Southern Athletic Association

Southern Athletic Association

Association	NCAA
Founded	Chartered: 2011 Began play: 2012
Commissioner	Stacey LaDew
Sports fielded	23 men's: 11 women's: 12
Division	Division III
No. of teams	7 + 2 football-only affiliates (8 in 2025–26, 9 in 2026-27)
Headquarters	Atlanta, Georgia
Official website	www.saa-sports.com
Locations

Southern Athletic Association

300km
200miles

Berry

Trinity

Southwestern

Maryville

Sewanee

Rhodes

Oglethorpe

Millsaps

Hendrix

Centre

  

Location of SAA members:
Current members
Departing members
Future members

The Southern Athletic Association (SAA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III that began play in the 2012–13 school year. It was formed in 2011 by seven former members of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference and independent Berry College. ^[1]

History

Chronological timeline

• 2011 – The Southern Athletic Association (SAA) was founded, whose charter members include seven member schools that were competing for the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC): (Birmingham–Southern College, Centre College, Hendrix College, Millsaps College, Oglethorpe University, Rhodes College and Sewanee: The University of the South), and NCAA Division III independent Berry College, with competition to begin effective in the 2012–13 academic year.
• 2015 – The University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis joined the SAA as affiliate members for football in the 2015 fall season (2015–16 school year).
• 2017
  • Chicago and Washington (MO) left the SAA as affiliate members for football after the 2016 fall season (2016–17 school year).
  • Austin College and Trinity University joined the SAA as affiliate members for football in the 2017 fall season (2017–18 school year).
• 2021
  • Austin College left the SAA as an affiliate member for football after the 2020 fall season (2020–21 school year).
  • Southwestern University of Texas joined the SAA as an affiliate member for football, beginning the 2023 fall season (2023-24 school year).
• 2023 – Trinity University and Southwestern University of Texas will join the SAA as full members, beginning in the fall of 2025. ^[2]
• 2024
  • Birmingham–Southern closed at the end of the 2023–24 school year (more precisely, on May 31). ^[3]
  • Hendrix announced it would return to the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) after the 2024–25 school year. ^[4]
  • Maryville College was accepted to the SAA as a full member, to join during the fall of 2026. Maryville's football and women's golf will join SAA competition for the fall of 2025 as an associate member. ^[5]

Member schools

Every member in the history of the SAA, whether current, former, full, or associate, has been a private school.

Full members

Current full members

The SAA currently has seven full members.

Institution	Location	Founded	Affiliation	Enrollment	Endowment	Nickname	Joined [a]	Colors	Football?
Berry College	Mount Berry, Georgia	1902	Nondenominational	2,367 [6]	$1,261,304,000	Vikings	2012		Yes
Centre College	Danville, Kentucky	1819	Presbyterian	1,400 [7]	$ 391,321,000	Colonels	2012		Yes
Hendrix College	Conway, Arkansas	1876	United Methodist	1,144 [8]	$206,000,000	Warriors	2012		Yes
Millsaps College	Jackson, Mississippi	1890	United Methodist	700 [9]	$81,847,000	Majors	2012		Yes
Oglethorpe University	Atlanta, Georgia	1835	Nondenominational	1,494 [10]	$462,795,000	Stormy Petrels	2012		No
Rhodes College	Memphis, Tennessee	1848	Presbyterian	2,070 [11]	$406,964,000	Lynx	2012		Yes
Sewanee: The University of the South	Sewanee, Tennessee	1857	Episcopal	1,735 [12]	$462,795,000	Tigers	2012		Yes

Notes

1. Represents the calendar year when fall sports competition begins.

Future full members

Institution	Location	Founded	Affiliation	Enrollment	Endowment	Nickname	Joining [a]	Colors	Football	Current conference
Maryville College	Maryville, Tennessee	1819	Presbyterian (PCUSA)	1,103	$93,100,000	Scots	2026 [b]		Yes	CCS (primary) USA South (football)
Southwestern University	Georgetown, Texas	1840	United Methodist	1,536	$255,955,000	Pirates	2025		Yes	Southern Collegiate (SCAC)
Trinity University	San Antonio, Texas	1869	Nonsectarian [c]	2,759 [13]	$1,856,100,000	Tigers	2025		Yes	Southern Collegiate (SCAC)

Notes

1. Represents the calendar year when fall sports competition begins.
2. Maryville will join the SAA as an affiliate for football and women's golf in 2025 before becoming a full member in 2026.
3. Partially affiliated with the Presbyterian Church.

Former full members

Institution	Location	Founded	Affiliation	Nickname	Joined [a]	Left [b]	Colors	Football?	Current conference
Birmingham–Southern College	Birmingham, Alabama	1856	United Methodist	Panthers	2012	2024		Yes	Closed in 2024

Notes

1. Represents the calendar year when fall sports competition begins.
2. Represents the calendar year when spring sports competition ends.

Affiliate members

Two schools, the University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis (WashU), announced their intention to become affiliate members of the conference for football, effective in 2015. Both are members of the University Athletic Association (UAA), which at the time had a football scheduling alliance with the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC). However, after the 2012 season, the NCAC adopted a full round-robin football schedule, making it impossible for that conference to fill in all of its non-conference dates with the four UAA members that sponsor the sport.

