The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Department of Intercollegiate Athletics has announced it has accepted an invitation to join the Southland Conference as a full-time member beginning July 1.

UTRGV will compete in the conference in baseball, football, volleyball, women’s soccer, and men’s and women’s basketball, cross country, golf, tennis, and indoor and outdoor track & field, according to a news release.

All UTRGV teams currently competing in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC) will remain eligible to compete for conference championships and NCAA postseason play.

According to the news release, UTRGV will be the 11th institution to join the Southland Conference. They join other universities including Houston Christian, Incarnate Word, Lamar, McNeese, New Orleans, Nicholls, Northwestern State, Southeastern, Texas A&M-Commerce and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

The university will hold a press conference on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m. to provide further details.

Channel 5 News will be livestreaming the press conference on our website and Facebook page.