KSL.com BYU and college sports reporter
ST. GEORGE — Southern Utah University is headed back to a familiar home, and the Thunderbirds are bringing a regional friend.Southern Utah and Utah Tech will join the Big Sky in 2026, according to multiple reports.
Extra Points was the first to report the news, followed by Yahoo Sports.The additions of the Thunderbirds and Trailblazers to the Big Sky would grow the conference to 11 members following last week's departure of Sacramento State to the Big West in all sports except football.For the Thunderbirds, a reunion with a former conference is on tap. Southern Utah was a member of the league from 2012 through 2021, when it joined the Western Athletic Conference alongside a Texas quartet of Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin from the Southland.But the expanded conference, which also ran to include Seattle U. and California Baptist on the Pacific coast, in addition to the likes of Utah Valley in the west, never gained much traction. Sam Houston jumped to the FBS and Conference USA beginning with the 2023-24 season, and Lamar and Stephen F. Austin by 2024. bout to hop on the radio but im told that news is that Utah Tech AND Southern Utah are headed to the Big Sky— Matt Brown June 25, 2025 at 10:11 AM Bitter feelings ensued between the conference and Southern Utah, according to multiple sources. But the athletic director and university president who guided the Thunderbirds' move to the WAC both left, and the most recent AD — former Nevada administrator Doug Knuth — also resigned with six months left on his contract after a series of reported Title IX inquiries.The departures of the Texas schools left the WAC with as few as nine members, and defections weren't done. Seattle accepted an invitation to the West Coast Conference alongside GCU, which then turned the invite into a big to the Mountain West, effective July 1, 2026.Utah Valley will join CBU in the Big West next summer, which left the WAC with five members — the two in the south of the Beehive State, and three Texas schools in Abilene Christian, Tarleton State and UT Arlington.Before their recent flirtation with the WAC, Southern Utah had been in the Big Sky — a marked era of stability in the 61-year-old conference whose founding members included Gonzaga, Idaho, Idaho State, Montana, Montana State and Weber State. Utah Tech kicker Connor Brooksby celebrates after kicking a 47-yard field goal, putting his team
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