As April draws to a close, there was plenty of news and most of it related to sports being cut. On the flipside, a pair of NAIA schools announced sporting additions. We’ll start with NCAA Division 1 with a bit of Pac-12 news. Note that there was not NCAA Division 3 news to report today.

NCAA Division 1 News

The Pac-12 Conference finalized its media rights deal for the 2025 football season. The 13 home games featuring Oregon State and Washington State will be shown on CBS, ESPN, and the CW. CBS and ESPN will show two games apiece while the CW will have the remaining 9 matchups. The Pac-12 will be rebuilt in time for the 2026-27 academic year but still needs one more football-playing member to satisfy FBS requirements. When will that decision be made and announced? Your guess is as good as mine.

Grand Canyon University (Phoenix, Arizona) will transition its men’s volleyball team from varsity to a club team beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. GCU competed in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF). The MPSF will have 8 members in 2025-26: BYU, Concordia Irvine, Menlo, Pepperdine, Stanford, UCLA, USC, and Vanguard. Jessup University is expected to join in the future but a firm timeline has not been set for their arrival. Grand Canyon is making a full membership move from the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) to the Mountain West Conference in 2026-27.

Liberty University (Lynchburg, Virginia) will move its men’s soccer team from the Ohio Valley Conference to the Southern Conference beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. The move will put both conferences at 7 members for the 2026 season.

The University of Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah) will discontinue women’s beach volleyball at the end of the current 2024-25 academic year. Utah competes in the Big 12, which now has only three beach volleyball programs: Arizona, Arizona State, and TCU.

NCAA Division 2 News

Molloy University (Rockville Centre, New York) will discontinue its women’s tennis program at the end of the 2025-26 academic year and no longer sponsor it beginning in 2026-27. Molloy competes in the East Coast Conference, which will have only five teams in 2025-26, but Molloy is not the latest team to end a tennis program…

Shepherd University (Shepherdstown, West Virginia) has also discontinued its men’s and women’s tennis programs, effective immediately. Both teams competed in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC), which now has 5 men’s programs and 13 women’s programs. Last week, Dallas Baptist announced it would transition its men’s and women’s tennis teams to club status in 2025-26. NCAA and NAIA schools have announced that 24 tennis programs will be discontinued over the next two academic years, while only 12 programs will be added.

Montana State University Billings won’t bring back men’s soccer for the 2025-26 academic year despite a strong fundraising effort from supporters. The school announced the discontinuation of the sport in November, “following an analysis to align the department’s expenses and resources.” MSUB athletic director Mike Bazemore said the $224,000 in pledges is only a fraction of what is needed to bring the sport back. Bazemore said $1.1 million would be needed to maintain the sport for five years. If the fundraising goal is reached by January 1, 2026, MSUB would bring back men’s soccer with the 2026-27 academic year.

The South Atlantic Conference will continue its media rights deal with FloSports through the 2031-32 academic year. The SAC first partnered with FloSports in 2022-23 and is one of fourteen NCAA conferences to have a media rights deal with the company. The full list of those conferences by NCAA Divisional alignment is provided in the table below.

NAIA News

Bismarck State College (Bismarck, North Dakota) will add coed competitive dance beginning with the 2025-26 academic year and compete in the American Midwest Conference. The AMC will have 7 competitive dance members in 2025-26: Bismarck State, Campbellsville (KY), Columbia (MO), Cumberlands (TN), St. Ambrose (IA), St. Francis (IL), and Viterbo (WI). Missouri Baptist and William Woods (MO) will leave the AMC to join the HAAC in 2025-26. Bismarck State will begin its transition to the NAIA and Frontier Conference in 2025-26 (the Frontier doesn’t sponsor competitive dance).

Northwestern College (Orange City, Iowa) will add women’s wrestling beginning with the 2026-27 academic year and compete in the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC). Northwestern will join the current GPAC women’s wrestling members Dakota Wesleyan (SD), Doane (NE), Hastings (NE), Midland (NE), Morningside (IA), and Waldorf (IA). 29 schools are adding women’s wrestling over the next two academic years, with 8 of those being NAIA programs.