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Western Athletic Conference

Western Athletic Conference
AssociationNCAA
FoundedJuly 27, 1962 (1962-07-27)
CommissionerBrian Thornton (since 2021)
Sports fielded
  • 20
    • men's: 10
    • women's: 10
DivisionDivision I
SubdivisionNon-football
No. of teams9 (8 in 2025, 7 in 2026)
HeadquartersArlington, Texas
RegionSouthwestern United States
Pacific Northwest
Official websitewww.wacsports.com
Locations
Location of teams in

The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, Texas, Utah and Washington.

Due to most of the conference's football-playing members leaving the WAC for other affiliations, the conference discontinued football as a sponsored sport after the 2012–13 season, left the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-A) and became one of the NCAA's eleven Division I non-football conferences.[1] The WAC thus became the first Division I conference to drop football since the Big West in 2000. The WAC then added men's soccer. The WAC underwent a major expansion on July 1, 2021, with four schools joining. The conference reinstated football at that time, competing in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). One year later, on July 1, 2022, one FCS football school (Lamar) and one non-football school (Chicago State) left, and one FCS football school (Southern Utah) and one non-football school (UT Arlington) joined.[2][3][4][5][6] The WAC again became a non-football conference in 2023, when the WAC and the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) merged their FCS football leagues as the United Athletic Conference.

  1. ^ Moss, Irv (August 20, 2012). "WAC to drop football after 2012 season, commissioner Hurd says". The Denver Post. Archived from the original on August 23, 2012. Retrieved July 31, 2023.
  2. ^ "WAC Announces Expansion, Plans to Reinstate Football" (Press release). Western Athletic Conference. January 14, 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  3. ^ Martinez, Quinton (January 14, 2021). "Four Texas schools announce departure from Southland Conference for WAC". Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  4. ^ Dean, Richard (January 14, 2021). "Why the Texas four left for [sic] the Southland for the WAC". San Antonio Express-News. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  5. ^ "University of Texas at Arlington Accepts Invitation to Join WAC" (Press release). Western Athletic Conference. January 21, 2022. Retrieved January 22, 2022.
  6. ^ "LAMAR UNIVERSITY PREPARES FOR EARLY MOVE TO SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE". southland.org. Southland Conference. Retrieved July 11, 2022.

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