South Atlantic Conference

From BR Bullpen

The South Atlantic Conference (SAC) is a Division-II conference which operates in the Carolinas and Tennessee. Today the conference is a group of eight church affiliated colleges and universities, similar in size and athletic philosophy.

The distant forerunner of the South Atlantic Conference was the North State Atlantic Conference (NSIAC). The NSIAC was formed when the "Little Six", as it was called, broke from the North Carolina Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 1930. These charter members included Lenoir-Rhyne College, Atlantic Christian, Catawba College, Guilford College, Elon College, and High Point University. The league took on the name Carolinas Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIAC) in 1961 when Newberry College was accepted from South Carolina. The South Atlantic Conference was founded in 1975 solely as a football conference. The SAC-8 consisted of Carson-Newman College, Catawba College, Elon College, Gardner-Webb University, Lenoir-Rhyne College, Mars Hill College, Newberry College, and Presbyterian College.