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Southern Utah Thunderbirds
Athletic teams representing Southern Utah University From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Southern Utah Thunderbirds are the varsity athletic teams representing Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah in intercollegiate athletics. The university sponsors thirteen teams including five men's sports: basketball, cross country, football, golf, and track and field and eight women's sports: basketball, cross country, golf, gymnastics, soccer, softball, track and field, and volleyball. The baseball program was dropped after the 2011–12 season.[2] The Thunderbirds compete in NCAA Division I as part of the Western Athletic Conference, after departing from the Big Sky Conference on July 1, 2022.[3] The Thunderbirds will rejoin the Big Sky for most sports (including football) at the start of the 2026-27 academic year.[4] Previously, the Thunderbirds competed as members of the Summit League and the American West Conference.
.Since 1961, Southern Utah has used the Thunderbird as its team mascot in the sports events they participate in. Its football team mascot is an even more powerful version of the Thunderbird, as it is inspired by Thor, a well-known god of Norse mythology.[5]
In 2022, the Thunderbirds left the Big Sky Conference and joined the Western Athletic Conference.[3] The football team played the 2022 season in a partnership between the WAC and the Atlantic Sun Conference. After that season, the two conferences merged their football leagues, creating what eventually became the United Athletic Conference.
The women's gymnastics team, also known as the Flippin' Birds, is a member of the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation, joining that for the 2023–24 season after the demise of its former gymnastics home of the Mountain Rim Gymnastics Conference.[6]
On June 25, 2025, the Thunderbirds announced that they would be joining the Big Sky Conference alongside fellow WAC member and rival Utah Tech starting in 2026.[4]
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Sports sponsored
A member of the Western Athletic Conference. SUU sponsors teams in six men's and nine women's NCAA sanctioned sports.[7]
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References
External links
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