Southern Athletic Association
The Southern Athletic Association is an intercollegiate athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III that began play in the 2012–13 school year. It was formed in 2011 by seven former members of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and Division III independent schools|independent] Berry College.
History
Recent events
On March 9, 2023, Trinity University and Southwestern University of Texas announced they would join the SAA as full members, beginning in the 2025–26 academic year.On May 26, 2024, Birmingham–Southern College announced that it would close at the end of the 2023–24 school year.
On June 11, 2024, Hendrix College announced it would return to the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference at the end of the 2024–25 school year.
On July 23, 2024, Maryville College was accepted to the SAA as a full member, to join beginning in the 2026–27 academic year. Maryville's football and women's golf would join SAA competition as an associate member, beginning 2025–26.
Chronological timeline
- 2011 – The Southern Athletic Association was founded, whose charter members include seven member schools that were competing for the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference :, and NCAA Division III independent Berry College, with competition to begin effective in the 2012–13 academic year.
- 2015 – The University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis joined the SAA as affiliate members for football in the 2015 fall season.
- 2017:
- * Chicago and Washington left the SAA as affiliate members for football after the 2016 fall season.
- * Austin College and Trinity University of Texas joined the SAA as affiliate members for football in the 2017 fall season.
- 2021 – Austin College left the SAA as an affiliate member for football after the 2020 fall season.
- 2023 – Southwestern University of Texas joined the SAA as an affiliate member for football in the 2023 fall season.
- 2024 – Birmingham–Southern left the SAA after the 2023–24 school year; as the school closed on May 31 of that year.
- 2025:
- * Hendrix left the SAA to rejoin the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference after the 2024–25 academic year.
- * Trinity and Southwestern upgraded to join the SAA for all sports as full members in the 2025–26 academic year.
- * Maryville College joined the SAA as an affiliate member for football and women's golf in the 2025–26 academic year.
- 2026 – Maryville College will upgrade to join the SAA for all sports as full members, beginning the 2026–27 academic year.
Member schools
Every member in the history of the SAA, whether current, former, full, or associate, has been a private school.Full members
Current full members
The SAA currently has eight full members.| Institution | Location | Founded | Affiliation | Enrollment | Endowment | Nickname | Joined | Colors | Football? |
| Berry College | Mount Berry, Georgia | 1902 | Nondenominational | 2,367 | $1,261,304,000 | Vikings | 2012 | Yes | |
| Centre College | Danville, Kentucky | 1819 | Presbyterian | 1,400 | $391,321,000 | Colonels | 2012 | Yes | |
| Millsaps College | Jackson, Mississippi | 1890 | United Methodist | 700 | $81,847,000 | Majors | 2012 | Yes | |
| Oglethorpe University | Atlanta, Georgia | 1835 | Nondenominational | 1,494 | $462,795,000 | Stormy Petrels | 2012 | No | |
| Rhodes College | Memphis, Tennessee | 1848 | Presbyterian | 2,070 | $406,964,000 | Lynx | 2012 | Yes | |
| Sewanee: The University of the South | Sewanee, Tennessee | 1857 | Episcopal | 1,735 | $462,795,000 | Tigers | 2012 | Yes | |
| Southwestern University | Georgetown, Texas | 1840 | United Methodist | 1,536 | $255,955,000 | Pirates | 2025 | Yes | |
| Trinity University | San Antonio, Texas | 1869 | Nonsectarian | 2,759 | $1,856,100,000 | Tigers | 2025 | Yes |
;Notes:
Future full members
;Notes:Former full members
;Notes:Affiliate members
Two schools, the University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis, announced their intention to become affiliate members of the conference for football, effective in 2015. Both are members of the University Athletic Association, which at the time had a football scheduling alliance with the North Coast Athletic Conference. However, after the 2012 season, the NCAC adopted a full round-robin football schedule, making it impossible for that conference to fill in all of its non-conference dates with the four UAA members that sponsor the sport.Over the summer of 2015, Chicago and WashU announced that they would leave the SAA after two seasons of competition in order to join more geographically-convenient conferences. WashU will maintain its football affiliation with the UAA for the 2017 season before joining the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin in 2018 as a football-only member. For nearly a year, Chicago did not announce a future league affiliation, but it announced in May 2016 that it would become a football-only member of the Midwest Conference in 2017.
