The 2021–2026 NCAA conference realignment is an ongoing set of extensive changes occurring in NCAA conference membership, primarily at the Division I level, that began in the 2021–22 academic year, initiated by Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 Conference for the Southeastern Conference. Most of these changes have involved conferences in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of Division I. All 10 FBS conferences that existed at the start of the realignment cycle have seen changes in their core membership. The Pac-12 Conference lost ten of its twelve members ahead of the 2024–25 academic year, leading to lawsuits and to ad hoc arrangements for its remaining two members until newly invited members could join in 2026. The Associated Press named conference realignment, and in particular the collapse of the Pac-12, as the 2023 story of the year in U.S. sports. At the Group of Six level, six members of Conference USA (CUSA) announced departures for the American Athletic Conference, now known as the American Conference, to also receive improved media exposure, which caused three other CUSA members to leave and join the Sun Belt Conference in fear of the conference folding. As a result, CUSA took in six FCS members and two FBS independents over a three-year span to remain as an FBS competitor.
FBS conferences affected
Southeastern Conference
On July 21, 2021, the Houston Chronicle reported that Oklahoma and Texas had approached the Southeastern Conference (SEC) about the possibility of joining that league. On July 26, Oklahoma and Texas notified the Big 12 Conference that the two schools did not wish to extend their grant of television rights beyond the 2024–25 athletic year and intended to leave the conference. On July 29, the presidents and chancellors of the 14 SEC members voted unanimously to extend invitations to Oklahoma and Texas, effective in 2025. The two schools eventually reached a buyout agreement with the Big 12 that allowed them to join the SEC in 2024.
Big 12 Conference
With the losses of Texas and Oklahoma, the Big 12 Conference was reduced from 10 to 8 teams. On September 10, the Big 12 announced that BYU, an FBS independent and full member of the non-football West Coast Conference (WCC), along with American Athletic Conference (The American) members Cincinnati, Houston, and UCF would join the conference no later than 2024–25. At the time of announcement, BYU stated that it would join the Big 12 in 2023. The other three schools entered into negotiations with The American regarding their departure date, and on June 10, 2022, an agreement on a 2023 departure date was announced.
On November 2, 2022, ESPN reported that Gonzaga University athletic director Chris Standiford had met with Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark while the Gonzaga men's basketball team was in the Dallas area, home to the Big 12 offices, for a scrimmage with Tennessee. This meeting was reportedly part of discussions regarding a possible Gonzaga move to the Big 12 as a full member without football (Gonzaga has not had a football program since 1941). Gonzaga men's basketball has become by far the dominant program in the otherwise mid-major WCC. Going into the 2022–23 season, the Bulldogs had played in every NCAA men's tournament in the 21st century, made national championship games in 2017 and 2021, and had been a top regional seed in four of the previous five NCAA tournaments. Gonzaga, which has been transparent with the WCC about its talks with other conferences, had reportedly also been in membership discussions with the Pac-12 Conference and the Big East Conference (the latter a non-football league). Yormark would later confirm that the conference had met with both Gonzaga and UConn regarding possible membership, but the possible addition of both schools was shelved after the addition of the "Four Corners" Pac-12 members.
In late spring 2023, with the Pac-12 Conference still not having finalized a new media rights deal, multiple media reports linked Colorado, which had left the Big 12 for the then-Pac-10 in 2011, with a potential return to the Big 12. Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com reported that Colorado had been in what was described as "substantive" talks with the Big 12. Greg Swaim, an Oklahoma radio host described by the sports and culture news site OutKick as "very plugged into the Big 12 landscape," reported over the weekend of June 3–4 that he had been told by multiple sources that Colorado and Arizona were both preparing to join the Big 12. It was also widely rumored that newly hired football head coach Deion Sanders and several influential boosters were pushing for Colorado to return to the Big 12.
Speculation about Colorado's future increased in July. First, in advance of a meeting of Pac-12 chancellors and presidents set for July 20, Colorado chancellor Phil DiStefano publicly suggested that conference commissioner George Kliavkoff provide details on a potential media deal. None were presented, and many within the conference suggested that DiStefano's request was intended to pressure Kliavkoff. After the end of the conference's football media day, which took place the day after the chancellors/presidents meeting, Colorado athletic director Rick George had to dodge many reporters while exiting the event venue. In the meantime, Big 12 officials had reportedly set a deadline of July 25 for Colorado to make a decision on its conference future. The school's board of regents scheduled two meetings for July 26 and 27 at which a Big 12 move was expected to be on the agenda, and the regents posted an agenda for the latter meeting that indicated that a formal vote of some kind was likely. The Big 12 chancellors and presidents held their own meeting on July 26, with conference expansion reportedly on the agenda, and that body reportedly voted unanimously to approve Colorado should it formally apply for membership. An application was expected after the Colorado regents' meeting the following day. On July 27, Colorado announced it would be returning to the Big 12 after 13 years.
