- Dixie Conference
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The Dixie Conference was the name of three collegiate athletic leagues in the United States. The first operated from 1930 until the United States' entry into World War II in 1942. The second conference to use the name existed from 1948 to 1954. The third was the original name of the current USA South Athletic Conference.
Contents
Dixie Conference (1930)
Formation and relationship with the SIAA
At the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) annual convention in 1930, nine of the association's members announced the formation of the Dixie Conference to facilitate scheduling of games among the group.[1] The charter members were Birmingham-Southern College, Howard College (now Samford University), Southwestern of Memphis (now Rhodes College), Centre College, University of Chattanooga, Spring Hill College and Mercer University;[1] Loyola University New Orleans joined the Dixie two years later.[2]
At the time of formation, conference president Dean G. W. Meade of Birmingham-Southern stated, "We are still members of the S. I. A. A. and will continue to be so."[1] However, at the SIAA convention the following year, Birmingham-Southern, Howard and Spring Hill resigned from the association.[3] University officials at Chattanooga announced their resignation from the SIAA in 1932, explaining that they "saw no purpose in remaining in the unwieldy association after successful launching of the Dixie Conference two years ago".[4]
Two years prior to the SIAA, the Dixie Conference approved the use of scholarships in 1936.[5]
Football champions
List of conference football champions by year:[6]
Year Champion 1931 Chattanooga 1932 Mercer 1933 Howard 1934 Birmingham-Southern 1935 Howard 1936 Howard 1937 Birmingham-Southern 1938 Southwestern 1939 Southwestern 1940 Mississippi College, Howard, Chattanooga 1941 Chattanooga Reduction then dissolution
After a university planning committee recommendation to either drop competitive football or to compete at the "big time" level, on June 3, 1939, Birmingham-Southern announced that it was ending its football program in favor of an enlarged intramural athletic program.[7] Loyola followed suit the following December and also dropped football from the University's athletic program.[8] The remaining slate of Dixie Conference membership lasted until the American entry into World War II, when several league schools suspended athletics.[6][9][10]
Dixie Conference (1948)
Formation of purely amateur conference
In 1948, the administration of the newly formed Florida State University wrote leaders at other southern institutions seeking to create a "purely amateur" athletic conference.[11] The NCAA had recently tightened its rules on the amount of money that could be paid to collegiate athletes, which caused difficulty for many established athletic programs.[12] Florida State hoped to create a new conference based on the principle of complete amateurism, including no athletic scholarships.[11]
The original Dixie Conference lineup included, in addition to Florida State, Howard College (now Samford University) from Alabama, Stetson University and the University of Tampa from Florida, Lambuth College from Tennessee, Mercer University and Oglethorpe University from Georgia, and Millsaps College and Mississippi College from Mississippi.[13] Of the nine charter members, six (FSU, Howard, Millsaps, Mississippi, Stetson, and Tampa) played football.
Membership transitions
In 1949, Lambuth, Stetson and Tampa left the conference, while Florida Southern College joined.[14] In December 1950, after winning the first three Dixie football titles without losing a single conference game, founding member Florida State withdrew to become an independent and began offering scholarships.[15][16]
1951 – 1954
In the four years following the departure of Florida State, Millsaps won three conference football titles and Mississippi College won one.[6] Citing "operation difficulties and limited competition between members", the league disbanded in December 1954 following the resignation of Howard, Millsaps and Mississippi College.[17]
Football champions
List of conference football champions by year:[6]
Year Champion 1948 Florida State 1949 Florida State 1950 Florida State 1951 Millsaps 1952 Millsaps 1953 Mississippi College 1954 Millsaps Dixie Conference (1963)
The Dixie Intercollegiate Athletic Conference was founded in 1963 as a member of the NAIA with the philosophy that participation would be strictly amateur, so no athletic financial aid or scholarships would be awarded by its affiliate institutions. The six charter members were Charlotte College, College of Charleston, Methodist College, North Carolina Wesleyan College, St. Andrews Presbyterian College, and Lynchburg College.[18]
In 1973, when the NCAA divided into a three division format, the Dixie Conference left the NAIA and moved into the non-scholarship NCAA Division III.[18]
On June 30, 2003, the conference changed to its name to the USA South Athletic Conference.[19]
Conference membership under Dixie Conference moniker
List of conference members prior to name change:[20]
Institution Joined Departed College of Charleston 1963 1970 Lynchburg 1963 1976 Methodist 1963 Member through name change NC Wesleyan 1963 Member through name change St. Andrew's 1963 1988 UNC Charlotte 1963 1970 Greensboro College 1966 Member through name change UNC Greensboro 1968 1988 Virginia Wesleyan 1970 1989 Christopher Newport 1972 Member through name change Averett 1978 Member through name change Ferrum College 1988 Member through name change Shenandoah 1992 Member through name change Chowan 2000 Member through name change Football champions
List of conference football champions by from beginning of football sponsorship until name change:[21]
Year Champion 2000 First year of conference sponsorship. No championship awarded. 2001 Ferrum, Christopher Newport 2002 Ferrum, Christopher Newport References
- ^ a b c "Dixie Conference Formed in South", New York Times: 29, December 16, 1930.
- ^ Salor, Roger (February 1993), "Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association" (PDF), College Football Historical Society Newsletter (College Football Historical Society) VI (II): 13–14, http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/CFHSN/CFHSNv06/CFHSNv06n2g.pdf, retrieved 2008-01-16
- ^ "3 Alabama College Resign from S.I.A.A.", New York Times: 35, December 15, 1931
- ^ "Chattanooga Quits Body", New York Times: 29, December 6, 1932
- ^ "South Relaxes Rules on Help to Athletes", New York Times: 28, December 19, 1938
- ^ a b c d "Dixie Conference", Conference Championships (College Football Data Warehouse), http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/conference_champs/champions.php?conid=46, retrieved 2008-04-03
- ^ College Drops Football, New York Times, June 4, 1939, pp. S6
- ^ Loyola Drops Football, New York Times, December 17, 1939, pp. 83
- ^ Mercer Sports Suspended, New York Times, January 9, 1942, pp. 28
- ^ Howard Suspends Football, New York Times, January 10, 1942, pp. 22
- ^ a b Pettijohn, Fred (January 22, 1948), The Daily Democrat (Tallahassee, Florida): 10
- ^ Watterson, John Sayle (October 14, 2002), College Football: History, Spectacle, Controversy, The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 210
- ^ Daily Democrat (Tallahassee, Florida): 6, May 11, 1948
- ^ Florida Times Union (Jacksonville, Florida), February 27, 1949
- ^ Jacksonville Journal (Jacksonville, Florida): 54, December 17, 1950
- ^ "Eligibility Back on Wartime Basis", New York Times: S1, December 17, 1950
- ^ "COLLEGE GROUP DISBANDS; Dixie Conference Cites Lack of Competition of Members", The New York Times: 32, December 22, 1954
- ^ a b (PDF) 2007 Football Media Guide, USA South Athletic Conference, http://www.usasouth.net/PDFs/footballguide.pdf, retrieved 2008-04-28
- ^ "Dixie Conference Chooses New Name", Greensboro News Record: C1, 2003-02-03
- ^ (PDF) USA South Athletic Conference History & Record Book (13 ed.), USA South Athletic Conference, 2011, http://static.psbin.com/t/m/hukehmrgdnkxko/RecordBook.pdf, retrieved 2011-09-13
- ^ "USA South Athletic Conference", Conference Championships (College Football Data Warehouse), http://www.cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/conference_champs/champions.php?conid=47, retrieved 2008-04-28
Categories:- Defunct NCAA Division I conferences
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