The athletic teams at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock are on the move again after announcing Friday they will be joining the United Athletic Conference (UAC) beginning July 1.
UA Little Rock is a member of the Ohio Valley Conference, where most of its teams have competed since it joined the conference in 2022. The Trojans had spent the previous 31 years in the Sun Belt Conference.
All of the Trojans’ teams except two will compete in the UAC. The women’s swimming and diving team will compete as an affiliate member of the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) and the men’s wrestling team will continue to compete as an affiliate member of the Pac-12 Conference.
Frank Cuervo, director of athletics at UA Little Rock, said by phone Friday that the move was important for geography and revenue generation in a changing landscape for college athletics.
In the Ohio Valley Conference, Little Rock was located in the southwest corner of the league’s footprint, which made for some long bus rides and led to wear-and-tear among student-athletes and coaches, Cuervo said.
In the UAC, Little Rock will be in the center of the footprint. Additionally, the league will have three teams in the Dallas area, which Cuervo said is a major point for the university’s recruitment, as well as teams in Tennessee where the school also recruits students.
Unique Model
UA Little Rock, which Cuervo said is not adding football, is joining a changing UAC.
In 2021, the conference began as a partnership for football between the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) and the ASUN. In 2023, the football-playing portion of the conferences officially became known as the UAC. Teams compete in the NCAA’s Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), the second-highest tier of college football.
Things will change again with the formation of the United Athletic Consortium, a new type of arrangement in college athletics. The consortium will oversee the football-playing conference, the all-sports conference and the ASUN.
Beginning in July, the Western Athletic Conference will rebrand as the UAC and will offer a variety of sports in addition to football. The football-playing schools in the WAC and the ASUN will compete in the UAC’s football conference. Otherwise, the schools will compete separately in either the UAC (formerly the WAC) or the ASUN.
Broadcast Appeal
Cuervo said he was drawn to the conference by its entrepreneurial approach and his relationship with ASUN Jeff Bacon, who will lead the consortium. Cuervo expects the league to add more teams and eventually land at 20-24 schools.
He said consortium arrangement also makes sense in terms of revenue generation for sponsorship and TV broadcasting.
“That packs a real punch,” he said.
The University of Central Arkansas has been a member of the ASUN since 2021 and began playing football in the WAC-ASUN partnership that year.
In the 2026-2027, the United Athletic’s all-sports conference will include Abilene Christian in Abilene, Texas; Austin Peay in Clarksville, Tennessee; Eastern Kentucky in Richmond, Kentucky; North Alabama in Florence, Alabama; Tarleton State in Stephenville, Texas; Texas-Arlington in Arlington, Texas; and West Georgia in Carrollton, Georgia in addition to UA Little Rock and UCA.
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