The University of Arkansas at Little Rock is preparing to leave the Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) and join the United Athletic Conference (UAC). Jon Rothstein reports that the move will be effective on July 1, 2026.
The Trojans would become part of a revamped and reimagined UAC that is aligning itself closely with the Atlantic Sun Conference, forming a broader consortium designed to reshape the Division I landscape for conference offices.
Little Rock’s departure will further tighten the OVC’s membership picture. When the move becomes official, the league will be left with Eastern Illinois, Lindenwood, Morehead State, Southeast Missouri State, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Southern Indiana, Tennessee State, UT Martin, and Western Illinois. The league is already bracing for the July 2026 exit of Tennessee Tech, which announced last month it would accept an invitation to the Southern Conference.
Multiple sources indicated additional OVC schools may also be weighing their options, and more movement could be announced. Early indications swirl around SEMO and UT Martin as the next target to move.
The OVC has endured steady attrition in recent years, losing Eastern Kentucky and Jacksonville State in 2021 (to the UAC and Conference USA, respectively). This was followed by Murray State and Belmont departing for the Missouri Valley in 2022, and Austin Peay joining the UAC that same year. To replenish its ranks, the OVC added Little Rock from the Sun Belt (non-football), Southern Indiana from Division II (non-football), Lindenwood from Division II (with football), and Western Illinois from the Missouri Valley (with football). Even with these additions, football schools have been rumored to be frustrated, as the league’s numbers dipped to as few as five football programs at one point, forcing an alliance with the Big South to preserve NCAA eligibility and scheduling.
For Little Rock, the UAC move is about aligning with a league undergoing a dramatic reinvention. The ASUN and Western Athletic Conference (WAC) formally announced a strategic alliance this summer that will take effect in July 2026. The WAC will rebrand as the United Athletic Conference (UAC), and together the two leagues will form a consortium led by current ASUN Commissioner Jeff Bacon, who will also serve as Executive Director. Bacon said the alliance is designed to “create an environment where institutions can elevate their programs, leverage collective resources, and champion a new era of intercollegiate athletics,” adding that the model offers collaboration, scheduling stability, and long-term sustainability.
The plan calls for the UAC to house the seven football-playing members — Abilene Christian, Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama, Tarleton State, and West Georgia, plus non-football-playing UT Arlington — while the ASUN maintains a seven-school roster focused on basketball and Olympic sports. This move becomes an outlier in the early narratives as Little Rock does not have football. Both conferences will keep their own NCAA automatic qualifier status but share scheduling, resources, and operational efficiencies under the consortium umbrella.
The potential membership shakeup also comes just as the OVC finalized a six-year extension with ESPN. The deal guarantees at least 725 events per school year on ESPN+ while maintaining the right to televise up to 50 contests annually on linear local outlets. Select men’s basketball games will continue to air nationally on ESPN, ESPN2, or ESPNU. The OVC has had a relationship with ESPN since 1980.
So what’s next?
For the OVC, the departure of Little Rock, paired with Tennessee Tech’s move to the SoCon, marks another setback in membership stability and football viability. For the UAC/ASUN, however, the Trojans provide another basketball-first institution as the league transitions to its consortium model.
In the meantime, the OVC’s remaining schools face a pressing question: whether to hold firm in hopes of stability or follow peers who have sought alignment elsewhere.
