.png){kind=icon} | |
| Formerly | College Athletic Conference (1962–1991) |
|---|---|
| Association | NCAA |
| Founded | 1962 |
| Commissioner | D. Dwayne Hanberry |
| Sports fielded |
|
| Division | Division III |
| No. of teams | 12 (10 in 2026) |
| Headquarters | Suwanee, Georgia |
| Official website | www |
| Locations | |
 | |
TheSouthern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC), founded in 1962, is anintercollegiate athletic conference which competes in theNCAA'sDivision III. Member institutions are located inArkansas,Colorado,Louisiana, andTexas. Difficulties related to travel distances led seven former members to announce the formation of a new Southeastern US-based conference, theSouthern Athletic Association, starting with the 2012–13 academic year.
Prior to 1991, the conference was known as theCollege Athletic Conference (CAC). The commissioner of the SCAC is Dwayne Hanberry. The chair of the Executive Committee of the SCAC for 2022–23 is L. Song Richardson,Colorado College president.[1]
On November 1, 2022,McMurry University will join as a full member in the fall of the 2024–25 academic year.[2]
On March 9, 2023,Trinity University andSouthwestern University of Texas announced their departure from the SCAC, joining theSouthern Athletic Association (SAA) beginning the 2025–26 academic year.[3]
On May 15, 2023, the SCAC announced thatConcordia University of Texas and theUniversity of the Ozarks will join the conference, beginning in the 2024–25 academic year.[4]
On November 24, 2023,Lyon College joined the SCAC as an affiliate member for football, beginning in the 2024 season of 2024–25 academic year.[5]
On April 26, 2024, the SCAC announced thatLeTourneau University would join the conference, beginning in the 2025–26 academic year.[6]
On June 11, 2024,Hendrix College announced it would return to the SCAC, beginning in the 2025–26 academic year.[7][8]
On March 17, 2025, various outlets reported thatMcMurry University andSchreiner University would leave the SCAC for theAmerican Southwest Conference (ASC) at the end of the 2025–26 academic year in exchange for a seven-figure sum.[9][10] These reports were later confirmed by the ASC and SCAC the following day, on March 18th.[11][12]
The SCAC currently has 12 full members, all areprivate schools:
The SCAC currently has one affiliate member, also aprivate school.
| Institution | Location | Founded | Affiliation | Enrollment | Nickname | Joined[a] | SCAC sport(s) | Primary conference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lyon College | Batesville, Arkansas | 1872 | Presbyterian (PCUSA) | 496 | Scots | 2024 | Football | St. Louis (SLIAC) |
The SCAC had 18 former full members, all wereprivate schools:
The SCAC had three former affiliate members, all but one wereprivate schools.
| Institution | Location | Founded | Affiliation | Enrollment | Nickname | Joined[a] | Left[b] | SCAC sport(s) | Primary conference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| McMurry University[18] | Abilene, Texas | 1923 | United Methodist | 1,430 | War Hawks | 2014 | 2024 | Men's swimming & diving | Southern (SCAC) |
| 2014 | 2024 | Women's swimming & diving | |||||||
| University of the Ozarks[19] | Clarksville, Arkansas | 1834 | Presbyterian | 630 | Eagles | 2016 | 2024 | Men's swimming & diving | Southern (SCAC) |
| 2016 | 2024 | Women's swimming & diving | |||||||
| University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC, UC Santa Cruz) | Santa Cruz, California | 1965 | Public | 19,700 | Banana Slugs | 2013 | 2014 | Men's swimming & diving | Coast to Coast (C2C) |
| 2013 | 2014 | Women's swimming & diving |
Full member (all sports) Full member (non-football) Associate member (football) Associate member (sport)
Prior to the 2012 conference split, the SCAC fielded competition inbaseball,basketball,cross country,field hockey,football,golf,lacrosse,soccer,softball,swimming anddiving,tennis, outdoortrack and field andvolleyball. With membership greatly reduced and in flux, some of these sports (field hockey, women's lacrosse) no longer have enough participants (zero and two, respectively) to allow the conference to sponsor them. In addition, after struggling with only four football playing schools for several seasons, the conference in November 2015 announced football would be discontinued as a conference sport effective the 2017–18 school year, with football playing institutions affiliating with either theAmerican Southwest Conference[20] or theSouthern Athletic Association.[21] On July 21, 2018, the conference announced that men's and women's lacrosse would once again be offered as conference sports, and made a commitment to holding aneSports championship in 2019.[22] With only four schools fielding women's lacrosse teams, and five men's, the conference champions will not qualify for an automatic bid to theNCAA playoffs.
