Big South Conference


The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision. The Big South, founded in 1983, is firmly rooted in the South Atlantic region of the United States, with full member institutions located in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Associate members are located in Alabama, Georgia, and New Jersey.

History

Charter members included Armstrong State , Augusta , Campbell University, Baptist College , Coastal Carolina University, Radford University and Winthrop University.
The expansion of membership occurred during the 1980s and '90s. Some of those members are the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Davidson College, Liberty University, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Towson University, Elon University, High Point University and Birmingham–Southern College.
The Big South Conference began sponsoring football in 2002, with Charleston Southern, Elon and Liberty fielding teams; Coastal Carolina and Virginia Military Institute joined the conference as football-only members in 2003. In that same athletic year, VMI also joined the conference for all sports, but left to re-join the Southern Conference in 2014. Presbyterian College joined the conference in 2007, moving up from Division II, and became eligible for regular-season championships and conference honors during the 2008–09 athletic year. Gardner–Webb, which had been a football-only member since 2002, joined the conference for all sports on July 1, 2008. Campbell rejoined the Big South for all sports except football in the 2011–12 athletic year. Longwood University accepted an invitation to join the Big South on January 23, 2012, and membership formally began July 1 of that year; Longwood had been independent since 2004, during their transition to Division I. In 2014, following the departure of VMI, the conference returned to a single-division structure. On September 1, 2015, Coastal Carolina announced they would leave the conference following the 2015–16 school year to transition to FBS-level football and the Sun Belt Conference. On June 30, 2016, the day before the school joined the Sun Belt, Coastal Carolina won the 2016 College World Series in baseball. This was the first time in conference history that a team won an NCAA championship in any sport.
In September 2016, the Big South and the Atlantic Sun Conference announced a football partnership that effectively combined the two conferences in that sport. Under its terms, any members of either conference that add or upgrade to scholarship football, provided they fall within the current geographic footprint of the two leagues, automatically join Big South football. At the time of announcement, the only ASUN member that played scholarship football, Kennesaw State, was already a Big South football member. The partnership also provides a guaranteed football home to the leagues' non-scholarship football programs should they upgrade to scholarship status.
In November 2016, Campbell announced that it would begin offering scholarships and move its football program from the Pioneer Football League to the Big South in 2018.
In December 2016, the University of North Alabama, ASUN, and the Big South Conference announced that, effective in 2018, the school will leave the Division II Gulf South Conference and will join ASUN in non-football sports and the Big South in football. UNA has won three Division II NCAA national championships in football and has won at least a share of the Gulf South Conference football championship for four consecutive seasons through 2016.
Three months later, Liberty announced that it would begin a transition to FBS football in July 2017 and leave the Big South football league in 2018. Liberty and the Big South agreed later in 2017 that the school would continue to house all of its non-football sports in that conference for the immediate future. Once Liberty became a full FBS member at the start of the 2019–20 school year, it would have technically become a Big South associate member. However, Liberty's plans would change several months later, as it instead announced in May 2018 that it would move its non-football sports to the ASUN effective that July.
In November 2017, the University of South Carolina Upstate and Hampton University announced that they would be leaving the ASUN and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, respectively, to join the Big South, starting in the fall of 2018.
On November 19, 2017, Presbyterian College announced it would be moving its football program to the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League. Presbyterian's last Big South football season will be 2019; the Blue Hose plan to play the 2020 season as an independent before joining the Pioneer League for 2021 and beyond. The Blue Hose will remain a member of the Big South in all other sports.
The Big South's most recently announced membership changes are the July 2021 arrivals of North Carolina A&T State University from the MEAC as a full member, including football, and Robert Morris University as a football-only member.

