The school's athletics programs historically competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, and also competed in national tournaments of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association. Southern Virginia began its athletic program in the fall of 1997, one year after it became a four-year liberal arts college with an LDS environment. In 1998, the Knights joined the United States Collegiate Athletic Association. The 2012–13 school year was SVU's first year as a provisional NCAADivision III member; it joined the Capital Athletic Conference on July 1, 2013, and became eligible for conference championships in 2014–15. Since the Capital Athletic Conference does not offer football, Southern Virginia joined the New Jersey Athletic Conference for football effective July 2014. After four successful provisional years, the Knights became a full NCAA Division III member on September 1, 2016. On August 9, 2017 Southern Virginia University officially changed its school colors from green and white back to its original colors of crimson and white. Two months later on October 16, 2017 Southern Virginia University announced its football program would switch over to the Old Dominion Athletic Conference starting in the 2019–20 season. On February 20, 2018 the men's volleyball team became the first Southern Virginia program to be nationally ranked; ranking in at number eight in the AVCA and NCAA DIII poll. On July 12, 2018 Southern Virginia announced Women's Field Hockey as a varsity sport becoming the 23rd varsity sport offered at the school. On April 4, 2019 Southern Virginia added men's rugby as a varsity sport to be offered. One week after announcing the addition of men's rugby, on April 11, 2019 Southern Virginia announced the addition of men's and women's swimming and diving. On December 11, 2019, Southern Virginia announced it will join the USA South Athletic Conference in the 2021–22 academic year.
Sports sponsored
A member of the Capital Athletic Conference, Southern Virginia University sponsors teams in thirteen men's and thirteen women's varsity sports.
Men’s basketball
Football
Men’s Volleyball
On March 30, 2019 the Southern Virginia Men's Volleyball team clinched the Continental Volleyball Conference regular season championship for the 2018–19 season. This was Southern Virginia's first ever conference championship as a member of the NCAA Division III. On April 13, 2019 Southern Virginia men's volleyball program captured the University's first conference tournament title and first NCAA DIII Tournament appearance after defeating Juniata College in five-sets.
Wrestling
In 2017–18 Nico Ramirez became the first NCAA National Qualifier in Southern Virginia's school history and made it to the second round of the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships.