Unlike manyDivision III conferences, where geography is the primary determining factor for membership, the SCAC is made up of private institutions where the primary focus is on academics; theNew England Small College Athletic Conference andUniversity Athletic Association are other athletic associations with similar academic emphasis. Almost all members sportPhi Beta Kappa chapters. Member schools are prominently featured in annual "Best College" rankings; admissions are highly selective.
In an unusual move for the conference,Colorado College, which offers twoDivision I (scholarship) sports, was accepted as a member beginning in the 2006–07 season. It is the only SCAC school to offer any sort of scholarship athletics, though the Division I programs—namelymen's ice hockey and women's soccer—do not compete in the SCAC. (The conference does not sponsor ice hockey for either men or women.)
The conference had previously announced its desire to expand to a total of twelve members, which would ease scheduling issues and allow the conference to divide into eastern and western divisions spread across the southern US. On May 26, 2006,Birmingham-Southern College, one of the smallest Division I schools in the country, announced its intentions to drop scholarship athletics and join the SCAC. This is a multi-year process subject to final approval by the NCAA. The SCAC approved BSC's application, pending NCAA approval, on June 8, 2006.
Due to the unusual (for Division III) distances between member institutions, travel costs and durations must be factored into any decision to join the conference.Rose–Hulman cited these factors as reasons for leaving the conference when it rejoined theHeartland Collegiate Athletic Conference in 2006–07.Austin College readily took RHIT's place, moving from theAmerican Southwest Conference before the 2006–07 season.
On June 9, 2010,DePauw University announced that it was departing the SCAC for theNorth Coast Athletic Conference. Like Rose-Hulman, DePauw cited "a less strenuous and more environmentally friendly travel regimen for our teams." DePauw became a member of the NCAC for the 2011–12 season except for football, which will join for the 2012 season.[23]
On September 22, 2010, theUniversity of Dallas announced that it had accepted an invitation to join the SCAC at the beginning of the 2011–12 academic year.[24]
The May 10, 2011 issue of theDePauw college newspaper,The DePauw, reported that four schools (Centre,Sewanee,Hendrix, andRhodes) were considering leaving the conference at the end of the 2011–2012 school year, ostensibly due to travel issues and issues relating to the conference splitting into two divisions.[25] As the two reasons were somewhat exclusive (e.g. divisions would reduce overall travel), and other regional conferences would offer similar issues, it remained to be seen at that time what the schools planned in a post-SCAC world.
After the conclusion of the June 7, 2011 SCAC Presidents' meeting, the conference announced that seven of the twelve schools would be leaving to form a new, more compact conference based in the Southeastern US. This transition was effective at the conclusion of the 2011–12 academic year. The schools departing include founding SCAC [CAC] members Centre, Sewanee, and Rhodes, in addition to Birmingham-Southern, Hendrix, Millsaps, and Oglethorpe.Berry College will also join the newly formed Southern Athletic Association.
The SCAC intends to remain a viable entity, enlisting other schools which subscribe to the SCAC charter. Commissioner D. Dwayne Hanberry will remain with the conference to oversee that effort, which will be complicated by the paucity of unaffiliated Division III schools in the SCAC's new region ofTexas andColorado.[26] Reflecting that challenge, the conference has sought new members from theAmerican Southwest Conference, whose geographical footprint is similar to that of the "new" SCAC. On September 28, 2011,Centenary College of Louisiana announced it would join the SCAC beginning in the 2012–13 season.[27] Two more ASC schools joined the SCAC for the 2013–14 season:Schreiner University announced their decision on January 23, 2012,[28] and on February 16, 2012,Texas Lutheran University announced it too would join the SCAC.[29]
Football was no longer be sponsored by the SCAC as of the 2017–18 school year.[30] The conference had four schools playing in 2015 and 2016: Texas Lutheran University, Austin College, Southwestern University and Trinity University. Texas Lutheran University and Southwestern University will play football as affiliates in the ASC, while Austin College and Trinity University will be affiliates of the Southern Athletic Association.
