Another round of realignment is coming for the conference that includes Jacksonville University and the University of North Florida.
The ASUN Conference announced on Thursday, June 26, a strategic alliance with the Western Athletic Conference to form a consortium under ASUN commissioner Jeff Bacon, in a move that will also include the departure of five ASUN teams for the WAC.
The realignment takes effect in July 2026, the latest spin of the kaleidoscope in a frequently-changing ASUN roster that now shrinks from 12 teams to seven.
Under the plan, the WAC would rebrand as the United Athletic Conference, or UAC. That conference would remain independent from the ASUN, but the two would collaborate in various ways, including scheduling.
The consortium, the ASUN said in a release, is intended to “significantly enhance operational efficiency, foster deeper collaboration, and drive innovation across both NCAA Division I organizations.”
“We find ourselves in a transformative era where conferences and institutions are proactively seeking opportunities to collaborate, forge scheduling alliances, unlock new revenue streams, and prepare for a modernized world of intercollegiate athletics,” Bacon said in a statement.
ASUN: Inside the latest realignment
Of the 12 current ASUN members, five are scheduled to move to the UAC: Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama and West Georgia. All five also compete in football, and participated in 2024 alongside other WAC members in a football-only UAC.
Beginning in 2026-27, the plan anticipates an eight-team UAC consisting of those five former ASUN teams in addition to Abilene Christian, Tarleton State and Texas-Arlington, thus leaving the former Western Athletic Conference with no schools west of Abilene, Texas.
The move comes almost immediately after two other WAC members, Southern Utah and Utah Tech, announced their pending departure to the Big Sky Conference on June 25. The WAC is also losing four other members from the 2024-25 season: California Baptist and Utah Valley are moving to the Big West for 2026-27, Grand Canyon joined the Mountain West and Seattle University entered the West Coast Conference for 2025-26.
The ASUN, which would then number only seven teams by 2026-27, would include JU and UNF as well as Bellarmine, Florida Gulf Coast, Lipscomb, Queens University of Charlotte and Stetson. Currently, no Division I conference includes fewer than eight teams for men’s basketball.
Of those remaining ASUN squads, only Stetson — a non-scholarship program in the Pioneer Football League — offers football. JU formerly competed in football within the PFL from 1998 to 2019, but discontinued its program in December 2019.
The conferences released few specifics regarding the forms of collaboration under the alliance.
“As collegiate athletics enters a transformational era, bold leadership is essential,” WAC commissioner Rebekah Ray said in a statement. “Our alliance with the ASUN positions our institutions for long-term success and greater competitive opportunities.”
Both JU and UNF are among the longest-tenured members of the ASUN, which relocated its headquarters to Jacksonville in 2024. JU joined from the Sun Belt Conference in 1998, back when the present ASUN was still known as the Trans America Athletic Conference, and UNF joined in 2005 upon moving into NCAA Division I.
Stetson (since 1985), Lipscomb (since 2003) and Florida Gulf Coast (since 2007) are the only other schools that have held ASUN membership for more than five years, amid heavy turnover in the college athletic landscape.
Since the summer of 2015, the ASUN has lost Northern Kentucky, added (and then lost) NJIT, added and lost Liberty, added North Alabama, Bellarmine, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, Austin Peay, Queens and West Georgia, brought back Jacksonville State for a second brief spell before losing them again, and lost USC Upstate and Kennesaw State.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: ASUN announces WAC alliance, several teams exit: What’s next for conference with JU, UNF?
Reporting by Clayton Freeman, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