Over the summer of 2015, Chicago and WashU announced that they would leave the SAA after two seasons of competition in order to join more geographically-convenient conferences. ^[14] WashU will maintain its football affiliation with the UAA for the 2017 season before joining the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin in 2018 as a football-only member. For nearly a year, Chicago did not announce a future league affiliation, but it announced in May 2016 that it would become a football-only member of the Midwest Conference in 2017. ^[15]

On November 18, 2015, Trinity University (Texas) and Austin College announced they would affiliate with the SAA for football, renewing a relationship that was lost when the SAA split from the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference. ^[16] As a result, the SCAC will no longer offer football as a sport from 2017. On August 13, 2020, Austin College announced it would move to the American Southwest Conference as a football-only affiliate beginning with the 2021 season, committing to at least four years as an affiliate. ^[17]

On August 19, 2021, the conference announced that Southwestern University, a current football-only affiliate member of the American Southwest Conference, would join the SAA as a football-only affiliate effective with the 2023 football season. ^[18] On March 9, 2023, the SAA announced that Southwestern University and Trinity University (Texas) will join the SAA as full members in 2025. ^[2]

Current affiliate members

The SAA currently has two affiliate members, both of which will become full members in 2025.

Institution	Location	Founded	Affiliation	Enrollment	Nickname	Joined [a]	Colors	SAA sport	Primary conference
Southwestern University	Georgetown, Texas	1840	United Methodist	1,507	Pirates	2023		football	Southern (SCAC)
Trinity University	San Antonio, Texas	1869	Nonsectarian [b]	2,759 [13]	Tigers	2017		football	Southern (SCAC)

Notes

1. Represents the calendar year when fall sports competition begins.
2. Partially affiliated with the Presbyterian Church.

Former affiliate members

Three schools have been SAA affiliate members but have since left the conference.

Institution	Location	Founded	Affiliation	Enrollment	Nickname	Joined [a]	Left [b]	Colors	SAA sport	Primary conference	Conference in former SAA sport
Austin College	Sherman, Texas	1849	Presbyterian	1,278	'Roos	2017	2021		football	Southern (SCAC)	American Southwest (ASC)
University of Chicago	Chicago, Illinois	1890	Non-denominational	5,134	Maroons	2015	2017			University (UAA)	Midwest (MWC)
Washington University in St. Louis	St. Louis, Missouri	1853	Nonsectarian	5,997	Bears						Illinois–Wisconsin (CCIW)

Notes

1. Represents the calendar year when fall sports competition begins.
2. Represents the calendar year when spring sports competition ends.

Membership timeline

Full memberFull member except footballAssociate member for footballOther conference

Sports

The Southern Athletic Association sponsors 11 men's sports and 12 women's sports. The members mostly sponsor all the sports in the conference except that Oglethorpe University does not have a football team.

Teams in Southern Athletic Association competition

Sport	Men's	Women's
Baseball	7	-
Basketball	7	7
Cross country	7	7
Football	8	-
Golf	7	7
Lacrosse	7	7
Soccer	7	7
Softball	-	7
Swimming & diving	7	7
Tennis	7	7
Indoor track & field	7	7
Outdoor track & field	7	7
Volleyball	-	7

References

1. "Eight Division III Southeastern Colleges Form Southern Athletic Association". Rhodes College. Retrieved September 22, 2011.
2. "SAA Welcomes Southwestern University and Trinity University (Texas) as Full-time Members" (Press release). Southern Athletic Association. March 9, 2023. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
3. Taylor, Drew; McQueen, Maddie. "Birmingham-Southern College closing its doors May 31". CBS 42 . Retrieved March 26, 2024.
4. "Hendrix College Announces Return to SCAC in 2025". Hendrix College Athletics. June 11, 2024. Retrieved June 11, 2024.
5. "Maryville College Approved for Full SAA Membership". saa-sports.com. SAA. Retrieved July 23, 2024.
6. "BERRY QUICK FACTS". Berry College. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
7. "ABOUT CENTRE COLLEGE". Centre College. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
8. "New Student Enrollment Increases by 13% at Hendrix". Hendrix College. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
9. "About Millsaps". Millsaps College. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
10. McCray, Vanessa (November 28, 2022). "How some Georgia colleges defy trend toward enrollment drops". The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
11. "About Rhodes". Rhodes College. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
12. "SEWANEE AT A GLANCE". Sewanee University. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
13. Perez, Danya (November 1, 2022). "San Antonio's big universities recover enrollment — but most smaller ones still have post-pandemic blues". San Antonio Express-News. Retrieved March 31, 2023.
14. "Wash U, Chicago already leaving SAA". d3football.com. June 12, 2015. Retrieved November 15, 2015.
15. "UChicago football set to join Midwest Conference as affiliate member in 2017" (Press release). Athletics & Recreation, The University of Chicago. May 11, 2016. Retrieved January 27, 2017.
16. "Austin College; Trinity Accept Football Affiliate Membership Offer from SAA" (Press release). Retrieved December 21, 2015.
17. "'Roo Football to Join ASC as Affiliate Member" (Press release). Austin College Athletics. August 13, 2020. Retrieved February 2, 2021.
18. "SAA announces that Southwestern University will join the league as an affiliate member in football" (Press release). August 19, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2021.

External links

• Official website