Western Athletic Conference football
The Western Athletic Conference sponsored football and crowned a champion every year from 1962 to 2012. Once considered one of the best conferences in college football, steady attrition from 1999 to 2012 forced the WAC to drop football after fifty-one years.
On January 14, 2021, the WAC announced its intention to reinstate football as a conference-sponsored sport at the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision level, as well as the addition of five new members to the conference in all sports, including football. The new members announced include: Abilene Christian University, Lamar University, Sam Houston State University, and Stephen F. Austin State University, all currently of the Southland Conference, along with Southern Utah University, currently of the Big Sky Conference. Original plans were for all new members to join in July 2022, but after the SLC expelled its departing members, the WAC moved the arrival of those four schools and the relaunch of football to July 2021. Southern Utah's entry remained on the 2022 schedule. The WAC football league also included Dixie State University and Tarleton State University, both of which played as FCS independents in 2020–21 after having moved from NCAA Division II to the WAC for non-football sports in July 2020. The conference also announced that it will most likely add another football-playing institution at a later date. The conference has been speculated to move back up to the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision in the future following the reestablishment of the football conference at the FCS level.
On the same day, news broke that The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, a non-football playing member of the conference, had committed to create an FCS football program by 2024. At the time, the program would most likely have competed as part of the newly-reinstated WAC football conference.
For its first two planned seasons in 2021 and 2022, the relaunched WAC football league was branded as the ASUN–WAC Challenge, with the WAC establishing a temporary football partnership with the ASUN Conference. The ASUN eventually started its own FCS football league in 2022. Under the partnership, three FCS programs that joined the ASUN in July 2021 played alongside current WAC members.
The ASUN–WAC partnership was renewed for the 2022 season after the start of FBS transitions by ASUN member Jacksonville State and WAC member Sam Houston rendered both ineligible for the FCS playoffs, also dropping both conferences below the 6 football members needed to qualify for an automatic berth in the FCS playoffs. The WAC's playoff-eligible membership soon dropped further to 3, after Incarnate Word backed out of its planned move from the SLC to the WAC and Lamar, which had announced it would leave the WAC in 2023 to return to the SLC, accelerated this move to 2022.
The 2022 season proved to be the last for the WAC as a standalone football conference. On December 20, 2022, the ASUN and WAC jointly announced that they would fully merge their football conferences effective with the 2023 season, with its name later announced as the United Athletic Conference. 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. UTRGV, which put off the start of its football program to 2025, will join at that time. The UAC played a six-game schedule in 2023 before adopting a full round-robin in 2024.
Former members
The WAC has 29 former football-playing members.| Team | First Year | Last Year | WAC Titles | Current Primary Conference |
| Air Force Falcons | 1980 | 1998 | 3 | Mountain West |
| Arizona Wildcats | 1962 | 1977 | 2 | Big 12 |
| Arizona State Sun Devils | 1962 | 1977 | 7 | Big 12 |
| Boise State Broncos | 2001 | 2010 | 8 | Mountain West Pac-12 |
| BYU Cougars | 1962 | 1998 | 19 | Big 12 |
| Fresno State Bulldogs | 1992 | 2011 | 3 | Mountain West Pac-12 |
| Colorado State Rams | 1967 | 1998 | 3 | Mountain West Pac-12 |
| Hawaii Warriors | 1979 | 2011 | 4 | Mountain West |
| Idaho Vandals | 2005 | 2012 | 0 | Big Sky |
| Lamar Cardinals | 2021 | 2021 | 0 | Southland |
| Louisiana Tech Bulldogs | 2001 | 2012 | 2 | C-USA |
| UNLV Rebels | 1996 | 1998 | 0 | Mountain West |
| Nevada Wolf Pack | 2000 | 2011 | 2 | Mountain West |
| New Mexico Lobos | 1962 | 1998 | 2 | Mountain West |
| New Mexico State Aggies | 2005 | 2012 | 0 | C-USA |
| Rice Owls | 1996 | 2004 | 0 | The American |
| San Diego State Aztecs | 1978 | 1998 | 1 | Mountain West Pac-12 |
| San Jose State Spartans | 1996 | 2012 | 0 | Mountain West |
| SMU Mustangs | 1996 | 2004 | 0 | ACC |
| TCU Horned Frogs | 1996 | 2000 | 2 | Big 12 |
| UTEP Miners | 1967 | 2004 | 1 | C-USA Mountain West |
| UTSA Roadrunners | 2012 | 2012 | 0 | The American |
| Texas State Bobcats | 2012 | 2012 | 0 | Sun Belt |
| Tulsa Golden Hurricane | 1996 | 2004 | 0 | The American |
| Utah Utes | 1962 | 1998 | 2 | Big 12 |
| Utah State Aggies | 2005 | 2012 | 1 | Mountain West Pac-12 |
| Wyoming Cowboys | 1962 | 1998 | 7 | Mountain West |
| Sam Houston State | 2021 | 2022 | 1 | C-USA |
| Stephen F. Austin | 2021 | 2023 | 1 | Southland |
Current members
The WAC resumed play in the 2021 fall season with 9 members. Before the reinstatement of football was officially announced, media reports indicated that the WAC might add two more schools to join the conference for football. On the same day that WAC confirmed the return of football, full conference member UTRGV announced that it would start an FCS football program no later than 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. The WAC–ASUN Challenge consists of the seven teams that are eligible for the FCS playoffs. Utah Tech and Tarleton are included in alliance scheduling, but because of their ongoing transitions from NCAA Division II to Division I are ineligible for the playoffs until the 2024 season. Games against these schools do not count in alliance standings, although games against full WAC members count in the separate WAC league table. Jacksonville State and Sam Houston State left the WAC for the 2023 season as they began transitioning to the FBS level as members of Conference USA. In 2023, the ASUN–WAC Challenge became the United Athletic Conference and became a full FCS conference. Stephen F. Austin and UT Rio Grande Valley left the WAC for the Southland Conference before the 2024 season, prior to UTRGV having their first ever season of college football.| Team | Location | Nickname | Stadium | Capacity | Current Primary Conference | Starting Year |
| Abilene Christian | Abilene, TX | Wildcats | Anthony Field at Wildcat Stadium | 12,000 | WAC | 2021 |
| Central Arkansas | Conway, AR | Bears | Estes Stadium | 12,000 | ASUN | 2021 |
| Eastern Kentucky | Richmond, KY | Colonels | Roy Kidd Stadium | 20,000 | ASUN | 2021 |
| Southern Utah | Cedar City, UT | Thunderbirds | Eccles Coliseum | 8,500 | WAC | 2022 |
| Tarleton State | Stephenville, TX | Texans | Memorial Stadium | 17,000 | WAC | 2021 |
| Utah Tech | Trailblazers | Greater Zion Stadium | 10,000 | WAC | 2021 |
Conference championships
By year
By team
Championship game
Bowl games
The first bowl game appearance by a WAC team was at the 1964 Liberty Bowl, where Utah defeated West Virginia of the Southern Conference, 32–6.The WAC had conference tie-ins with various bowl games during its history, including:
The WAC champion received an automatic berth in one of the five Bowl Championship Series bowl games if they were the highest ranked non-automatic qualifying conference champion and either of the following:
- Ranked in the top 12 of the BCS Rankings.
- Ranked in the top 16 of the BCS Rankings and its ranking was higher than that of an automatic qualifying conference champion.