Schreiner reviving its own program in the same league, gives the ASC its sixth football member and an automatic bid of its own. Washington MO is shifting its football program from the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin to the North Coast Athletic Conference, while its other sports remain in the University Athletic Association. Two more programs are reviving dormant football operations altogether: Azusa Pacific and Whittier both join the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, though the exact sub-division for each is still being finalized.

Not every Division III story this year is about arrivals. Anna Maria College announced in April 2026 that it will close permanently at the end of the spring semester, citing years of enrollment decline and financial strain the school was ultimately unable to overcome. Its USA South Conference football program won't field a team this fall. (Source)

NAIA: New Programs, New Independents, One Closure

The NAIA's Heart of America Athletic Conference — already the largest football-sponsoring league in the association — adds a 15th program as Mount Mercy launches its first-ever football team, competing in the North Division. The university's board approved the addition in the fall of 2024, and a new on-campus facility, the Busse Football Center, was built specifically to support the program's launch.

Saint Mary-of-the-Woods is making a similar leap, upgrading from sprint football to full NAIA competition and joining the Mid-States Football Association's Midwest League alongside Marian, St. Francis (Ind.), St. Francis (Ill.), Olivet Nazarene, Saint Xavier, and Judson. The Pomeroys bring real pedigree to the jump: three straight MSFL championship-game appearances and an outright title in 2022.

Two more programs are joining the NAIA's ranks as football independents for a single transition year. Andrew College, a longtime two-year school in Cuthbert, Georgia that only added football in 2023 and went 8-1 in 2025, becomes a full NAIA and Southern States Athletic Conference member effective July 1, 2026. Faulkner University is leaving the Mid-South Conference for the same in-between status. Both schools' football programs will play the 2026 season as independents before joining the Appalachian Athletic Conference as affiliate members in 2027 — a pairing the AAC announced together.

The NAIA loses a program this year, too. Siena Heights University, a 107-year-old Catholic institution in Adrian, Michigan, closes permanently at the end of the 2025-26 academic year on June 30, 2026, citing declining enrollment and mounting financial pressure. Its football program, a member of the Mid-States Football Association's Mideast League, won't return this fall. (Mount Mercy, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, MSFA membership, Andrew College, Faulkner, AAC announcement, Siena Heights)

What's Still Unsettled

A handful of details remain in flux as teams open camp. Azusa Pacific and Whittier's exact SCIAC sub-division assignments hadn't been finalized as of this writing. We'll update this piece as those and any other late-breaking moves get confirmed.