Sept. 2 (Thursday)	Series	TV/Digital	Time
The Citadel at No. 22/24 Coastal Carolina	Series tied 1-1	ESPN+	7 p.m.
Point at Mercer	First meeting	ESPN+	7 p.m.
Tennessee Tech at Samford	Samford leads 12-11	ESPN+	7 p.m.
No. 25/20 Austin Peay at No. 18/18 Chattanooga	Chattanooga leads 6-0	ESPN+	7:30 p.m.
Sept. 4 (Saturday)	Series	TV/Digital	Time
Davidson at No. 19/17 VMI	VMI leads 39-17-3	ESPN+	1:30 p.m.
Wofford at Elon	Wofford leads 27-11	FloSports	2 p.m.
No. 24/25 North Carolina A&T at Furman	First meeting	Nexstar/ESPN+	2 p.m.
Eastern Kentucky at Western Carolina	Eastern Kentucky leads 4-2	Nexstar/ESPN+	6 p.m.
ETSU at Vanderbilt	Vanderbilt leads 1-0	SEC Network+	8 p.m.

Nexstar affiliates for the Sept. 4 Ingles SoCon Games of the Week
North Carolina A&T at Furman, 2 p.m.
ECBD/The Lowcountry’s CW (Charleston)
WHDF/North Alabama’s CW (Huntsville/Florence)
WMYT/My 12 (Charlotte)
WWCW/The CW Virginia (Lynchburg/Roanoke)
WYCW/The CW62 (Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville)
 
Play-by-play: Pete Yanity
Analyst: Jared Singleton
 
Eastern Kentucky at Western Carolina, 6 p.m.
ECBD/The Lowcountry’s CW (Charleston)
WMYT/My 12 (Charlotte)
WWCW/The CW Virginia (Lynchburg/Roanoke)
WYCW/The CW62 (Greenville/Spartanburg/Asheville)
 
Play-by-play: Scott Pryzwansky
Analyst: Jay Sonnhalter
 
Notes
• The 2021 Southern Conference football season kicks off this week with all nine programs in action. Four teams take the field Thursday, while the other five open the season Saturday.
 
• The 2021 campaign is the 100th season of SoCon football. Founded in 1921, the SoCon has been celebrating 100 years in 2021 and will continue to do so throughout the season. The league is the fifth-oldest Division I conference.
 
• Highlighting Thursday’s slate is a ranked battle between No. 18 Chattanooga and No. 25/20 Austin Peay. The Citadel visits in-state FBS foe Coastal Carolina, ranked No. 22 by the Associated Press, to open its season, while Samford hosts former Ohio Valley Conference foe Tennessee Tech and Mercer welcomes Point University, coached by former All-SoCon defensive back Julius Dixon, who helped Furman to the 1988 national title.
 
• Saturday’s schedule sees defending SoCon champion VMI hosting reigning Pioneer champion Davidson. The Keydets are ranked 19th in the AFCA FCS Coaches’ Top 25 and 17th by Stats Perform.
 
• Also on Saturday, Furman hosts No. 24/25 North Carolina A&T, Wofford visits former SoCon foe Elon, ETSU visits the SEC’s Vanderbilt and new Western Carolina coach Kerwin Bell makes his school debut when the Catamounts welcome Eastern Kentucky.
 
• Saturday’s Furman and Western Carolina games will both air on select Nexstar affiliates as the Ingles SoCon Games of the Week.
 
• VMI won its first SoCon championship since 1977 last season. The Keydets, led by reigning national coach of the year Scott Wachenheim, enter the 2021 season looking for back-to-back crowns for the first time since winning the 1959 and 1960 SoCon titles.
 
• Preseason SoCon favorite Chattanooga, seeking its first SoCon title since 2015, returns 72 of 76 lettermen and all 25 starters from last season. ETSU, which finished last season ranked in the top 25 nationally, returns all 50 of its lettermen and every starter.
 
• Eighteen different SoCon student-athletes earned preseason All-America honors from at least one organization, with VMI wide receiver Jakob Herres a consensus first-team pick.
 
• The SoCon had finalists for all of the major national awards last season, with three finalists for the Walter Payton Award, two for the Buck Buchanan Award and two for the Jerry Rice Award in addition to Eddie Robinson Award winner Scott Wachenheim of VMI. All of them return this season.
 
• 2020-21 finalists RB Quay Holmes (ETSU), QB Liam Welch (Samford) and WR Jakob Herres (VMI) were joined on the 2021 Payton Award watch list by Furman RB Devin Wynn, while 2020-21 Buchanan finalists LB Stone Snyder (VMI) and DB Chris Edmonds (Samford) were joined on this season’s watch list by linebacker Willie Eubanks III of The Citadel.
 
• The Southern Conference has been among the best in the FCS at recruiting dynamic new talent in the last five seasons. Since 2016, six SoCon freshmen have finished in the top five of the voting for the Jerry Rice Award, the most of any conference.
 
SoCon points of pride
• The SoCon is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2021. The fifth-oldest NCAA Division I college athletic association, the SoCon contested the first-ever collegiate conference basketball tournament in 1921, tackled freshman eligibility in 1922, became the first conference to adopt the 3-point field goal in basketball in 1980 and developed women’s championships in 1984. The 2021 season is the 100th of SoCon football.
 
• The SoCon has been playing Division I FCS Football since the 1982 season. The NCAA created two subdivisions for Division I football beginning in 1978 with the creation of I-A (now FBS) and I-AA (now FCS). The SoCon was shifted from I-A to I-AA along with the Ivy League and Southland Conference following the 1981 season, joining the Mid-Continent, Big Sky, MEAC, SWAC, OVC, and Yankee conferences, along with a number of independents, as I-AA participants.
 
• Since it began competing in FCS, the SoCon has amassed the second-most national championships (8) and has also produced a total of eight national championship runners-up (tied for most).
 
• The SoCon prides itself on quality and depth.
    Eight of the nine current SoCon football members have participated in the FCS Playoffs with seven different schools receiving bids since 2016.
    Overall, current SoCon football members have combined for 46 total FCS Playoffs appearances.
    Six of the nine SoCon teams appeared in an FCS top-25 national poll in the 2020-21 season.
 
• The SoCon has had seven Walter Payton Award winners, two Buck Buchanan Award winners and five Eddie Robinson Award winners.
 
• Sixty-one former SoCon players and coaches have been enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame.
 
• Sixteen former SoCon players were on active NFL rosters last season and five more were on practice squads. Former Citadel wide receiver Andre Roberts, former Samford defensive back Jaquiski Tartt and former Georgia Southern kicker Younghoe Koo, who played in the SoCon as a freshman, were Pro Bowlers.
 
Recent news
SoCon announces updated COVID policies (8/24)