The Southern Conference (SoCon) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-AA). 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 (MTSU), where Ronnie Carr shot the historic shot from away and the Catamounts won 77–70.
History
{| class="floatright" style="font-size: 95%; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1; color: black; padding: 0.2em; background-color: #f8f9fa;"
|+ style="font-size: 1.15em;" |Conference Commissioners
|-
|Wallace Wade
|1951–1960
|-
|Lloyd Jordon
|1960–1973
|-
|Ken Germann
|1974–1986
|-
|Dave Hart
|1986–1991
|-
|Wright Waters
|1991–1998
|-
|Alfred B. White
|1998–2001
|-
|Danny Morrison
|2001–2005
|-
|John Iamarino
|2006–2019
|-
|Jim Schaus
|2019–2023
|-
| Michael Cross
| 2023–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. The new rules banned freshman play. Later additions included Sewanee (1924), Virginia Military Institute (1924), and Duke (1929).
The SoCon is particularly notable for having spawned two other major conferences. In 1932, the 13 schools located south and west of the Appalachians (Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, LSU, Mississippi, Mississippi State, University of the South (Sewanee), Tennessee, Tulane, and Vanderbilt) all departed the SoCon to form the Southeastern Conference (SEC). In 1953, seven additional schools (Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, and Wake Forest) withdrew from the SoCon to form the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). 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 (ETSU), 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:
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center"
! Institution
! Location
! Founded
! Type
! Enrollment
! Endowment<br />
! Nickname
! Joined
! class="unsortable" | Colors
|-
! University of Tennessee at Chattanooga<br />
| Chattanooga, Tennessee
| 1886
| Public
| 11,728
| $195
| Mocs
| 1976
|
|-
! The Citadel
| Charleston, South Carolina
| 1842
| S.M.C.
| 3,693
| $423.6
| Bulldogs
| 1936
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | East Tennessee State University<br />
| rowspan="2" | Johnson City, Tennessee
| rowspan="2" | 1911
| rowspan="2" | Public
| rowspan="2" | 9,151
| rowspan="2" | $87.8
| rowspan="2" | Buccaneers
| 1978
| rowspan="2" |
|-
| 2014