The Southern Conference, which is in its 102nd year in 2022-23, is a national leader in emphasizing the development of the student-athlete and in helping to build lifelong leaders and role models.
 
The Southern Conference has been on the forefront of innovation and originality in developing creative solutions to address issues facing intercollegiate athletics. From establishing the first postseason college basketball tournament (1921), to tackling the issue of freshman eligibility (1922), to developing women's championships (1984), to becoming the first conference to install the 3-point goal in basketball (1980), the Southern Conference has been a pioneer.
 
The Southern Conference is the nation's fifth-oldest NCAA Division I collegiate athletic association. Only the Big Ten (1896), the Missouri Valley (1907), the Pac-12 (1915) and the Southwestern Athletic (1920) conferences are older in terms of origination.
 
Academic excellence has been a major part of the Southern Conference's tradition. Hundreds of Southern Conference student-athletes have been recognized on CoSIDA Academic All-America and all-district teams. A total of 20 Rhodes Scholarship winners have been selected from conference institutions, most recently in 2012-13, when former Wofford volleyball player Rachel Woodlee earned the prestigious award.
 
The conference currently consists of 10 members in six states throughout the Southeast and sponsors 20 varsity sports and championships that produce participants for NCAA Division I Championships.
 
The Southern Conference offices are located in the historic Beaumont Mill in Spartanburg, South Carolina. A textile mill that was in operation from 1880 until 1999, Beaumont Mill was renovated in 2004 and today offers the league first-class meeting areas and offices as well as a spacious library for storage of the conference's historical documents.
 
Membership history
On Feb. 25, 1921, representatives from 14 of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association's (SIAA) 30 members met at Atlanta's Piedmont Hotel to establish the Southern Intercollegiate Conference. On hand at the inaugural meeting were officials from Alabama, Alabama Polytechnic Institute (Auburn), Clemson, Georgia, Georgia School of Technology (Georgia Tech), Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi A&M (Mississippi State), North Carolina, North Carolina State, Tennessee, Virginia, Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech) and Washington & Lee.

Dr. S.V. Sanford of Georgia was chosen as acting chairman and N.W. Dougherty of Tennessee was named secretary. The decision to form a new athletic conference was motivated by the desire to have a workable number of conference games for each league member. With 30 schools in the SIAA by the early 1920s, it was impossible to play every school at least once during the regular season and many schools went several years between playing some conference members. In addition, in 1920, the SIAA voted down proposed rules that an athlete must be in a college a year before playing on its teams and refused to abolish a rule permitting athletes to play summer baseball for money.
 
Play began in the fall of 1921, and a year later, six more schools joined the fledgling league, including Tulane (which had attended the inaugural meeting but had elected not to join), Florida, Louisiana (LSU), Mississippi, South Carolina and Vanderbilt. VMI joined in 1923 and Duke was added in 1929.
 
By the 1930s, membership in the Southern Conference had reached 23 schools. C.P. "Sally" Miles of Virginia Tech, president of the Southern Conference, called the annual league meeting to order on Dec. 9, 1932, at the Farragut Hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee. There, it announced that 13 institutions west and south of the Appalachian Mountains were reorganizing as the Southeastern Conference. Members of the new league included Alabama, Alabama Polytechnic Institute, Florida, Georgia, Georgia School of Technology, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Mississippi A&M, University of the South, Tennessee, Tulane and Vanderbilt.
 
According to the minutes of the meeting, Georgia's Dr. Sanford stated that the division was made along geographical lines. Florida's Dr. J.J. Tigert, acting as spokesman for the withdrawing group, regretted the move but believed it was necessary as the Southern Conference had grown too large. The resignations were accepted and the withdrawing schools formed the new league, which began play in 1933.
 
The Southern Conference continued with membership of 10 institutions, including Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Virginia, VMI, Virginia Tech and Washington & Lee.
 
