American South Conference
The American South Conference was an NCAA Division I athletic conference that existed from 1987–88 to 1990–91. The charter members were Arkansas State University, Lamar University, Louisiana Tech University, the University of New Orleans, the University of Southwestern Louisiana and the University of Texas–Pan American. The University of Central Florida became the only expansion school during the conference's final academic season before the conference merged with the Sun Belt Conference. The Sun Belt, which was losing all but three members, merged with the American South conference. The combined conference retained the name of the older Sun Belt Conference. Craig Thompson, the American South's first and only commissioner, became commissioner of the merged Sun Belt. After serving as Sun Belt commissioner for eight years, he became commissioner of the newly formed Mountain West Conference in 1998.
In its brief existence, the American South was home to the 1988 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Champion in Louisiana Tech, and also had two men's basketball teams earn NCAA at-large berths, Louisiana Tech in 1989 and New Orleans in 1991. Lamar's women's basketball team advanced to the NCAA round of eight in 1991 defeating Texas, LSU, and Arkansas before losing to tournament finalist Virginia.
Member schools
Final members
;Notes:Membership timeline
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1987 till:1992
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<#
Colors =
id:barcolor value:rgb
id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
id:Full value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports
id:FullxF value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football
id:AssocF value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only
id:AssocOS value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all
id:OtherC1 value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference
id:OtherC2 value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:FullxF from:1987 till:1991 text:Arkansas State
bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:1991 till:end text:Sun Belt
bar:2 color:FullxF from:1987 till:1991 text:Lamar
bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:1991 till:end text:Sun Belt
bar:3 color:FullxF from:1987 till:1991 text:Louisiana Tech
bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:1991 till:end text:Sun Belt
bar:4 color:FullxF from:1987 till:1991 text:New Orleans
bar:4 color:OtherC1 from:1991 till:end text:Sun Belt
bar:5 color:FullxF from:1987 till:1991 text:Southwestern Louisiana
bar:5 color:OtherC1 from:1991 till:end text:Sun Belt
bar:6 color:FullxF from:1987 till:1991 text:Texas–Pan American
bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:1991 till:end text:Sun Belt
bar:7 color:FullxF from:1990 till:1991 text:Central Florida
bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:1991 till:end text:Sun Belt
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:1987
Champions
Men's basketball
Regular season
- 1988 Louisiana Tech, New Orleans
- 1989 New Orleans
- 1990 Louisiana Tech, New Orleans
- 1991 Arkansas State, New Orleans
Conference tournament
- 1988 Louisiana Tech
- 1989 Louisiana Tech
- 1990 New Orleans
- 1991 Louisiana Tech
Women's basketball
Regular season
- 1988 Louisiana Tech
- 1989 Louisiana Tech
- 1990 Louisiana Tech
- 1991 Lamar
Conference tournament
- 1988 Louisiana Tech
- 1989 Louisiana Tech
- 1990 Louisiana Tech
- 1991 Louisiana Tech
Baseball
Regular season
- 1988 New Orleans
- 1989 Southwestern Louisiana
- 1990 Southwestern Louisiana
- 1991 Southwestern Louisiana
Conference tournament
- 1988 Southwestern Louisiana
- 1989 New Orleans
- 1990 Southwestern Louisiana
- 1991 Southwestern Louisiana