SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Southern Conference will no longer sponsor women’s lacrosse due to an insufficient number of available teams.
 
The league received an NCAA waiver to compete with just five teams this season – full SoCon members Furman, Mercer and Wofford, associate member Delaware State, which has competed in women’s lacrosse in the SoCon since the league added the sport in 2018, and associate member Coastal Carolina, which moved over from the ASUN. Following the 2019-20 academic year, associate members Central Michigan and Detroit Mercy departed for the more geographically suitable Mid-American Conference, which dropped the Southern Conference below the NCAA minimum of six members to automatically qualify for postseason competition. Despite efforts to fulfill that requirement, the Southern Conference was unable to procure other interested schools for future membership.
 
Furman, Mercer and Wofford will compete as associate members in the Big South Conference moving forward, while the future conference homes of Coastal Carolina and Delaware State have not yet been finalized.
 
“It became apparent after the conference recently lost two schools who wanted to be in a league closer to home, that we would have challenges in fielding the NCAA minimum of six in order to qualify for postseason competition,” SoCon Commissioner Jim Schaus said. “We are glad our three full-time members are able to find a quality place to compete.”