Sewanee: The University of the South, Rhodes College (Memphis) and Berry College (Rome, Ga.) are three of eight private, liberal arts colleges that have decided to form a new NCAA D-III conference with conference play to begin for the 2012-13 school year.
Spanning six states, the new conference will consist of Sewanee, Rhodes, Birmingham-Southern College (Birmingham, Ala.), Centre College (Danville, Ky.), Hendrix College (Conway, Ark.), Millsaps College (Jackson, Miss.), and Oglethorpe University (Atlanta) all from the 12-member Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference along with Berry College which is independent.
The new conference is being formed to foster athletic competition and cooperation among academically selective, residential liberal arts colleges located in the southeastern region of the United States. The geographic focus will result in reduced travel time and costs, while still allowing for a strong conference of like-minded institutions, all of which integrate competitive athletics into the whole of the student’s educational experience
Oglethorpe athletics director Jay Gardiner will serve as interim commissioner for the yet-to-be named conference.
“The president’s of the schools in our new conference feel comfortable with eight members which makes for a good fit geographically, academically and for travel partners for various sports such as soccer and basketball,” said Gardiner.
Sewanee, Centre, Rhodes and Washington and Lee (now a member of the Old Dominion Conference) were charter members of the Collegiate Athletic Conference in 1962 with the conference being re-named the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference in 1991.
Four Texas schools – Trinity, Univ. of Austin, Univ. of Dallas, and Southwestern - along with Colorado College will remain members of the SCAC, while DePauw Univ. (Ind.) will join the North Coast Athletic Conference.
The seven institutions leaving the conference will participate fully as members of the SCAC in the 2011-12 academic year and will honor all scheduling commitments made for that season. The seven institutions will withdraw from the SCAC on June 30, 2012.
NCAA Automatic Qualifier: Seven schools in any sport is the requirement to gain an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament.
At present, five schools - Birmingham Southern, Centre, Millsaps, Rhodes and Sewanee - have varsity football programs. Hendrix has plans to add football and women’s lacrosse for the 2013-14 school year and Berry College has done an 18-month feasibility study on football and track and field.
The new conference will be eligible for an NCAA automatic qualifier in all sports for the 2014-15 school year.
Centre started football in 1880, followed by Sewanee and Rhodes in the 1890s. Birmingham Southern played football from 1918-1939 and brought back the sport in 2007 when it joined the SCAC. Oglethorpe dropped football as a varsity sport in the early 1940s due to a decline in male students during World War II.
Sewanee was a member of the old S.I.A.A. in the late 1890s and early 1900s, winning football championships in 1898, 1899 and 1909 and then was in the Southern Conference from 1924-32. Sewanee was a charter member of the Southeastern Conference (Dec. 1932), left the SEC in 1940 and remained independent until the CAC was formed in 1962.
“Oglethorpe will do a feasibility study for all sports and not just football to see if there is a need to add additional sports,” Gardiner said. Oglethorpe has eight men’s sports and seven women’s sports.
According to Berry College athletics director Todd Brooks, the institution will have more discussions in the fall concerning the addition of intercollegiate football.
“In our discussions about football we have also talked about track and field since the two facilities would coincide with one another,” said Brooks.
“We are excited about the new conference and with our current provisional status for NCAA D-III and looking for a solid conference academically and athletically, this is a great fit for Berry.”
Berry will be eligible for NCAA championship competition for the 2013-14 school year.
Hendrix athletics director Danny Powell is also excited about the new conference.
“Eight schools with similar academic standards and in close proximity to one another is great for us,” Powell stated. “With eight schools, we have four sets of travel partners and you can play the other schools each year instead of having two divisions and rarely playing everyone.”
Core Sports: The president’s of the eight member institutions have earmarked nine sports for men and nine sports for women as the core conference sports.
Men: baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, tennis, track and field
Women: basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, volleyball
Meeting in July: The eight athletics directors will meet in July to discuss a variety of topics, including scheduling and post season tournaments ... Jay Gardiner said that a conference name and logo should be in place by mid to late summer.
contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net