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. Member institutions are located in the states of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.
The Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN) is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Division I FCS level in 2022. Originally established as the Trans America Athletic Conference (TAAC) in 1978, it was renamed as the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2001, and briefly rebranded as the ASUN Conference from 2016 to 2023. The conference still uses "ASUN" as an official abbreviation. The conference headquarters are located in Atlanta.
The Detroit Mercy Titans are the athletic teams of University of Detroit Mercy. The university is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I. The school primarily competes in the Horizon League, but competes in other conferences for fencing and lacrosse, sports not sponsored for either men or women by the Horizon League. Fencing, a co-ed sport, competes in the Midwest Fencing Conference. Men's lacrosse moved from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference to the ASUN Conference in July 2021. Women's lacrosse joined the Mid-American Conference for that league's first women's lacrosse season in 2021.
The Central Michigan Chippewas are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Central Michigan University (CMU), located in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. The school fields sixteen men's and women's intercollegiate teams that compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level.
College lacrosse is played by student-athletes at colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. In both countries, men's field lacrosse and women's lacrosse are played at both the varsity and club levels. College lacrosse in Canada is sponsored by the Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association (CUFLA) and Maritime University Field Lacrosse League (MUFLL), while in the United States, varsity men's and women's lacrosse is governed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). There are also university lacrosse programs in the United Kingdom sponsored by British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) and programs in Japan.
The Furman Paladins are the varsity athletic teams representing Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, in intercollegiate athletics.
The Jacksonville Dolphins are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent Jacksonville University, located in Jacksonville, Florida. The Dolphins participate in NCAA Division I athletics, and are primarily members of the ASUN Conference. Some teams in sports that are not sponsored by the ASUN play in other conferences; specifically, the men's and women's rowing teams are in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The men's lacrosse team had played in the Southern Conference (SoCon) from 2015 to 2022, but that sport will return to the ASUN for the 2023 season.
The Mercer Bears are the athletic teams of Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, United States. Mercer is the only private university in Georgia with an NCAA Division I athletic program and fields teams in eight men's and nine women's sports. The university competes in the Southern Conference for most sports. In 2013, the football team competed in the Pioneer Football League.
The Mercer Bears men's basketball team represents Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, United States. The school's team competes in the Southern Conference. They are led by head coach Ryan Ridder and play their home games at Hawkins Arena.
The VMI Keydets are the athletic teams that represent the Virginia Military Institute. All sports participate in the NCAA Division I, and all but three compete in the Southern Conference (the exceptions being men's and women's swimming and diving in the America East Conference, and women's water polo in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. VMI fields teams in sixteen different sports, ten for men and six for women.
The Bellarmine Knights are the athletic teams that represent Bellarmine University, located in Louisville, Kentucky, in intercollegiate sports as a member of the NCAA Division I ranks, primarily competing in the ASUN Conference for most sports in the 2020–21 academic year. The Knights previously competed in the Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) of the NCAA Division II ranks from 1978–79 to 2019–20.
The Mercer Bears men's soccer team represents Mercer University in all NCAA Division I men's college soccer competitions. The Bears play in the Southern Conference.
The Jacksonville Dolphins men's lacrosse team is a college lacrosse team that represents Jacksonville University in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. As of the upcoming 2023 season, the Dolphins compete in JU's full-time home of the ASUN Conference. The men's lacrosse team had been an associate member of the Southern Conference (SoCon) in the 2022 season under the terms of an agreement between the ASUN and SoCon made when the ASUN relaunched its men's lacrosse league in that season. However, a conference realignment triggered by the Atlantic 10 Conference's announcement that it would sponsor men's lacrosse starting in the 2023 season led to the SoCon dropping the sport. Following the 2022 season, Jacksonville returned men's lacrosse to the ASUN.
The Richmond Spiders men's lacrosse team represents the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia. Through the 2022 season, it competed in the NCAA Division I Southern Conference. After that season, the Spiders' full-time home of the Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) established a men's lacrosse league, with Richmond as one of the six inaugural members. The Spiders play their home games at Robins Stadium and are currently coached by Dan Chemotti.
The Bellarmine Knights Men's Lacrosse team is a college lacrosse team that represents Bellarmine University in Louisville, Kentucky, United States. The school has been an all-sports member of the ASUN Conference since 2020, but men's lacrosse spent the 2021 season as an associate member of the Southern Conference (SoCon), in which it had competed since the 2015 season. With the reinstatement of ASUN men's lacrosse competition for the 2022 season, Bellarmine moved that sport to its full-time conference home.
The 2016–17 Mercer Bears men's basketball team represented Mercer University during the 2016–17 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Bears, led by ninth-year head coach Bob Hoffman, played their home games at Hawkins Arena on the university's Macon, Georgia campus as third-year members of the Southern Conference. They finished the season 15–17, 9–9 in SoCon play to finish in sixth place. They lost in the quarterfinals of the SoCon tournament to East Tennessee State.
The 2018–19 Mercer Bears men's basketball team represented Mercer University during the 2018–19 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Bears, led by 11th-year head coach Bob Hoffman, played their home games at Hawkins Arena on the university's Macon, Georgia campus as fifth-year members of the Southern Conference.
The Utah Utes men's lacrosse team represents the University of Utah in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college lacrosse. The program was upgraded to varsity in 2019, previously competing as a club team in the Men's Collegiate Lacrosse Association (MCLA). The Utes are one of four current NCAA Division I men's lacrosse teams west of the Mississippi River, along with Air Force, Denver, and Lindenwood. Utah plays its home games at the Ute Soccer Field, which has a capacity of 2,500. The Utes competed as an independent from their inaugural season of play in 2019 until joining the ASUN Conference as a single-sport member after the 2021 season. Through 2022, the team has an all–time record of 22-24.
The Detroit Mercy Titans Men's Lacrosse team is a college lacrosse team that represents the University of Detroit Mercy (UDM) in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The school's teams are typically members of the Horizon League, but the men's lacrosse team is an associate member of the Atlantic Sun Conference (ASUN), which it joined in July 2021 after having played in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.