In the days after Colorado's announcement, the Pac-12 chancellors and presidents met on August 1, at which time they were presented with the first details of a new media rights deal. This deal was reportedly an exclusively streaming deal with Apple, with returns based mainly on subscription rates. Phil Knight, co-founder and retired CEO of Nike and also an Oregon alumnus and major donor to both the university and its athletic program, strongly supported the Apple deal. This was apparently not enough to satisfy multiple members, including Arizona. On August 3, the Arizona Board of Regents, which oversees the state's three public universities, met, reportedly to discuss a potential Arizona move to the Big 12. That conference's chancellors and presidents met that same day and reportedly approved an Arizona application to join. However, there was an apparent reversal, as the Pac-12 chancellors and presidents called a meeting for the morning of August 4 during which they would accept the Apple deal and sign a grant of rights (GOR), with a 10th school to be added later to replace Colorado. Later reports came out that two schools were to receive invitations if the Pac-12 had entered into the GOR—San Diego State and SMU. Then, 10 minutes before the meeting was to start, Washington informed the Pac-12 that it would move to the Big Ten. Washington football coach Kalen DeBoer and the university administration were concerned about the prospect that no Pac-12 games would be available on linear television. Shortly after the morning meeting was canceled, Oregon followed Washington to the Big Ten, and Arizona, Arizona State, and Utah announced they would join the Big 12 beginning in 2024.
In October 2023, The Messenger reported that the Big 12 and Gonzaga had "resumed top-level discussions" regarding a potential move to the conference, possibly as early as 2024–25. Although the Big 12 was dealing with financial and logistical issues surrounding the conference's 2023 and 2024 expansions, the conference presidents and chancellors authorized Yormark to continue discussions with Gonzaga.
The following month, the Big 12 announced it would add two women's sports for 2024–25 and beyond—beach volleyball and lacrosse. At the time, the Big 12 had only one member that sponsored each sport—Cincinnati in women's lacrosse and TCU in beach volleyball. However, each of the incoming members for 2024 sponsored at least one of the two sports. Arizona and Utah sponsored beach volleyball, Colorado sponsored women's lacrosse, and Arizona State sponsored both. The conference press release stated that new members would be added in both sports to enable automatic qualification for NCAA tournaments. This came about for lacrosse on February 21, 2024, with the Big 12 adding Florida, San Diego State, and UC Davis as affiliates for the conference's first season. At the time, Florida played women's lacrosse in The American, and the two California schools played that sport in the Pac-12. Also on February 21, the Big 12 also announced that Old Dominion and Tulsa, both then housing women's rowing in The American (Old Dominion as an affiliate and Tulsa as a full member), would join the Big 12 for women's rowing in 2024–25. The Big 12 announcement hinted at the departure of women's rowing associates and full SEC members Alabama and Tennessee, neither of which was included in the list of Big 12 rowing members for 2024–25. SEC bylaws allow it to hold a championship in any sport sponsored by at least 25% of the full membership. In July 2024, Alabama and Tennessee were joined in the SEC by Oklahoma and Texas, both of which sponsor the sport, and the SEC announced the addition of rowing with the four aforementioned programs on August 23. The Big 12 would reach the required membership level for an eventual automatic berth in the NCAA beach volleyball tournament in 2025–26, when Boise State, Florida State, and South Carolina became affiliates in that sport.
On August 23, 2024, reports about Yormark pursuing current Big East member and football independent UConn arose, with a meeting scheduled to happen no latter than the following week. However, the report indicated that not all of the conference's presidents and chancellors supported the move, predominately due to the poor performance of the school's football program since its departure from the previous FBS-sponsored Big East; any expansion requires the approval of at least 12 of the current 16 members. Ultimately, no invitation came.
Big Ten Conference
On June 30, 2022, media reports indicated that UCLA and USC had started the process of leaving the Pac-12 Conference for the Big Ten Conference, with the Big Ten presidents and chancellors having scheduled a meeting that evening to vote on the addition of the two Los Angeles schools. Shortly after this meeting, the Big Ten and both schools issued statements setting a 2024 entry date, immediately after the then-existing Pac-12 media rights contracts expired.
On August 4, 2023, Oregon and Washington announced they would leave the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten effective July 1, 2024.
In an August 10 interview for an Ohio State fan forum, the school's athletic director Gene Smith stated that Fox, the Big Ten's primary media partner, provided extra money to facilitate the addition of Oregon and Washington. According to Smith, Fox agreed to pay $30 to $35 million per year for each of those two schools from their 2024 arrival in the conference through the end of the media deal in the 2029–30 school year. This meant that the 14 existing Big Ten members, plus UCLA and USC (which received full shares from the new media deal upon their arrival in the conference), would see no decrease in payouts during that deal.
Pac-12 Conference
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