History of the SAC

SAC Vision Statement

"The South Atlantic Conference aspires to be the premier NCAA Division II athletic conference in the country; a conference where a high priority of each member institution is a balance between athletics and the overall academic, spiritual, social and physical development of each student-athlete to provide these individuals with skills for future success."

History

The South Atlantic Conference is in its 49th year of athletic tradition and excellence.

The distant forerunner of the South Atlantic Conference was the North State Atlantic Conference (NSIAC). The NSIAC was formed when the “Little Six,” as it was called, broke from the North Carolina Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 1930. These charter members included Lenoir-Rhyne College, Atlantic Christian, Catawba College, Guilford College, Elon College, and High Point University.

The North State continued to grow over the next 30 years, adding Western Carolina (1933), East Carolina (1947) and Pfeiffer (1960). A name change became necessary when the league accepted Newberry as its first South Carolina member in 1961. The league took on the name Carolinas Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIAC) on May 20th of that year.

The CIAC saw several changes in the following years as East Carolina withdrew from the league in 1962. Appalachian State and Western Carolina followed in 1971 and 1976. All three landed in the Southern Conference.

The South Atlantic Conference was founded in 1975 solely as a football conference. The league received its name from a contest in which Kurt Brenneman of Greensboro, NC became the first to submit the SAC-8 moniker.

The SAC-8 consisted of Carson-Newman College, Catawba College, Elon College, Gardner-Webb University, Lenoir-Rhyne College, Mars Hill College, Newberry College, and Presbyterian College. Dr. Fred Bentley, of Mars Hill College, was named league president for its inaugural year by a vote of the member institutions.

The Bears of Lenoir-Rhyne College captured the first football title after the SAC-8’s first season of play.

In 1989, the league’s 15th year of operation, the South Atlantic Conference became a comprehensive, multi-sport conference. Doug Echols was named the league’s first Commissioner. That year the South Atlantic Conference sponsored 10 sports: football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball, men’s soccer, volleyball, men’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis. Later, the conference grew to 14 championship sports by adding women‘s soccer (1990), men’s and women’s cross country (1993) and women’s golf (1999). In 2013, the sports of men’s and women’s lacrosse and men’s and women’s track and field were added, increasing the number of championship sports to 18. The conference added two more championship sports, men’s and women’s indoor track and field, to its line-up in 2017, bringing the total number of championship sports to 20. In 2021 the SAC added field hockey as a championship sport and in 2022 it added men's and women's swimming taking the current total of championships to 23.

The South Atlantic Conference was composed of the same eight member institutions from 1975 until 1988, when Wingate University replaced Newberry College as the eighth member institution. Newberry later rejoined the conference in 1996.

In July of 1998, Tusculum College was admitted as a member of the league, and Lincoln Memorial University began play in the conference in the 2006-07 academic year. Brevard College was admitted as a provisional member in 2007 and a full member in 2008.

In 2008, Echols retired after serving as Commissioner for 19 years and Patrick Britz was hired as the new Commissioner.

In July 2010, Anderson University became the league’s 10th member. Three years later in July 2013, Coker College and Queens University of Charlotte joined the conference.

The SAC joined forces with fellow Southeast regional conference, Conference Carolinas in 2018-19 to co-sponsor the sports of field hockey and wrestling with programs from each conference competing for joint South Atlantic Conference Carolinas titles in those two sports.

In July 2019, The University of Virginia’s College at Wise became the twelfth full member of the SAC and the first public institution to join the conference.

Joining the conference as a full member is July 2020, Limestone University became the thirteenth member of the SAC.

Today the conference is a group of 13 liberal and civic arts colleges and universities, similar in size and athletic philosophy. Since becoming eligible for NCAA Division II postseason play in 1993, the league has sent representatives from all of its sponsored sports to NCAA postseason play.

The league membership now includes Anderson University in Anderson, S.C.; Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City, Tenn.; Catawba College in Salisbury, N.C.; Coker University in Hartsville, S.C.; Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, N.C.; Limestone University in Gaffney, S.C.; Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tenn.; Mars Hill University in Mars Hill, N.C.; Newberry College in Newberry, S.C.; Queens University of Charlotte in Charlotte, N.C.; Tusculum University in Greeneville, Tenn.; The University of Virginia’s College at Wise in Wise, Va.; and Wingate University in Wingate, N.C.

Since joining NCAA Division II, the SAC has been a mainstay in NCAA Championship participation. Wingate claimed the SAC’s first ever NCAA national championship in men’s soccer in the fall of 2016 and Wingate baseball captured the conference's second national title in the spring of 2021. Lenoir-Rhyne men’s lacrosse captured the league’s third national title in 2023, and Wingate captured the fourth team title in 2024 in men’s cross country. Further, in the past nine years, SAC teams from eight different sports and six different schools have also advanced to the final game of the NCAA Championship – Lenoir-Rhyne football and Carson-Newman men’s soccer in 2013, Catawba baseball in 2015, Lincoln Memorial men’s basketball in 2016, Carson-Newman women’s soccer in 2017, Lincoln Memorial men's golf in 2019, Limestone women's golf, Queens women's lacrosse and Lenoir-Rhyne men's lacrosse in 2021. Finally, SAC schools have won 42 NCAA regional titles in eleven sports since 2008-09.

Key Dates in SAC History

1930 – North State Atlantic Conference forms when six schools break from the North Carolina Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
1961 – Newberry joins league. Conference changes name to Carolinas Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIAC)
1975 – South Atlantic Conference forms as football league with eight schools, called the SAC-8
1988 – Wingate replaces Newberry
1989 – SAC becomes a multi-sport conference
1996 – Newberry rejoins the conference
1998 – Tusculum joins the conference
2006 – Lincoln Memorial joins the conference
2008 – Patrick Britz named Commissioner
2010 – Anderson joins the conference
2013 – Coker and Queens join the conference
2016 – The SAC adds Limestone as an Associate Member in football
2018 – SAC and Conference Carolinas co-sponsor field hockey and wrestling championships
2019 – UVA Wise joins the conference
2020 – Limestone joins the conference as a full member
2022 - Emory & Henry joins the conference; Barton and Erskine added as Associate Members in football