The second major shift occurred some 20 years later. By 1952, the Southern Conference included 17 colleges and universities. Another split occurred when seven schools – Clemson, Duke, Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, South Carolina and Wake Forest – departed to form the Atlantic Coast Conference, which began play in 1953. The revamped Southern Conference included members The Citadel, Davidson, Furman, George Washington, Richmond, VMI, Virginia Tech, Washington & Lee, West Virginia and William & Mary.
 
A third major shift occurred in 2012-13, when five members announced their departures and three schools were added. College of Charleston announced its decision to leave for the Colonial Athletic Association following the 2012-13 season, while Appalachian State (Sun Belt), Davidson (Atlantic 10), Elon (Colonial) and Georgia Southern (Sun Belt) announced they would depart following the 2013-14 campaign. At the Southern Conference's 2013 spring meetings in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, the league officially extended invitations to former members ETSU and VMI, as well as Mercer, to join the league for the 2014-15 academic year.
 

Today, the league continues to thrive with a membership that includes 10 institutions and a footprint that spans six states: Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. Current league members are The Citadel, ETSU, Furman, Mercer, UNCG, Samford, Chattanooga, VMI, Western Carolina and Wofford.
 
Leadership
Jim Schaus began his tenure as the ninth commissioner in league history on July 1, 2019. Schaus came to the SoCon after an 11-year run as the director of athletics at Ohio University, where he led the Bobcats to unprecedented levels of success in athletics and academics.
 
In his first year in the role, Schaus spearheaded the creation of a new long-term strategic plan for the league and led the effort to partner with JMI Sports to serve as the SoCon's official marketing rights company. Schaus also negotiated the SoCon's entry into the Southeastern Conference's officiating consortiums for both men's basketball and football, moves that allow the member conferences to collaborate on all officiating matters related to recruitment, education and training, scheduling and evaluation of officials.
 
Also aimed at enhancing the league's men's basketball success, Schaus implemented a new right-size scheduling model designed to bolster the top teams' national profiles and put them in position for better seeding and potential at-large bids into the NCAA tournament. In addition, Schaus shepherded the league through its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing sport season cancelations and cost-cutting measures.
 
In Schaus's second year, the league began its year-long celebration of its first 100 years. It also successfully navigated the COVID pandemic, with every season playing to completion.

Schaus signed historic television contracts with ESPN and CBS Sports, guaranteeing the most linear national coverage the SoCon has ever had, and signed a contract extension to keep the league's basketball tournaments in Asheville, North Carolina, through 2026.

Schaus has a familial connection to the Southern Conference, as his father, former Los Angeles Lakers coach Fred Schaus, was the men's basketball coach at West Virginia from 1954-60, earning SoCon Coach of the Year honors four times in that six-year span and still ranking in the top 20 in career wins by a league coach.
 
Schaus replaced former commissioner John Iamarino, who concluded his 13-year tenure at the Southern Conference in the summer of 2019. Throughout his tenure, Iamarino promoted the Southern Conference through an ambitious agenda that improved championships, upgraded compliance related matters, launched the conference's Hall of Fame, created the SoCon Academic Exchange and increased the marketing and brand awareness of the conference and its member institutions. He also guided the league through membership changes that ensured the Southern Conference's future viability and stability with the additions of ETSU, Mercer and VMI.
 
Iamarino spearheaded the effort to create the SoCon Digital Network, which launched in the fall of 2014, and the league-wide plan to have all 10 member institutions capable of producing broadcast-quality content by 2017.
 
Iamarino also orchestrated the addition of three sports in a four-year span, starting with men's lacrosse in 2014-15. Rifle was added in 2016-17, and women's lacrosse became the SoCon's 22nd varsity sport in 2017-18. The addition of those three sports attracted a combined 11 associate members, while a 12th, Belmont, was added for men's soccer beginning in 2018.
 
The Southern Conference named its first commissioner in December 1950. Duke's Wallace Wade made the transition from Blue Devil football coach to athletics administration as the first person at the helm of the conference.
 
