The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) sponsored football and crowned a champion every year from 1962 to 2012.

[5] On the same day, news broke that The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), a non-football playing member of the conference, had committed to create an FCS football program by 2024.

[6] At the time, the program would most likely have competed as part of the newly-reinstated WAC football conference.

Under the partnership, three FCS programs that joined the ASUN in July 2021 played alongside current WAC members.

The ASUN is contributing Austin Peay, Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky, and North Alabama to the new league, with the WAC contributing Abilene Christian, Southern Utah, Stephen F. Austin, Tarleton, and Utah Tech.

The merged conference will play a six-game schedule in 2023 before adopting a full round-robin in 2024.

By the end of January 2021, three more schools were brought into WAC football for the 2021 fall season only.

All are incoming members of the ASUN Conference, which plans to start an FCS football league in 2022.

However, Boise State received a BCS at-large bid and defeated TCU in the 2010 Fiesta Bowl.