Volunteer State Athletic Conference

The Volunteer State Athletic Conference was a List of [college athletic conferences|college athletic conference] which was predominantly for smaller colleges in the U.S. state of Tennessee.

History

The VSAC was organized in the 1940s and dissolved at the end of the 1985 school year. Member schools were in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Long-term members of the conference included the institutions now known as Belmont University, Bethel University, Bryan College, Carson–Newman University, Christian Brothers University, King University, Lee University, Lincoln Memorial University, Lipscomb University, Milligan University, Tusculum University, Tennessee Wesleyan University, and Union University, as well as the now-defunct Lambuth University.

Dissolution

The conference dissolved when the institutions in the eastern portion of the state seceded to form the Tennessee Valley Athletic Conference. Those in the western part of the state formed in turn the Tennessee Collegiate Athletic Conference. The Appalachian Athletic Conference is the direct successor of the TVAC, and was known as such until the mid-1990s when the addition of schools in Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina necessitated the name change. The TranSouth Athletic Conference, which operated from 1996 to 2013, is sometimes regarded as something of a successor to the TCAC. Sponsorship of football by the conference ended after the 1962 season, over two decades before the conference dissolved with regard to its other sports.
Other founding members of the VSAC included East [Tennessee State University], Middle Tennessee State University, Austin Peay State University, and Tennessee Technological University; these schools all left the VSAC to join the Ohio Valley Conference. Out of those four, as of 2025, only Tennessee Tech remains in the OVC, while Austin Peay is in the United Athletic Conference, East Tennessee State is in the Southern Conference, and Middle Tennessee is in Conference USA.

List of champions per sport

Football

1947 – 1947 [Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders football team|Middle Tennessee]
1948 –
1949 – 1949 [Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders football team|Middle Tennessee]
1950 – 1950 Middle Tennessee [Blue Raiders football team|Middle Tennessee]
1951 – Middle Tennessee
1952 – Middle Tennessee
1953 – and Middle Tennessee
1954 –
1955 – Middle Tennessee
1956 – Middle Tennessee
1957 – Middle Tennessee
1958 – Unknown
1959 – Unknown
1960 –
1961 –,, and
1962 –

Basketball (tournament)

1948 – Lincoln Memorial
1949 – Austin Peay
1950 – Austin Peay
1951 – Lipscomb
1952 – Lipscomb
1953 – East Tennessee State
1954 – East Tennessee State
1955 – Middle Tennessee State
1956 – East Tennessee State
1957 – Middle Tennessee State
1958 – Austin Peay
1959 – Lincoln Memorial
1960 – Austin Peay
1961 – Lipscomb
1962 – Carson–Newman
1963 – Carson–Newman
1964 – Carson–Newman
1965 – Carson–Newman
1966 – Tusculum
1967 – Tennessee Wesleyan
1968 – Union (Tenn.)
1969 – Carson–Newman
1970 – Tennessee–Martin
1971 – Bethel (Tenn.)
1972 – Carson–Newman
1973 – Carson–Newman
1974 – LeMoyne–Owen
1975 – LeMoyne–Owen
1976 – Milligan
1977 – Lincoln Memorial
1978 – LeMoyne–Owen
1979 – Tusculum
1980 – Lambuth
1981 – Trevecca Nazarene
1982 – Bethel (Tenn.)
1983:
* Eastern Division Champion – Lincoln Memorial
* Western Division Champion – Belmont
1984:
* Eastern Division Champion – Tennessee Wesleyan
* Western Division Champion – Lipscomb
1985:
* Eastern Division Champion – Carson–Newman
* Western Division Champion – Christian Brothers

Cross country

1961 – Union (Tenn.)
1962 – Milligan
1963 – Milligan
1964 – Milligan
1965 – Milligan
1966 – Milligan
1967 – Milligan
1968 – Milligan
1969 – Carson–Newman

Track & field

1954 – East Tennessee State
1955 – East Tennessee State
1956 – East Tennessee State
1957 – Union (Tenn.)
1958 – Lipscomb
1959 – Union (Tenn.)
1960 – Austin Peay
1961 – Austin Peay
1962 – Union (Tenn.)
1963 – Union (Tenn.)
1964 – Union (Tenn.)
1965 – Union (Tenn.)
1966 – Milligan
1967 – Carson–Newman
1968 – Carson–Newman
1969 – Carson–Newman
1970 - Carson-Newman
1971 - Carson-Newman
1972 - Carson-Newman

Golf

1956 – Middle Tennessee State
1957 – Middle Tennessee State
1958 – Lipscomb
1959 – Union (Tenn.)
1960 – Belmont
1961 – Austin Peay
1962 – Austin Peay
1963 – Lipscomb
1964 – Milligan
1965 – Christian Brothers
1966 – Christian Brothers
1967 – Tennessee Wesleyan
1968 – Bethel (Tenn.)
1969 – Tennessee–Martin