As FCS schools vie for a chance to move up to FBS, I see that there has been some re-alignment at the FCS level, too. I hadn't paid any attention to, but I bumped into a comment about the "United Athletic Conference", which I had never heard of. It seems like they are scattered all over the place, including teams like Eastern Kentucky, Austin Peay, and North Alabama in the East, and Utah Tech and Southern Utah in the West.

That seems like an awful lot of travel that is built in, especially since all FCS teams lose money. One place where the MAC has an advantage is in terms of keeping down the cost and time of travel.

When UNA announced they were moving up from D-2 to 1aa (FCS), the OVC quickly snubbed them even though they were squarely in the footprint and near historical rival Jacksonville (AL) State. People said that was a major fvckup and they were correct. The OVC is now a shadow of it's former self.

J. State = gone
EKU = gone
Murray = gone
Belmont = gone
APSU = gone

But they did add something called "Lindenwood" whatever that it.

Founded in 1832, the Lindenwood School for Girls is the second oldest
higher-education institution west of the Mississippi River.

We play them in hockey.

Several of the schools that bolted the OVC have had first round NBA draft picks.

Not sure Lindenwood did.

United is a merger of the ASUN and the WAC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Athletic_Conference

Except for the Utah teams it's pretty well concentrated from Texas to Kentucky, so it's not overly spread out. Better than the Pioneer League, which has teams in NY, Ohio, Kentucky, the Carolinas, Florida, Minnesota, Iowa, and California.