Southern Conference

The Southern Conference (or SoCon) is a Division I college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Southern Conference football teams compete in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as Division I-AA). Member institutions are located in the states of Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. The Southern Conference ranks as the fourth oldest major college athletic conference in the United States. Only the Big Ten (1896), Missouri Valley (1907) and Southwestern Athletic (1920) conferences are older.

The Southern Conference is considered one of the stronger football conferences in the Football Championship Subdivision, and is considered a mid-major conference in basketball. It has also garnered considerable national attention from its recent success in these sports: in particular, three-time Division I NCAA Football champion Appalachian State Mountaineers, who stunned the fifth-ranked Michigan Wolverines 34–32 on September 1, 2007; and from the Davidson Wildcats, who reached the Elite Eight in the 2008 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament by upsetting power programs Gonzaga (a mid-major school which became a power program in the 2000s), Georgetown and Wisconsin. The SoCon also frequently sees multiple teams selected to participate in the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship.