2021–2026 NCAA conference realignment

Beginning in the 2021–22 academic year, extensive changes occurred in NCAA conference membership, primarily at the Division I level.

Most of these changes have involved conferences in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of Division I. All 10 FBS conferences that existed at the start of the realignment cycle have seen or will see changes in their core membership.

The Associated Press named conference realignment, and in particular the collapse of the Pac-12 Conference, as the 2023 story of the year in U.S. sports. The Pac-12 Conference lost ten of its twelve members ahead of the 2024–25 academic year, leading to lawsuits and to ad hoc arrangements for its remaining two members until newly invited members could join in 2026.

The Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) also saw significant changes, most notably the beginning of football sponsorship by the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN); the return of football by the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), which previously sponsored football at the FBS level until the end of the 2012 season; and two football-only conference mergers, one involving the ASUN and WAC and the other involving the Big South Conference and Ohio Valley Conference (OVC). A third FCS change was the creation of a formal relationship between the Missouri Valley Football Conference and two non-football leagues, the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) and Summit League.

Other sports saw significant change:

• In men's ice hockey, the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) was reestablished by seven members of the men's Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA), which led to the WCHA disbanding its men's league and becoming a women-only conference. Also, the men-only Atlantic Hockey Association and the women-only College Hockey America announced they would merge into a single conference, later unveiled as Atlantic Hockey America, after the 2023–24 season.
• In men's soccer, the Sun Belt Conference reinstated the sport, ultimately leading to both Conference USA (CUSA) and the Mid-American Conference dropping the sport, and the OVC also added the sport.
• The Atlantic 10 Conference launched a men's lacrosse league, leading to the Northeast Conference (NEC) and the Southern Conference dropping the sport. However, the NEC later reinstated men's lacrosse in 2024–25.
• The NEC became the second D-I all-sports conference to sponsor men's volleyball.
• The West Coast Conference and the Big West Conference added men's water polo, which led to the demise of the men's side of the water polo-only Golden Coast Conference.
• In men's wrestling, the Ivy League announced it would hold its own conference championship meet starting in 2024–25, ending a century-long de facto relationship with the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association.
• The Mountain West Conference began sponsoring women's gymnastics, leading to the demise of the single-sport Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference.
• Several all-sports conferences underwent single-sport mergers or transfers of sponsorship:
  • The OVC merged its men's tennis league into the Horizon League.
  • The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference merged its baseball league into the NEC.
  • The Southland Bowling League was absorbed by CUSA.
  • The ASUN added men's and women's swimming & diving, effectively taking over the aquatics side of the Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) and leaving the latter a beach volleyball-only conference.
  • Sponsorship of men's swimming & diving transferred from the Mid-American Conference to the MVC.
  • The CCSA would itself disband completely after the spring 2025 season, with its final beach volleyball members joining the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation for that sport.