The FCS Daily Dose is a blog-style article series featuring an assortment of news, rumblings, quick-hitters, and commentary on various topics. A new Daily Dose will publish multiple times a week to keep the FCS discussion going throughout the long offseason.
For March 21, 2024, let’s talk about…
FCS Startup UTRGV Joins Southland
UTRGV (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) is starting an FCS program with its debut season coming in 2025. A member of the WAC in its other sports, the football team was supposed to be the newest member of the United Athletic Conference (ASUN-WAC merger). But ESPN’s Pete Thamel reports UTRGV is leaving the WAC for the Southland Conference beginning in the 2024-25 season.
The WAC exit fee is $2 million.
It’s another win for the Southland in terms of membership stability after nearly being gutted when the ASUN and the WAC formed new FCS conferences in early 2021.
The Southland will grow to nine football members in 2025 as UTRGV joins Houston Christian, Incarnate Word, Lamar, McNeese, Nicholls, Northwestern State, Southeastern Louisiana University, and Texas A&M-Commerce.
The UAC will stay at 10 football members: five from the ASUN (Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama, West Georgia) and five from the WAC (Abilene Christian, Southern Utah, Stephen F. Austin, Tarleton State, Utah Tech).
The Southland lost Central Arkansas to the ASUN in 2021 along with SFA, Sam Houston, Abilene Christian, and Lamar to the WAC. But it has rebounded well.
Lamar quickly decided to return to the Southland. UIW decided to stay in the Southland in summer 2022 after announcing it would join the WAC. And the Southland was able to keep McNeese after it also flirted with the WAC.
It was all quite a mess.
The OVC and Big South were also hit hard with teams leaving for the ASUN and the WAC. But then Kennesaw State and Jacksonville State left the ASUN for the FBS, Sam Houston left the WAC for the FBS, and those Southland members mentioned above reversed course.
It resulted in the ASUN-WAC forming a joint FCS league, which rebranded to the United Athletic Conference last April. The UAC isn’t recognized as an official one-sport conference by the NCAA, but it still has access to the FCS playoffs with an auto-bid.
The ASUN-WAC movement also resulted in the Big South-OVC forming another joint league. That association has nine members: two from the Big South (Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb) and seven from the OVC (Eastern Illinois, Lindenwood, SEMO, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, UT Martin, Western Illinois).
UTRGV has been a member of the WAC for its other sports since 2013. It recently signed its first football recruiting class with its first season coming in 2025.
The Vaqueros will be head-coached by Travis Bush, which was announced in December 2022. Bush was a high school head football coach from 2016-22. He coached in the college ranks from 2001-2014, including being the associate head coach at Texas State, the offensive coordinator at UTSA, and the assistant head coach/OC at Houston.
UTRGV recently announced it acquired H-E-B Park as the primary home for the football team, now to be called UTRGV Stadium. Since 2017, the venue had served as the home of the Rio Grande Valley FC Toros of the United Soccer League. The organization ceased operations in December 2023. Capacity will be around 10,000.
UTRGV also recently announced that fans have placed deposits for the first 3,263 season tickets in UTRGV football history.
FCS Conference Sizes
Here’s a breakdown of conference sizes for the 2024 season.
Big Sky: 12
Cal Poly, Eastern Washington, Idaho, Idaho State, Montana, Montana State, Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado, Portland State, Sacramento State, UC Davis, Weber State
Big South–OVC Football Association: 9
Big South – Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb
OVC – Eastern Illinois, Lindenwood, SEMO, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, UT Martin, Western Illinois
CAA: 16
UAlbany, Campbell, Bryant, *Delaware, Elon, Hampton, Maine, Monmouth, New Hampshire, North Carolina A&T, Rhode Island, Richmond, Stony Brook, Towson, Villanova, William & Mary
*Delaware is joining the FBS in 2025. 2024 is a transition year as Delaware will play a CAA schedule but will be ineligible for an FCS playoff berth.
Ivy: 8
Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, Yale
MEAC: 6
Delaware State, Howard, Morgan State, Norfolk State, North Carolina Central, South Carolina State
MVFC: 11
Illinois State, Indiana State, Missouri State, Murray State, North Dakota, North Dakota State, Northern Iowa, South Dakota, South Dakota State, Southern Illinois, Youngstown State
NEC: 7
Central Connecticut State, Duquesne, Long Island University, Robert Morris, Saint Francis U, Stonehill College, Wagner
Patriot: 7
Bucknell, Colgate, Fordham, Georgetown, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh
Pioneer: 11
Butler, Davidson, Dayton, Drake, Marist, Morehead State, Presbyterian, San Diego, St. Thomas, Stetson, Valparaiso
SoCon: 9
Chattanooga, East Tennessee State, Furman, Mercer, Samford, The Citadel, VMI, Western Carolina, Wofford
Southland: 8
Houston Christian, Incarnate Word, Lamar, McNeese, Nicholls, Northwestern State, Southeastern Louisiana University, Texas A&M-Commerce
SWAC: 12
Alabama A&M, Alabama State, Alcorn State, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Bethune-Cookman, Florida A&M, Grambling State, Jackson State, Mississippi Valley State, Prairie View A&M, Southern, Texas Southern
United Athletic Conference: 10
ASUN — Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama, West Georgia
WAC — Abilene Christian, Southern Utah, Stephen F. Austin, Tarleton State, Utah Tech
Independent: 2
Merrimack, Sacred Heart
Other Daily Doses
WKU’s decision or non-decision will impact FCS-to-FBS realignment, plus CUSA and MAC targets. READ MORE
If trends continue from the last two seasons, there will be plenty more transfer portal movement this spring. Plus, the five best HC jobs that were open this offseason. READ MORE
Does transferring to the FBS increase an FCS player’s draft stock? READ MORE
