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Report: Two Utah schools in plans for return of WAC football in 2022

The Western Athletic Conference has not fielded football teams since 2012. New league will initially compete at FCS level.

(Jordan Allred/The Spectrum via AP) | Southern Utah quarterback Patrick Tyler (3) rushes for a touchdown during an NCAA college football game Saturday, Nov. 18, 2017, in Cedar City, Utah. SUU has accepted an invitation to join a newly reconstituted Western Athletic Conference for football, along with neighboring rival Dixie State.

  | Jan. 6, 2021, 8:51 p.m.
| Updated: 8:52 p.m.

It appears Western Athletic Conference football is making its way back to Utah.

Southern Utah University and Dixie State University are included the formation of a new WAC league starting in 2022, per a Yahoo Sports report. The news is set to be officially announced Jan. 14.

Five other schools will join DSU and SUU. They are Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin and Tarleton State, per the report. The WAC is expected to add two more schools later, the report added.

The new league will compete in the Football Championship Subdivision, but plans are to eventually compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision by the end of the decade, per the report.

The WAC hasn’t sponsored football since 2012. Before then, it was considered one of the top non-Power 5 football conferences in the country. BYU won a national title in 1984 when it was part of the WAC. Utah and Utah State also spent time in the conference.

But with the formation of the Mountain West Conference and other schools moving to various other conferences, WAC football ended.