Southern Utah Announces Move to Western Athletic Conference

Continuing the traditional relationship between the state of Utah and the Western Athletic Conference, Southern Utah University will join the WAC effective July 1, 2022.

It was announced in January that the Thunderbirds will be joining the league, along with Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin from the Southland Conference, bringing back FCS football to the Western Athletic Conference.

The additions will create a 13-team conference that will be divided into two divisions for team sports other than football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball. One division will consist of the Texas-based institutions including current WAC members Tarleton State University and The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. The other division will include Southern Utah along with Dixie State University, New Mexico State University, Grand Canyon University, California Baptist University, Seattle University and Utah Valley University.

“The opportunity to become a member of the WAC is very exciting for us,” SUU Director of Athletics Debbie Corum said. “We believe that the future of SUU Athletics as a member of the WAC will provide exciting opportunities for our student-athletes, coaches and fans. It was an honor to be invited to join this group of institutions that possess a strong vision for the future and will challenge us to continue to grow as an athletic department and as an institution. The majority of our teams will be playing in divisions, which will make a positive impact on student-athlete welfare due to decreased travel time. Also, it gives us a chance to win divisional championships, which will help elevate every team competitively.”

The WAC Digital Network (WDN) is the official network of the Western Athletic Conference. It encompasses original live programming from around the conference. The WDN is available on both your desktop and mobile/tablet devices, as well as for over-the-top (OTT) platforms, including Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV and Apple TV. In addition to the more than 600 games and matches aired annually on the WDN, all game broadcasts are available ‘On Demand’.

In addition, the WDN produces more than 60 events exclusively for ESPN. WAC tournaments in men’s & women’s basketball, baseball, men’s & women’s soccer, softball, volleyball, the men’s and women’s swimming & diving championships, plus select regular season men’s basketball games air on ESPN+. The deal also includes the WAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championship games produced by ESPN and airing on their family of networks.