Gulf South Conference Faces Uncertain Future for Football
The GSC is facing challenges in the wake of conference realignment.
Division I is not the only division in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) that has experienced conference realignment. The Gulf South Conference, a Division II conference, also saw schools enter and leave in recent years. After the 2024-25 academic year, more changes will go into effect as the conference schedule faces reorganization.
Currently, there are eight GSC schools that sponsor football: Chowan University, Delta State University, Erskine College, Mississippi College, North Greenville University, Valdosta State University, University of West Alabama, and University of West Florida. This number will change going into the 2025-2026 academic year. Erskine College, Chowan University, and North Greenville University are leaving the GSC to join another conference.
The GSC has been in the National Championship picture for the past few decades. GSC schools have appeared in the championship game ten times and in the national championships six times since the year 2000. Some schools, though, were beginning to feel outpaced.
“Schools were struggling to compete with the top half of the conference,” Gulf South Conference Commissioner Matt Wilson said. “Institutions are trying to find places that fit the school's geographic background as well as financial situation.”
Chowan, Erskine, and North Greenville are joining the Conference Carolinas in 2025. Shorter University, who left the GSC after the 2023-24 academic year, will be joining them. This will be the first time that the Conference Carolinas will sponsor football since the 1974-75 academic year. With this change, the GSC will only have five schools that sponsor football in 2025: Delta State, Mississippi College, Valdosta State, West Alabama, and West Florida.
There is no required conference size to receive an at-large bid into the Division II football playoffs. However, a vote will be held in January to decide whether the division will incorporate automatic qualifiers into its football championship. If it passes, a DII conference would have to have six active members to be eligible for an automatic berth into the football championship. The GSC would need to add at least one more football-playing school to qualify, leaving its schools’ championship eligibility at risk in the meantime.
Despite shrinking numbers and championship qualification questions, though, there remains optimism for the conference’s football future.
The GSC has several options to regrow its football program. The conference could invite other schools that have football programs to join, or it could encourage the seven other current GSC schools to add football to their athletic offerings.
Seven current GSC schools do not sponsor football: Christian Brothers University, University of Montevallo, Lee University, Union University, The University of Alabama at Huntsville, Auburn University at Montgomery, and Trevecca Nazarene University.
“The conference is looking hard to fix this issue,” Mississippi College Athletic Director Kenny Bizot said. “There is a possibility for some GSC schools to add football in the near future.”
The task would come with challenges, though. “There are some ups and downs when it comes to adding a new sport, especially football,” Wilson said. “These schools have to add new facilities as well as new staff members. Enrollment will increase since there will be around one hundred new students to the institution.”
Another option for the GSC is to join forces with another conference for football. For example, the Big South and the Ohio Valley Conferences made an agreement in 2023 that combined two schools from the Big South and seven schools from the Ohio Valley Conference, creating a new conference, the Big South-OVC, to meet NCAA sport sponsorship requirements.
“This partnership combined the two conferences,” Kyle Lewis, Assistant Athletic Communications Director at Mississippi College and former Director of Sports Information at West Alabama, said. “A partnership could be possible for several NCAA divisions and conferences.”
“There is no plan of getting rid of football,” Wilson said. “There is a strong history of football in the GSC, why would we get rid of that history?”
“Nothing is off the table at this moment,” Susan Musselwhite, Associate Athletic Director at Mississippi College, said. “All options are on the table.”
Editor’s note: This article was updated on October 3, 2024 for accuracy and clarity regarding Division II championship qualification policy.
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