The newly-announced United Athletic Conference’s waiver request to be recognized as a single-sport FCS football conference was denied this week, people briefed on the matter told The Athletic. Here’s what you need to know.
- The UAC is made up of nine (soon 10) football programs from the WAC and ASUN conferences, which have joined together for football scheduling and a single automatic FCS playoff spot for the past two years.
- The NCAA has had a moratorium on single-sport conferences since early 2020.
- That moratorium is set to expire on June 1, unless the Board of Directors votes to continue it.
- The UAC plans to continue moving forward with the conference name and vision, even if it’s not an official conference.
What does this mean for the UAC schools?
The UAC’s nine members include FCS schools Abilene Christian, Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama, Southern Utah, Stephen F. Austin, Tarleton State and Utah Tech. Texas Rio Grande Valley will also begin football in 2025.
The UAC is mostly just a formal rebranding of the WAC-ASUN football partnership that has been in place since 2021, due to a lack of enough members in the two leagues. The two conferences have received a waiver every year since then to continue the partnership for a single playoff spot. The UAC rebrand would provide more infrastructure and league-specific rules and budgets for football. Part of the group’s argument for the conference waiver was the fact that very little would materially change. FCS already has football-only conferences in the Missouri Valley Football Conference and the Pioneer Football League.
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But the denial was not unexpected. The group plans to continue forward with its UAC name and branding, along with conference awards and schedule this coming season. There will be six conference games in 2023 and eight conference games in 2024.
Why was the waiver denied?
As with James Madison waiver denial over a shorter FBS transition, there is always concern about precedent. In this case, allowing a waiver during an NCAA moratorium. That moratorium is set to expire on June 1, unless the Board of Directors votes to extend it. It was put in place due to a concern in the rise of single-sport conferences in Division I, meant to provide more time to study the issue. It’s possible the Board of Directors denied the UAC waiver simply because such a move will be allowed again in a few months. If the moratorium does extend, the UAC expects to continue to get its annual playoff waiver for the WAC-ASUN partnership.
UAC leadership has also expressed a desire to move up as an FBS conference at some point, though there is much skepticism across college sports about that possibility.
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(Photo: Rob Gray / USA Today)
