College Sports Realignment Roundup for April 1, 2025

The last day of March 2025 was a day of mergers and acquisitions in the college realignment world. Villanova announced it will merge Rosemont with the university and the NAIA’s HBCU Athletic Conference announced two new members for 2025. Let’s dive in with the Villanova-Rosemont merger.

Rosemont Merging with Villanova

Rosemont College (Rosemont, Pennsylvania) is merging with Villanova University (Villanova, Pennsylvania) in a move that will ultimately end Rosemont’s athletic program. Rosemont will compete in the United East Conference for the 2025-26 academic year and its athletic teams will transition to club status beginning with the 2026-27 academic year.

Rosemont is the second full member of the United East to see an end to its varsity athletic programs within the last week. Bryn Athyn College announced that it will drop athletics following the 2024-25 academic year. Bryn Athyn sponsors 11 varsity teams while Rosemont sponsors 13. Rosemont is adding flag football beginning with the 2025-26 academic year at the varsity level. Although the sport isn’t sponsored by the NCAA yet, the United East will sponsor it beginning in 2025-26. The table below shows the remaining number of UEC members for each sport without Bryn Athyn and Rosemont.

The United East still has 15 full members, although Cedar Crest College only sponsors women’s teams. Keystone College has accreditation issues to contend with, putting its status murky at best. Both Bryn Athyn and Rosemont are members of the UEC’s Skye Division, putting the conference at 7 in the Skye (this tally includes Cedar Crest) and 8 in the Volt Division. The UEC also saw departures from Clarks Summit (2024) and Wells College (2023) with both schools ultimately closing.

The trend of college closures, mergers, and athletic departments being shuttered will only continue, to say nothing of the schools looking at NCAA Division 3 for its athletics (Saint Francis from D1 and Azusa Pacific from D2). The 8 schools below represent roughly 120 varsity sports teams that will not be returning over the next two years.

Huston-Tillotson and Paul Quinn Joining HBCUAC

The HBCU Athletic Conference expanded its membership by adding Huston-Tillotson University (Austin, Texas) and Paul Quinn College (Dallas, Texas) beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. Both schools will leave the Red River Athletic Conference, putting the RRAC at 12 full members and the HBCUAC at 15 members. The map below shows members from both the HBCUAC and RRAC.

In terms of sports sponsorship, both Huston-Tillotson and Paul Quinn will move all their respective teams to the HBCUAC. Furthermore, the HBCUAC will also begin sponsoring men’s and women’s soccer in 2025-26. The men’s side will consist of Fisk, Huston-Tillotson, Oakwood, Paul Quinn, Talladega College, Tougaloo, and Wiley. Women’s soccer will see Huston-Tillotson, Oakwood, Paul Quinn, Talladega College, Tougaloo, Wilberforce, and Wiley compete. All programs previously competed in the Continental Athletic Conference.

The RRAC may also lose Texas A&M-Texarkana in the near future as it looks to secure an invite from an NCAA Division 2 conference. TAMUT is gearing up by adding five sports in 2025-26 and football looks to be on the horizon. As noted in March, the timing of when TAMUT adds football and moves to NCAA D2 is not yet known.