Member schools

Current full members

InstitutionLocationFoundedJoinedTypeEnrollmentNicknameColors
Campbell UniversityBuies Creek, North Carolina18871983,
2011		Private
6,448Fighting Camels
Charleston Southern UniversityNorth Charleston, South Carolina19641983Private
3,414Buccaneers
Gardner–Webb UniversityBoiling Springs, North Carolina19052008Private
3,594Runnin' Bulldogs
Hampton UniversityHampton, Virginia18682018Private
4,321Pirates
High Point UniversityHigh Point, North Carolina19241999Private
4,545Panthers
Longwood UniversityFarmville, Virginia18392012Public4,470Lancers
Presbyterian CollegeClinton, South Carolina18802007Private
1,330Blue Hose
Radford UniversityRadford, Virginia19101983Public9,335Highlanders
University of North Carolina at AshevilleAsheville, North Carolina19271984Public
3,762Bulldogs
University of South Carolina UpstateSpartanburg, South Carolina19672018Public
6,000Spartans
Winthrop UniversityRock Hill, South Carolina18861983Public6,073Eagles

; Notes

Current associate members

Future member

Future associate member

InstitutionLocationFoundedTypeEnrollmentJoiningNicknameBig South SportCurrent
Primary
Conference		Colors
Robert Morris UniversityMoon Township, Pennsylvania1921Private4,8952021ColonialsFootballHorizon League

Divisional realignment, 2012–2014

With the additions of Campbell and Longwood to the Big South in 2011 and 2012, Big South commissioner Kyle Kallander stated the conference would break up into two divisions of six teams each beginning in 2012–2013. He also said the Big South Basketball Tournaments would be held at a single, neutral location. The divisional setup was as follows:
North Division
South Division
In men's and women's basketball, teams played the five other divisional opponents twice, one home and one away. They played teams outside the division once each. This cut the number of conference games to 16, as opposed to 18 both before and after the realignment.
Following the departure of VMI for the Southern Conference in 2014, the conference returned to a single-division structure, and the basketball conference schedule returned to 18 games.

Former members

Former associate members

Membership timeline


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id:Full value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports
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id:AssocF value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only
id:AssocOS value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all
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bar:1 color:FullxF from:1983 till:1987 text:Armstrong Atlantic State
bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:1987 till:1990
bar:1 color:OtherC2 from:1990 till:2017 text:Peach Belt
bar:2 color:FullxF from:1983 till:1990 text:Augusta State
bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:1990 till:end text:Peach Belt
bar:3 color:FullxF from:1983 till:1994 text:Campbell
bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:1994 till:2011 text:Atlantic Sun
bar:3 color:FullxF from:2011 till:2018 text:
bar:3 color:Full from:2018 till:end text:
bar:4 color:FullxF from:1983 till:2002 text:Charleston Southern
bar:4 color:Full from:2002 till:end
bar:5 color:FullxF from:1983 till:2003 text:Coastal Carolina
bar:5 color:Full from:2003 till:2016
bar:5 color:OtherC1 from:2016 till:end text:Sun Belt
bar:6 color:FullxF from:1983 till:end text:Radford
bar:7 color:FullxF from:1983 till:end text:Winthrop
bar:8 color:FullxF from:1984 till:end text:UNC Asheville
bar:9 color:FullxF from:1990 till:1992 text:Davidson
bar:9 color:OtherC1 from:1992 till:2014 shift: text:SoCon
bar:9 shift: color:AssocOS from:2012 till:2014 text:
bar:9 color:OtherC1 from:2014 till:end text:A-10
bar:10 color:FullxF from:1991 till:2002 text:Liberty
bar:10 color:Full from:2002 till:2018
bar:10 color:OtherC1 from:2018 till:end text:ASUN
bar:11 color:FullxF from:1992 till:1995 text:Towson
bar:11 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2001 shift: text:America East
bar:11 color:OtherC2 from:2001 till:end text:CAA
bar:12 color:FullxF from:1992 till:1997 text:UNC Greensboro
bar:12 color:OtherC1 from:1997 till:end shift: text:SoCon
bar:13 color:FullxF from:1992 till:1998 text:UMBC
bar:13 color:OtherC1 from:1998 till:2003 text:NEC
bar:13 color:OtherC2 from:2003 till:end text:America East
bar:14 color:FullxF from:1999 till:2002 text:Elon
bar:14 color:Full from:2002 till:2003
bar:14 color:OtherC1 from:2003 till:2014 text:SoCon
bar:14 color:OtherC2 from:2014 till:end text:CAA
bar:15 color:FullxF from:1999 till:end text:High Point
bar:16 color:FullxF from:2001 till:2006 text:Birmingham–Southern
bar:16 color:OtherC1 from:2006 till:2012 text:SCAC
bar:16 color:OtherC2 from:2012 till:end text:SAA
bar:17 color:AssocF from:2002 till:2008 text:Gardner–Webb
bar:17 color:Full from:2008 till:end
bar:18 color:Full from:2003 till:2014 text:VMI
bar:18 color:OtherC1 from:2014 till:end text:SoCon
bar:19 color:FullxF from:2007 till:2009 text:Presbyterian
bar:19 color:Full from:2009 till:2020
bar:19 color:FullxF from:2020 till:end
bar:20 shift: color:AssocF from:2008 till:2013 text:Stony Brook
bar:21 shift: color:FullxF from:2012 till:end text:Longwood
bar:23 shift: color:AssocF from:2014 till:end text:Monmouth
bar:24 shift: color:AssocF from:2015 till:end text:Kennesaw State
bar:25 shift: color:FullxF from:2018 till:end text:USC Upstate

