The reason for independent status varies among institutions, but it is frequently because the school's primary athletic conference does not sponsor a particular sport.
The most recent full independent, Chicago State, joined the Northeast Conference (NEC) after the conclusion of the 2023–24 season.
The ranks of FBS independents dropped by one when Army departed to join the American Athletic Conference as an affiliate for football.
The Alaska Board of Regents told the hockey program they would be reinstated if they were able to collect $3 million in donations and fundraising, so the team was on hiatus for both the 2020–21 and 2021–22 season while its future was uncertain.
Ultimately, the money was raised, and the Seawolves were reinstated for the 2022–23 season, but due to the WCHAs aforementioned disbanding, they resumed play as an independent alongside the Nanooks.
Before this announcement, Stonehill had been one of seven NE-10 members that played men's ice hockey under Division II regulations, despite the NCAA not sponsoring a championship event at that level.
The most recent departure from the independent ranks was Delaware State, who joined the Northeast Conference as an affiliate in women's soccer in 2023.
Maryville, Missouri S&T, and Rockhurst will leave the independent ranks after the 2025 season once their primary home of the Great Lakes Valley Conference starts sponsoring the sport, with Roosevelt and Thomas More joining them as affiliate members.
Morgan State University added a wrestling team for the 2023-24 season, becoming the only HBCU to field the sport at the Division I level.
[16] No women's ice hockey teams have played as independents at the National Collegiate level, the de facto equivalent to Division I in that sport, since the 2018–19 season.
In that season, five schools—Franklin Pierce, Post, Sacred Heart, Saint Anselm, and Saint Michael's—competed as independents, all participating in the nascent New England Women's Hockey Alliance (NEWHA), which had originally been established in 2017 as a scheduling alliance among all of the then-current National Collegiate independents.
The most recent men's lacrosse independent, Le Moyne, moved its program to the Northeast Conference following the 2024 season.