{"id":55386,"date":"2026-07-01T13:44:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T18:44:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/?p=55386"},"modified":"2026-07-01T13:44:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T18:44:03","slug":"tarleton-state-officially-begins-full-time-united-athletic-conference-membership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/tarleton-state-officially-begins-full-time-united-athletic-conference-membership\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarleton State\u00a0Officially Begins\u00a0Full-time\u00a0United Athletic Conference Membership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Republished from\u00a0Tarleton State Athletics<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2013\u00a0Tarleton State University has officially begun full-time membership into the United Athletic Conference (UAC) as of Wednesday.\u00a0Tarleton State announced last summer the Texans would begin membership in\u00a0the\u00a0new conference on\u00a0July 1, 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UAC sponsors 16 sports, which includes Tarleton State in each; baseball, men\u2019s basketball, men\u2019s cross country, football, men\u2019s golf, men\u2019s indoor track and field, men\u2019s outdoor track and field, women\u2019s basketball, women\u2019s cross country, women\u2019s golf, women\u2019s indoor track and field, women\u2019s outdoor track and field, women\u2019s soccer, softball, women\u2019s tennis and volleyball. The Texans have 17 NCAA Division I programs, with Tarleton State Beach Volleyball joining the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN), effective immediately. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTarleton State is now a full member of the United Athletic Conference, another strategic step in our rise in the collegiate ranks,\u201d Tarleton State President Dr. James Hurley said. \u201cThe UAC is a bold new chapter in the evolving landscape of collegiate athletics. Our Texans posted a historic athletic season in 2025-26, and we have no plans to slow down as we increase our competition, challenges and opportunities. Joining the UAC furthers our commitment in providing a first-class experience to our student-athletes, while continuing to establish our national prominence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UAC is the new version of the rebranded Western Athletic Conference, which is aligned with the ASUN under Unisun Sports. Unisun Sports, announced in May, is a groundbreakingstrategic alliance between the UAC and ASUN. Unisun Sports will serve both conferences, designed to significantly enhance operational efficiency, foster deeper collaboration, and drive innovation across both NCAA Division I organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is another important milestone for Tarleton State, as we continue to elevate our department and the national footprint of a worldclass institution,\u201d Vice President and Director of Athletics Steve Uryasz said. \u201cFollowing an impressive year of countless conference championships and being named the top athletic department in the conference itself, we\u2019re ready for the challenge in our next era of Tarleton State Athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UAC includes nine full member institutions; Abilene Christian, Arkansas-Little Rock, Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, North Alabama, Tarleton State, UT Arlington, and West Georgia. West Florida will be an affiliate member in football. Tarleton State Football has been in the UAC for the past three years, which until Wednesday, was a football-only conference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday marks more than an official launch date\u2014it represents the beginning of what\u2019s next in collegiate athletics. It celebrates a new era for the United Athletic Conference (UAC) as it officially steps into a multi-sport conference, the continued strength of the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN), and the formation of a joint-venture, Unisun Sports,\u201d said Unisun Sports CEO, Jeff Bacon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tarleton State begins its UAC era following a historic 2025-26 campaign. Tarleton State won eight conference titles this past season after entering the year with three in its NCAA Division I era. The Texans claimed a share of the football conference championship, then won the outright conference tournaments in women’s indoor track and field, women’s tennis, women’s golf, men’s golf, baseball and men’s outdoor track and field, along with a baseball regular season title. There were 294 institutions across all of NCAA Division I and all sports that conferences sponsor who won at least one conference championship, regular season and\/or tournament. Tarleton State placed in the top-20 nationwide with its eight conference titles (tied-17th). All of that plus impressive seasons for many other Tarleton State programs led to the Texans winning the final WAC Commissioner\u2019s Cup, the ultimate prize for overall performance across all sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Republished from\u00a0Tarleton State Athletics. STEPHENVILLE, Texas \u2013\u00a0Tarleton State University has officially begun full-time membership into the United Athletic Conference (UAC) as of Wednesday.\u00a0Tarleton State announced last summer the Texans would …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":595,"featured_media":55387,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_wds_title":"","_wds_metadesc":"","_wds_focus-keywords":"","_wds_meta-robots-adv":"","_wds_meta-robots-noindex":false,"_wds_meta-robots-nofollow":false,"_wds_meta-robots-index":false,"_wds_meta-robots-follow":false,"_wds_autolinks-exclude":false,"_wds_canonical":"","_wds_redirect":"","_wds_opengraph":[],"_wds_twitter":[],"wds_primary_category":382,"footnotes":""},"categories":[382,421],"tags":[433],"class_list":["post-55386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage","category-featuredstories","tag-athletics"],"acf":{"image":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"jpartin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/author\/jpartin\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2026\/07\/UAC-Era-Begins-Graphic-7-1-26-900x600-1-300x200.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["_Homepage<\/a>","Featured Stories<\/a>"],"unlinked":["_Homepage<\/span>","Featured Stories<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Athletics<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Athletics<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":0,"relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 5 hours ago","modified":"Updated 5 hours ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on July 1, 2026","modified":"Updated on July 1, 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on July 1, 2026 1:44 pm","modified":"Updated on July 1, 2026 1:44 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/595"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55388,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55386\/revisions\/55388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarleton.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}