Southern Conference


The Southern Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision. Member institutions are located in the states of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Established in 1921, the Southern Conference ranks as the fifth-oldest major college athletic conference in the United States, and either the third or fourth oldest in continuous operation, depending on definitions.
The Southern Conference is considered one of the stronger football conferences in the Football Championship Subdivision and is considered a mid-major conference in basketball. The three-time Division I NCAA Football champion Appalachian State Mountaineers were a member of the conference when they stunned the fifth-ranked Michigan Wolverines 34–32 on September 1, 2007. The Davidson Wildcats reached the Elite Eight in the 2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament by upsetting power programs Gonzaga, Georgetown, and Wisconsin. More recently, the six-time Division I NCAA football champion Georgia Southern Eagles stunned Southeastern Conference power-house Florida Gators 26–20 in The Swamp on November 23, 2013—the first loss to a lower-division opponent in the Florida program's history. In 2015, Furman defeated UCF 16–15 and The Citadel topped South Carolina 23–22 for their second win over the Gamecocks in the past three meetings. On September 4, 2021, East Tennessee State University stunned Vanderbilt 23–3 in their opening game. The SoCon also frequently sees multiple teams selected to participate in the NCAA Division I baseball championship.
The SoCon was the first conference to use the three-point field goal in basketball in a November 29, 1980, game at Western Carolina against Middle Tennessee State University, where Ronnie Carr shot the historic shot from away and the Catamounts won 77–70.

History

Wallace Wade1951–1960
Lloyd Jordon1960–1973
Ken Germann1974–1986
Dave Hart1986–1991
Wright Waters1991–1998
Alfred B. White1998–2001
Danny Morrison2001–2005
John Iamarino2006–2019
Jim Schaus2019–2023
Michael Cross2023–present

Talks of a new conference for Southern athletics had started as early as fall of 1920. The conference was formed on February 25, 1921, in Atlanta as fourteen member institutions split from the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Southern Conference charter members were Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi State, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Tennessee, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Washington & Lee. In 1922, six more universities—Florida, LSU, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tulane, and Vanderbilt joined the conference. The first year of competition for the conference was in 1922, effective January 1. The new rules banned freshman play. Later additions included Sewanee, Virginia Military Institute, and Duke.
The SoCon is particularly notable for having spawned two other major conferences. In 1932, the 13 schools located south and west of the Appalachians all departed the SoCon to form the Southeastern Conference. In 1953, seven additional schools withdrew from the SoCon to form the Atlantic Coast Conference. The ACC and SEC have gone on to surpass their parent conference in prestige; while the ACC and SEC are considered "power" conferences in Division I FBS, the SoCon dropped to Division I-AA in 1982, four years after the top division was split into two levels in 1978.
The SoCon became the first league to hold a post-season basketball tournament to decide a conference champion. Although first played in 1921, it did not become "official" until 1922, and in its first few years included teams which were not conference members. Held at the Municipal Auditorium in Atlanta from February 24 to March 2, 1922, the first meeting was won by North Carolina who defeated non-member Mercer in the Finals 40–25. The SoCon Basketball Tournament continues as the nation's oldest conference tournament. The next-oldest tournament overall is the SEC men's basketball tournament, founded in 1933, but that event was suspended after its 1952 edition and did not resume until 1979. With the demise of the Division II West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 2013, whose tournament had been continuously held since 1936, the next-oldest conference tournament in continuous existence is now the ACC men's basketball tournament, first held in 1954.

Member schools

Current full members

The all-sports membership changed to 10 schools in 2014 following the departure of Appalachian State, Davidson, Elon, and Georgia Southern, plus the arrival of East Tennessee State, Mercer, and VMI. The current football membership stands at nine. UNC Greensboro does not sponsor football, while ETSU relaunched its previously dormant football program in 2015 and rejoined SoCon football in 2016 after one season as an independent.
The 10 members of the Southern Conference are:
InstitutionLocationFoundedJoinedTypeEnrollmentEndowment
NicknameColors
University of Tennessee at ChattanoogaChattanooga, Tennessee18861976Public11,728$195Mocs
The CitadelCharleston, South Carolina18421936Senior Military College3,693$423.6Bulldogs
East Tennessee State UniversityJohnson City, Tennessee19112014Public9,151$87.8Buccaneers
Furman UniversityGreenville, South Carolina18261936Private2,629$812Paladins
Mercer UniversityMacon, Georgia18332014Private9,026$502Bears
Samford UniversityHomewood, Alabama18412008Private5,729$403.5Bulldogs
University of North Carolina at GreensboroGreensboro, North Carolina18911997Public19,764$368.6Spartans
Virginia Military Institute
Lexington, Virginia18392014Senior Military College1,772$703.1Keydets
Western Carolina UniversityCullowhee, North Carolina18891976Public12,243$130Catamounts
Wofford CollegeSpartanburg, South Carolina18541997Private1,773$417.4Terriers

