The UCF varsity athletic program originally began upon entering the NCAA Division III in 1979. It later moved to Division II in 1982 and Division I in 1990. Initially, UCF was a I-AA college football school, and was independent until 1992 when it joined the Trans-Atlantic Athletic Conference in all D-I sports except football, which remained independent. In 1996, UCF was advanced to I-A in football, and initially was independent in football until becoming a football-only member of the Mid-American Conference in 2001, the same year the TAAC became the Atlantic Sun Conference. UCF joined Conference USA in all sports in 2005.