bar:26 shift: color:Full from:2018 till:end text:Hampton
bar:27 shift: color:AssocF from:2019 till:end text:North Alabama
bar:28 shift: color:Full from:2021 till:end text:North Carolina A&T
bar:29 shift: color:AssocF from:2021 till:end text:Robert Morris
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The Big South sponsors championship competition in nine men's and ten women's NCAA sanctioned sports. Davidson has competed as an associate member in women's lacrosse, but left in 2014 when the school joined the lacrosse-sponsoring Atlantic 10 Conference. Stony Brook has competed as an associate in football, but left in 2013 for membership in the Colonial Athletic Association. Three schools, Kennesaw State, Monmouth, and North Alabama, are currently associates in football.
SportMen'sWomen's
Baseball
10
-
Basketball
11
11
Cross Country
11
11
Football
8
-
Golf
9
11
Lacrosse
-
7
Soccer
9
11
Softball
-
9
Tennis
8
10
Track and Field
8
9
Track and Field
8
9
Volleyball
-
10

Divisional alignments from 2021 onward

The Big South plans to institute divisions with the addition of North Carolina A&T in 2021. The divisions align below and apply only to men's and women's basketball and volleyball.
East DivisionWest Division
CampbellCharleston Southern
HamptonGardner-Webb
High PointUNC Asheville
LongwoodPresbyterian
North Carolina A&TUSC Upstate
RadfordWinthrop

Men's sponsored sports by school

;Notes
Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the Big South Conference which are played by Big South schools:
SchoolLacrosseSailingSwimmingWrestling
CampbellNoNoNoSouthern
Gardner–WebbNoNoCCSASouthern
HamptonIndependentMAISANoNo
High PointSouthernNoNoNo
PresbyterianNoNoNoSouthern

;Notes
In addition to the above, Campbell counts both its male and female cheerleaders as varsity athletes.

Women's sponsored sports by school

Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Big South Conference which are played by Big South schools:
SchoolAcrobatics &
Tumbling		BowlingField HockeySailingSwimmingWrestling
CampbellNoNoNoNoCCSANo
Gardner–WebbNoNoNoNoCCSANo
HamptonNoNoNoMAISANoNo
LongwoodNoNoMACNoNoNo
North Carolina A&TNoMEACNoNoNoNo
PresbyterianIndependentNoNoNoNoIndependent
UNC AshevilleNoNoNoNoCCSANo

;Notes
In addition to the above, Campbell, Gardner–Webb, and Presbyterian consider their female cheerleaders to be varsity athletes, with Campbell also considering its male cheerleaders as such.

Football – players drafted to the NFL

The Big South has had a number of players to get drafted and play football professionally in the NFL.

Conference champions

Men's basketball

Basketball Tournament Championships by school

Women's basketball

Men's Soccer

Broadcasters (Big South Network)

In addition to basketball games being broadcast on regional and national television, member schools of the Big South Conference are required to provide a live stream of all home games for all sports when playing teams both within and outside the conference. These streams are run by the university hosting the event. All streams are featured on the conference website and are available for free. The football games broadcast on the web are branded as part of a Big South Network.

National Champions

Facilities

Future members/teams in gray.
;Notes