2010–14 NCAA conference realignment

The 2010–2014 NCAA conference realignment refers to several proposed and actual conference expansion plans among various NCAA conferences, beginning in the 2010–11 academic year. While conferences in all three NCAA divisions—Division I, Division II, and Division III—experienced change during this period, media attention focused on extensive conference movement in Division I.

Most of these changes involved conferences in the top Football Bowl Subdivision, with all of the FBS conferences, as well as the ranks of FBS independents, either gaining or losing football members. Most notably, after significant attrition and replacement, the old Big East Conference split into football-sponsoring and non-football sponsoring conferences in 2013 with the establishment of the American Athletic Conference and the new Big East Conference, while the Western Athletic Conference became the first Division I FBS conference to drop football since the Big West Conference did so in 2000. Two other conferences (the Mountain West Conference and Conference USA) discussed a merger, but due to likely revenue losses resulting from specific provisions in NCAA rules, these plans were abandoned.

The second-tier Football Championship Subdivision also saw changes, with 13 schools changing their football affiliation, and four other schools announcing that they would establish football programs at that level. The most significant change to the FCS landscape was the collapse of the Great West Conference, which was forced by attrition to drop football after the 2011 season. Then, in 2013, it saw the departure of all its remaining full members except the New Jersey Institute of Technology, (NJIT), causing its complete collapse, and forcing NJIT to compete as an independent in most sports until it joined the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2015.

...
Wikipedia