;Notes

Future members

Associate members

On January 9, 2014, the SoCon and Atlantic Sun Conference announced a new alliance in lacrosse that took effect with the 2015 spring season. Under its terms, sponsorship of men's lacrosse shifted from the ASUN to the SoCon, while women's lacrosse sponsorship remained with the ASUN. Bellarmine, which had announced it would join the ASUN for men's lacrosse for the 2015 spring season, instead joined the SoCon. The alliance remains in effect in men's lacrosse, but the leagues amicably ended their full alliance in women's lacrosse once the SoCon began sponsoring that sport in the 2018 spring season. However, the conferences maintained their working relationship in women's lacrosse, with the SoCon adding Coastal Carolina as an associate member effective with the 2021 spring season in order to keep both conferences at five women's lacrosse members for 2021. Coastal was intended to play in SoCon women's lacrosse in the 2022 spring season as well, but the SoCon decided to drop the sport after the 2021 spring season. While no formal announcement was made, the SoCon–ASUN women's lacrosse partnership definitively ended at that time, as the three full SoCon members who sponsored women's lacrosse moved that sport to the Big South Conference. Coastal and Delaware State both returned women's lacrosse to the ASUN Conference.
The men's lacrosse partnership took a slightly different form from the 2022 spring season forward, as the ASUN reinstated its men's lacrosse league. The two full ASUN members with men's lacrosse programs separated, with Jacksonville remaining in SoCon men's lacrosse while Bellarmine joined the ASUN men's lacrosse league. SoCon associate Air Force also left for ASUN men's lacrosse. The SoCon maintained its automatic NCAA tournament berth with the addition of Hampton.
Before the addition of Hampton men's lacrosse, the most recent addition to the associate membership was Presbyterian wrestling, which joined during summer 2019. Two women's lacrosse members, Central Michigan and Detroit Mercy, left after the 2020 season to join the new women's lacrosse league of Central's full-time home of the Mid-American Conference; this move contributed to the eventual demise of the SoCon women's lacrosse league.
Men's soccer member Belmont left the SoCon after the 2021–22 school year when it joined the Missouri Valley Conference, which sponsors that sport. At the same time, Hampton moved men's lacrosse to its new full-time home of the Colonial Athletic Association, now known as the Coastal Athletic Association.
The addition of men's lacrosse by the Atlantic 10 Conference, announced on May 23, 2022, led to the demise of the SoCon men's lacrosse league after the 2022 season. In addition to Hampton joining the CAA, SoCon associate members High Point and Richmond moved to the A-10, and Jacksonville returned to ASUN men's lacrosse.
In the table below, the "Joined" column denotes the start of the school year in which the institution became an associate member, which for spring sports differs from the first season of competition.
InstitutionLocationFoundedJoinedTypeEnrollmentNicknameColorsSportPrimary conference
Birmingham, Alabama19692016Public18,568BlazersrifleAmerican
Appalachian State UniversityBoone, North Carolina1899201420,641MountaineerswrestlingSun Belt-
Bellarmine UniversityLouisville, Kentucky19502020Private3,846KnightswrestlingASUN
Campbell UniversityBuies Creek, North Carolina18872011Private11,241Fighting CamelswrestlingCAA
Davidson CollegeDavidson, North Carolina18372014Private1,850WildcatswrestlingAtlantic 10
Gardner–Webb UniversityBoiling Springs, North Carolina19052011Private5,000Runnin' BulldogswrestlingBig South
Georgia Southern UniversityStatesboro, Georgia19062016Public20,517EaglesrifleSun Belt
Dahlonega, Georgia18732016Public16,064NighthawksriflePeach Belt
Presbyterian CollegeClinton, South Carolina18802019Private1,403Blue HosewrestlingBig South

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