On November 18, 2015, Trinity University and Austin College announced they would affiliate with the SAA for football, renewing a relationship that was lost when the SAA split from the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference. As a result, the SCAC will no longer offer football as a sport from 2017. On August 13, 2020, Austin College announced it would move to the American Southwest Conference as a football-only affiliate beginning with the 2021 season, committing to at least four years as an affiliate.
On August 19, 2021, the conference announced that Southwestern University, a current football-only affiliate member of the American Southwest Conference, would join the SAA as a football-only affiliate effective with the 2023 football season. On March 9, 2023, the SAA announced that Southwestern University and Trinity University will join the SAA as full members in 2025.
Current affiliate members
The SAA currently has one affiliate member, which will become a full member in 2026.| Institution | Location | Founded | Affiliation | Enrollment | Nickname | Joined | Colors | SAA sport | Primary conference |
| Maryville College | Maryville, Tennessee | 1819 | Presbyterian | 1,103 | Scots | 2025 | Football | C.C. South (CCS) | |
| Maryville College | Maryville, Tennessee | 1819 | Presbyterian | 1,103 | Scots | 2025 | Women's golf | C.C. South (CCS) |
;Notes:
Former affiliate members
Five schools have been SAA affiliate members but have since either left the conference or upgraded to full membership.| Institution | Location | Founded | Affiliation | Enrollment | Nickname | Joined | Left | Colors | SAA sport | Primary conference |
| Austin College | Sherman, Texas | 1849 | Presbyterian | 1,278 | 'Roos | 2017 | 2021 | Football | Southern (SCAC) | |
| Chicago, Illinois | 1890 | Non-denominational | 5,134 | Maroons | 2015 | 2017 | Football | University (UAA) | ||
| Southwestern University | Georgetown, Texas | 1840 | United Methodist | 1,507 | Pirates | 2023 | 2025 | Football | Southern | |
| Trinity University | San Antonio, Texas | 1869 | Nonsectarian | 2,759 | Tigers | 2017 | 2025 | Football | Southern | |
| Washington University in St. Louis | 1853 | Nonsectarian | 5,997 | Bears | 2015 | 2017 | Football | University (UAA) |
;Notes:
Membership timeline
DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:2012 till:2030
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:5 left:5 bottom:40 top:5
Colors =
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 for another sport only
id:OtherC1 value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that has moved in another conference
id:OtherC2 value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that has moved in another conference when the other color has already been used
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:FullxF from:2012 till:2013 text:Berry
bar:1 color:Full from:2013 till:end
bar:2 color:Full from:2012 till:2024 text:Birmingham–Southern
bar:3 color:Full from:2012 till:end text:Centre (Ky.)
bar:4 color:FullxF from:2012 till:2013 text:Hendrix
bar:4 color:Full from:2013 till:2025
bar:4 color:OtherC1 from:2025 till:end text:SCAC
bar:5 color:Full from:2012 till:end text:Millsaps
bar:6 color:FullxF from:2012 till:end text:Oglethorpe
bar:7 color:Full from:2012 till:end text:Rhodes
bar:8 color:Full from:2012 till:end text:Sewanee
bar:9 color:AssocF from:2015 till:2017 text:Chicago
bar:10 color:AssocF from:2015 till:2017 text:WashU
bar:11 color:AssocF from:2017 till:2021 text:Austin
bar:12 color:AssocF from:2017 till:2025 text:Trinity (Tex.)
bar:12 color:Full from:2025 till:end
bar:13 color:AssocF from:2023 till:2025 text:Southwestern (Tex.)
bar:13 color:Full from:2025 till:end
bar:14 color:AssocF from:2025 till:2026 text:Maryville (Tenn.)
bar:14 color:Full from:2026 till:end text:
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:2012
TextData =
fontsize:M
textcolor:black
pos: tabs:
text:^"Southern Athletic Association membership history"
- > If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following three options Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space.
Sports
The Southern Athletic Association sponsors 11 men's sports and 12 women's sports. The members mostly sponsor all the sports in the conference except that Oglethorpe University does not have a football team.Women's sponsored sports by school
Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Southern Athletic Association which are played by SAA schools:| School | Field Hockey |
| Centre | CFHC |
| Rhodes | CFHC |
| Sewanee | CFHC |