Established 1996 Division Division III Region Gulf Coast | Association NCAA Members 13 | |
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Sports fielded 16 (men's: 8; women's: 8) | ||
The American Southwest Conference (ASC) is a college athletic conference, founded in 1996, whose member schools compete in the NCAA's Division III. The schools are located in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi. The conference competes in baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, football, men's and women's golf, men's and women's soccer, softball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track and field and women's volleyball.
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The American Southwest Conference shares operates from the same headquarters complex in the Dallas suburb of Richardson as the Lone Star Conference.
History
The American Southwest Conference was announced in May 1996. The new league included some former members of the Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association (TIAA). Founding members of the ASC were Howard Payne University, Austin College, Hardin–Simmons University, McMurry University, Mississippi College, Sul Ross State University, the University of Dallas and the University of the Ozarks.
The expansion soon began as the University of Mary Hardin–Baylor joined the ASC in 1997; followed by East Texas Baptist University, LeTourneau University Schreiner University and the University of Texas at Dallas in 1998; then Concordia University Texas in 1999, and finally Louisiana College and Texas Lutheran University in 2000.
The University of Dallas was a member of the ASC until the end of the 2000-01 season to become an Independent; and Austin College withdrew the ASC in the 2005-06 season to join the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC). The University of Texas at Tyler began athletics in 2002 and became a member in 2003, but as a provisional member of the NCAA, was ineligible to participate in ASC or NCAA postseason tournaments until 2007. Centenary College of Louisiana joined the conference in 2011, after completing their transition from Division I to Division III, but almost immediately announced its departure for the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference.
Recently, however, several schools have announced plans to leave the conference in favor of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, which lost seven of its members at the end of the 2011-12 school year. Centenary departed at the end of the 2011-12 season after joining the ASC in that same season; Schreiner and Texas Lutheran left at the end of the 2012-13 season.
In 2012, McMurry left the ASC and completed the process of reclassifying to a full-scholarship, Division II institution and joined the Heartland Conference. Additionally, Mississippi College announced that it would be also leaving the conference and reclassifying to Division II in 2014. Mississippi College will re-join the Gulf South Conference, a league that it had been a member of until 1996.
The departures of McMurry, Texas Lutheran and Mississippi College will leave the conference with only six football playing members, below the minimum seven participating schools required to receive an automatic bid to the NCAA football playoffs. The conference has not announced a plan to maintain its automatic bid.
ASC officials announced on March 13, 2014 the forthcoming addition of McMurry University and Belhaven University to its membership. McMurry will re-join the ASC after a two-year stint in the Division II level, competing as a member of the Heartland Conference; while Belhaven is scheduled to join the ASC as a provisional member in 2015.
On December 3, 2015, ASC officials reported that Texas Lutheran University and Southwestern University would join the conference for football in 2017 as football-only members . Both schools are members of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference, but the conference only had four remaining schools competing in football. Two other SCAC schools. Austin College and Trinity University (Texas), have announced they will play football in the Southern Athletic Association beginning with the 2017 season. The SCAC will no longer offer football as a conference sport after the 2016 season.
Current members
1 - McMurry left the ASC to join the NCAA Division II ranks and the Heartland Conference from 2012-13 to 2013-14 before re-joining back to the conference.
* - The schools are divided into two divisions: East (white background) and West (yellow background).
Affiliate members
* - Texas Lutheran University rejoins the conference for football only in 2017, but was a former member before leaving in 2013 for the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference.
Former members
* Texas Lutheran University rejoined the ASC for football in 2016.