The landscape of college football continues to shift on all levels.

While it may not be the major earthquake of Southern Cal and UCLA moving to the Big Ten, a minor tremor surfaced Friday on the Football Championship Subdivision level.

ESPN reported that the football-playing members of the Western Athletic and Atlantic Sun conferences signed an agreement to join forces. The two already have a scheduling alignment but now want to go further.

According to a Pete Thamel story, the group of 10 schools have filed founding documents to create a new football-only conference and move to the Football Bowl Subdivision at “the earliest possible date.”

The report states that the schools that have signed on to join the league are WAC football members Stephen F. Austin, Abilene Christian, Utah Tech, Southern Utah and Tarleton State along with A-SUN schools Austin Peay, Eastern Kentucky, Central Arkansas and North Alabama.

Texas-Rio Grande Valley would join when it starts football in 2025.

SFA, Abilene and Central Arkansas were all members of the Southland until moving to their new conferences in the summer of 2021.

The story says the league hopes to be playing on the Football Bowl Subdivision level by as early as 2024 but it was not clear as to how that would happen. There is a moratorium in the NCAA Division I level on single-sport conferences.

The NCAA Division I board of directors would have to vote to lift that unless some other new angle would come into play.

In other words, the new league is looking to join the big party without an invitation.

The WAC has been hemorrhaging teams since it restarted football last season. Lamar left after one year as did Sam Houston State and New Mexico State. Incarnate Word flipped on its decision to join the league last summer.

McNeese State was invited to join the WAC last year but decided to stay in the Southland while still pursuing an FBS conference on its own at the last minute.

“We are very happy with our decision to stay but we are always looking out for what is in the best interest of McNeese athletics now and in the future,” Cowboys Athletic Director Heath Schroyer said.

“It is a very interesting move by those schools and we will watch to see what happens. College sports is changing and we will continue to see what develops.”

A few of those schools making the new conference were seen as potentially either joining or rejoining the Southland. Both the SLC and the new league have said they are open to expansion.

Schroyer said nobody from the new league has contacted McNeese.

One of the reasons for jumping up to the top level is to share in what is expected to be huge playoff dollars now and in the future.

However, the future of the college playoffs and what teams and conferences are actually involved in those is still in question. Many believe the power conferences will not be willing to share the revenue with smaller schools who bring limited benefits to the playoffs.

Schroyer said McNeese remains interested in one day moving up to the FBS.

“We have always stated that our goal was to get there if it was right for McNeese at the time,” Schroyer said.

The current Football Championship Subdivision playoffs are down to the final eight teams with only Incarnate Word left from the Southland. No school from what would be the new conference is still alive in the postseason.