After the past three seasons in college athletics around the globe, it’s safe to say that conference realignment has no offseason.
That statement was confirmed on Tuesday afternoon with a major newsbreak that the Mountain West Conference is adding UC Davis as an all-sports league member, with the exception of football.
The partnership will come into effect in 2026, with the Aggies joining the likes of Air Force, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, San Jose State, UNLV, UTEP, Wyoming, and Grand Canyon. The two schools that are affiliated in all sports but football are UC Davis and Grand Canyon for the foreseeable future.
18 of the school’s 25 scholarship sports play in the Big West Conference, a league comprised entirely of California-based teams. Their football team currently plays in the Big Sky, where they hold an 11-2 overall record and a conference record of 7-1.
Some have speculated that the Mountain West is eyeing further realignment with the Big Sky Conference and planning to add some of the league’s most desired teams. While any official reports have yet to circulate, the top realignment targets from the league would likely feature Montana, Montana State, Idaho, Cal Poly, or any number of teams.
Their basketball program plays in the Big West alongside teams like UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, and more and has had some serious success in the past few years. The team took on Kansas in the 2017 NCAA Tournament and was selected to the NIT Tournament in 2015 and 2018.
UC Davis has earned some serious respect in recent years as a program with incredible enrollment and endowment at the FCS level. While the school may have a while until its football program joins the Mountain West, agreeing to partial league membership is a great segway into potentially joining as an all-sports league member in the future.
