EKU part of conference restructuring that gives Colonels ‘long-term stability’
Eastern Kentucky University is at last bringing all of its athletics teams back together under one conference umbrella.
When the 2026-27 school year begins, EKU will be one of eight members of the United Athletic Conference.
If the UAC sounds familiar, that’s because the Eastern Kentucky football team has played in various renditions of that league since the Colonels left the Ohio Valley Conference after the 2020-21 school year.
While EKU football operated in the UAC, the rest of its athletics teams competed in the Atlantic Sun Conference, which does not support football.
The UAC was originally formed to create a competitive space for the football-playing members of the Western Athletic Conference and those from the Atlantic Sun. Originally called the ASUN-WAC Football Alliance, the football-only conference was later rebranded as the UAC.
Now, the UAC will expand to sponsor 15 sports. Joining EKU under the new United Athletic Conference flag will be Abilene Christian, Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, North Alabama, Tarleton State, Texas-Arlington and West Georgia.
The ASUN will now have seven schools: Bellarmine, Florida Gulf Coast, Jacksonville, Lipscomb, North Florida, Queens and Stetson.
The UAC and the ASUN will operate as “a consortium” under one leadership group led by executive director Jeff Bacon, the current ASUN commissioner.
“We are proud to launch this innovative Division I conference alliance, creating an environment where institutions can elevate their programs, leverage collective resources, and champion a new era of intercollegiate athletics,” Bacon said.
While both the ASUN and the UAC will retain their independent conference structures and automatic qualifiers to NCAA championships, they will partner within the consortium.
The consortium will allow the conferences to collaborate on scheduling, share assets and explore other operational efficiencies.
“We find ourselves in a transformative era where conferences and institutions are proactively seeking opportunities to collaborate, forge scheduling alliances, unlock new revenue streams, and prepare for a modernized world of intercollegiate athletics,” Bacon added. “This alliance achieves all these objectives simultaneously for our two conferences.”
For Eastern Kentucky, the reasons for partaking of the new consortium were multiple, according to athletics director Kyle Moats. As of this writing, the change was still awaiting approval from EKU’s Board of Regents.
“These are extraordinary times in intercollegiate athletics,” Moats said. “This alliance, once approved, allows us to be part of a new structure that solidifies our football program and positions us to best increase our chances to compete for NCAA championships. The consortium provides great leverage for the two conferences and long-term stability amongst like-minded and similarly situated institutions.”
This coming school year, EKU will continue to compete in the UAC for football and the ASUN for all other sports.
The football Colonels, who qualified for the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs last year, kick off the 2025 season Aug. 30 at Louisville.
