North Carolina has seven FCS college football programs that compete across five conferences. The latest rounds of realignment will affect three of those leagues heading into the 2026 season.
Here’s how the latest round of conference shuffling will impact North Carolina’s FCS contingent as the complete subdivision bumps up to 128 total teams.
William & Mary, Villanova leave the CAA; Sacred Heart to join
Elon, Campbell and North Carolina A&T’s conference home continues to lose members of its mid-Atlantic wing. William & Mary and Villanova both will leave the CAA in 2026 to join the Patriot League for football. Richmond made the same jump in 2025.
SInce 2021, CAA Football has seen significant restructuring. James Madison moved to the FBS ranks in 2021. Hampton and Monmouth joined the league in 2022. A&T and Campbell became members in 2023. Delaware transitioned to FBS in 2025.
Sacred Heart, located in Fairfield, CT, will become a CAA member this upcoming season after being an FCS independent in 2024 and 2025. The latest addition will bring the league to 13 football-playing members:
What it means: The CAA continues to shift away from its traditional mid-Atlantic core, becoming more geographically stretched. For programs like Elon, Campbell and NC A&T, that means longer travel and a less familiar conference identity moving forward. By the same stretch, with recent powerhouse teams departing, the door is open for the North Carolina trio to better assert themselves in the standings.
CAA Football 2026
Albany
Bryant
Campbell
Elon
Hampton
Maine
Monmouth
New Hampshire
North Carolina A&T
Rhode Island
Sacred Heart
Stony Brook
Towson
Tennessee Tech moves from OVC/Big South to SoCon
The Southern Conference will add another purple school – and competitive football program. Tennessee Tech, undefeated champions of the OVC/Big South Football Association in 2025, will join Western Carolina’s league beginning this fall.
The Golden Eagles finished 11-2 last season (8-0 conference) before losing to North Dakota in the FCS playoffs.
Tennessee Tech’s addition will bring the Southern Conference to 10 schools. The Eagles will visit WCU on Oct. 3.
The OVC/Big South – Gardner-Webb’s football home since 2023 – will drop to eight teams. There has been talk that schools like Southeast Missouri State and UT-Martin could leave the OVC as well. But SEMO officials affirmed their commitment to staying in the conference this past November.
What it means: Tennessee Tech’s move strengthens the Southern Conference and adds another competitive hurdle for Western Carolina to clear in its quest for a league title. Meanwhile, the OVC/Big South becomes smaller — and potentially more unstable — putting programs like Gardner-Webb in a conference that could see further changes down the road.
Southern Conference Football 2026
Chattanooga
East Tennessee State
Furman
Mercer
Samford
Tennessee Tech
The Citadel
VMI
Western Carolina
Wofford
OVC/Big South Football 2026
Charleston Southern
Eastern Illinois
Gardner-Webb
Lindenwood
Southeast Missouri State
Tennessee State
UT-Martin
Western Illinois
No conference changes for Davidson, North Carolina Central
Davidson and North Carolina Central play in two of the most unique conferences in Division I FCS football.
The Wildcats are members of the Pioneer Football League, the division’s only non-scholarship league. Davidson joined the PFL in 2001.
The Pioneer Football League is truly a coast-to-coast conference and existed long before anyone ever entertained the idea of Stanford and Cal joining the ACC, or USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington moving to the Big Ten.
North Carolina Central, meanwhile, is a charter member of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC), which formed in 1971. The Eagles shifted to the CIAA in 1979 but rejoined the MEAC in 2010.
The HBCU league has a unique place in the FCS landscape in that its champion plays in the Celebration Bowl (HBCU national championship game) instead of advancing to the playoffs.
The MEAC has contracted from 11 football-playing schools to six since 2017. But there have been no changes since 2021 and no more have been announced.
What it means: Stability remains the story here, at least in the short term. While other leagues continue to shift, Davidson and North Carolina Central operate in conferences with clearly defined identities — even if those paths differ from the traditional FCS structure.
Pioneer Football League 2026
Butler
Davidson
Dayton
Drake
Marist
Morehead State
Presbyterian
San Diego
Stetson
St. Thomas
Valparaiso
MEAC Football 2026
Delaware State
Howard
Morgan State
Norfolk State
North Carolina Central
South Carolina State
More FCS realignment moves for 2026
NCAA Division I FCS will feature 128 teams for the upcoming season. Here are other changes affecting the subdivision:
- North Dakota State, which has won 10 national titles since 2011, will move up to FBS and join the Mountain West for football.
- West Florida announced on April 2 it would move from D2 to FCS for 2026. The Argonauts will join the United Athletic Conference for football along with West Georgia, North Alabama, Tarleton State, Eastern Kentucky, Central Arkansas, Austin Peay and Abilene Christian.
- Saint Francis has reclassified from FCS to Division III and will leave the Northeast Conference.
- Chicago State will debut football, starting as an independent before joining the NEC. Chicago State will visit North Carolina A&T in its inaugural season.
Big picture: The FCS landscape continues to evolve, with conferences expanding, contracting and redefining themselves. Surely, more teams will attempt the jump to FBS in the coming years, while others from D2 will ponder life at the D1 level.
For North Carolina’s seven FCS football programs, the challenge remains the same: finding stability and competitive footing in a subdivision where change has become the norm and great disparity exists between the now 128-team field.
Get Ready for the 2026 College Football Season:
🏫 Team Schedules Hub – Browse full-season schedules for all 33 North Carolina teams
🗓️ Weekly Master Schedule – View all games organized by week
🏈 North Carolina FCS Schedules – Find the 2026 schedules for Campbell, Davidson, Elon, Gardner-Webb, North Carolina A&T, North Carolina Central and Western Carolina all on one page.