A much-needed travel partner for isolated Colorado College will join the conference in 2018. On February 21, 2017, the conference announced that the Denver campus ofJohnson & Wales University would join the conference as it transitions from the NAIA to NCAA Division III, after the school's "exploratory year" in 2017–18. It is expected that the school will not be eligible for conference championships or NCAA playoff bids until the transition to Division III is complete, per typical NCAA practice. The conference has already announced plans to pursue a tenth institution to better balance travel and scheduling requirements.[31]
On February 14, 2018, theUniversity of St. Thomas - Houston announced it would become the SCAC's 10th member after completing an exploratory year in Division III. SCAC competition would begin in the 2019–2020 season.[32]
On June 25, 2020, Johnson & Wales University announced that it would close its Denver campus at the end of the 2020–21 school year due to concerns related to theCOVID-19 pandemic, and would accept no new students at that campus effective immediately. The following day, the Denver athletic program was shut down.[33]
On October 31, 2022, the conference announced that McMurry University, currently an affiliate in Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving, will join the conference as a full member starting with the 2024–25 season, becoming the latest school to leave theAmerican Southwest Conference for the SCAC.[34] As McMurry offers football, there was speculation that the conference might once again sponsor the sport; two days later, the conference announced it would reinstate football in 2024 as long as at least four members agree to participate in SCAC play. Austin, Southwestern, Texas Lutheran, and Trinity all are affiliated with other conferences for football and will have to complete any commitments before returning to the SCAC; in addition to McMurry, Centenary and Schreiner have nascent programs which could be ready to compete by 2024. Finally the SCAC also announced thatLyon College will join as an associate for football only in 2024. The conference expects Lyon, Austin, Centenary, and McMurry at a minimum in 2024 with the other schools having until 2026 to return to SCAC play.[35] The conference's football champion will not earn an automatic bid to theNCAA playoffs until the first year six teams participate in SCAC competition.
On March 9, 2023, the conference's plans to restart football were somewhat complicated by the announcement that Trinity and Southwestern would leave the SCAC in favor of the Southern Athletic Association with the beginning of the 2025-26 school year. While the conference will retain enough football-playing schools to receive an automatic bid (if and only the remaining six teams meet their commitments to play football at that time), it may give the conference reason to join forces with theAmerican Southwest Conference, which by that time will only have four schools participating in the sport and thus lack the minimum number of teams to receive an automatic playoff bid.
| A divisional format was used for baseball, basketball (M / W), softball, and volleyball (W), until after the 2024–25 school year. | |
Blue
| Gold
|
The SCAC sponsors intercollegiate athletic competition in the following sports:
| Sport | Men's | Women's |
|---|---|---|
| Baseball | Yes | No |
| Basketball | Yes | Yes |
| Cross Country | Yes | Yes |
| Esports | Yes (Co-ed) | Yes (Co-ed) |
| Football | Yes | No |
| Golf | Yes | Yes |
| Soccer | Yes | Yes |
| Softball | No | Yes |
| Swimming &Diving | Yes | Yes |
| Tennis | Yes | Yes |
| Track and field | Yes | Yes |
| Volleyball | No | Yes |
Each year, the "President's Trophy," a 300-pound railroad bell, is awarded to the school with the best overall sports record. Teams are awarded points for their final position in each sport; the school with the most points is declared the winner. For the 2021–22 school year, the President's Trophy was awarded to Trinity University for the 22nd time, and eleventh-straight season, both conference records. The 174.5-point margin of victory (over second-place Southwestern) was the third-largest in conference history.[36]
SCAC members have won a total of ten NCAA team championships and 35 individual championships.
Team champions:
Individual champions:
This list does not include championships won by schools outside of their period of membership in the SCAC.
While championships come infrequently, overall SCAC athletic programs rate favorably when compared against the diverse Division III membership. TheLearfield IMG College Directors' Cup provides one representation of any school's athletic success as compared to its peers. Trinity has ranked in the top five nationally twice, most recently in 2004–05 when it placed fourth. Trinity again led the way in 2021–22 when it placed 20th nationally; Colorado College, at 102nd, was the next school among 327 ranked institutions.[38]
On several occasions the SCAC has been used as a role model for academically high-achieving Division I programs considering a move to non-scholarship athletics. In 2004,Rice considered a move to Division III withTrinity cited as a possible model by the Houston Chronicle.[39] The university eventually remained in Division I. In 2006,Birmingham-Southern College elected to leave Division I for Division III, and stated that they would seek membership in the SCAC. This represented the first time since 1988 that a Division I school had changed affiliation to Division III.[40] In 2012,Centenary College of Louisiana joined the SCAC, after leaving Division I in 2011; however, its initial partner in the transition from Division I was the American Southwest Conference.