Lloyd Jordan replaced Wade as the commissioner in 1960 and served a 14-year term until Ken Germann became the league head in 1974. Germann was the commissioner for 13 years and orchestrated the league's expansion to include women's athletics. In 1987, he was succeeded by Dave Hart, who oversaw the transfer of the league office from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Asheville, North Carolina.
 
Wright Waters succeeded Hart upon his retirement in 1991. Under Waters' leadership, the Southern Conference expanded to 12 members, added three women's sports and posted record revenue from the basketball tournament. Waters was followed by Alfred B. White in 1998. White, a veteran member of the NCAA office, introduced the current conference logo and elevated the conference's commitment to marketing and development of corporate partners. Danny Morrison, who would go on to be president of the Carolina Panthers, headed the conference from 2001-05 and orchestrated the league's move from Asheville to Spartanburg. Under Morrison's leadership, the conference increased its marketing and promotional efforts.
 

Championship history
Men's basketball was the first sport in which the conference held a championship. The league tournament is the nation's oldest, with the inaugural championship held in 1921 at Atlanta's City Auditorium and won by Kentucky. The tournament began Feb. 25, the same day that members of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association met to discuss forming the new league that would become the Southern Conference. The following year, North Carolina won the first tournament after the formation of the league.
 
Commissioner Germann spearheaded the Southern Conference's expansion to include women's athletics during the 1983-84 season. That year, league women's championships were held in volleyball, basketball and tennis. Cross country joined the mix in 1985, outdoor track and field was added in 1987 and indoor and track and field followed in 1988. The conference instituted golf and softball championships in the spring of 1994 and added soccer in the fall of that year. Women's lacrosse crowned its first champion in May 2018.
 
The Germann Cup, named in honor of the former commissioner, annually recognizes the top women's athletics programs in the conference. From their humble beginnings, women's athletics have become an integral part of the Southern Conference and its success.
 
The Southern Conference declares champions in 11 men's sports – football, soccer, cross country, basketball, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, wrestling, baseball, lacrosse, tennis and golf – and 10 women's sports – soccer, volleyball, cross country, basketball, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, tennis, golf, women's lacrosse and softball. Rifle is a mixed sport.
 
Football
The Southern Conference has also excelled as the premier Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) conference. Former Southern Conference member Appalachian State won the three consecutive FCS titles from 2005-07, becoming the first team to do so. The league boasts more than 250 players who have garnered All-America recognition and numerous national player or coach of the year awards. The conference had at least one team in the top 10 of the final FCS poll for 28 consecutive years (1985-2012), with at least two teams finishing in the final poll in every season from 1982-2013. Mercer and VMI entered the FCS national rankings for the first time in program history in 2020-21, with the Keydets winning the league title for the first time since 1977 and making their first-ever appearance in the FCS playoffs. VMI and ETSU finished the season inside the national rankings, with the Bucs doing so for the second time in the last three seasons. ETSU would win its first outright SoCon title in 2021, earning the No. 7 seed in the NCAA Division I Football Championship and finishing inside the top 10 in the national rankings.
 

In 2007, Appalachian State became the first FCS team to defeat a nationally ranked Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) team, when the Mountaineers defeated No. 5 Michigan, 34-32, on Sept. 1 before a sellout crowd at Michigan Stadium. Georgia Southern, in its final game as a member of the Southern Conference, downed the SEC's Florida in Gainesville on Nov. 23, 2013. The league picked up two wins over FBS teams in 2015, with Furman downing UCF and The Citadel stunning South Carolina. The Bulldogs added another Power 5 conference win in 2019, taking down Georgia Tech in overtime, 27-24.
 
Prior to the conference's reclassification in 1981, Southern Conference football teams appeared in a total of 36 bowl games, posting a record of 16-18-2. From 1925-30, league schools won five football national championships in a six-year span. There are nearly 60 former Southern Conference players and coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame. One of the most recognizable of these names is former North Carolina running back Charlie "Choo Choo" Justice, who helped guide North Carolina to three bowl appearances. He was a first-team All-America selection and the Heisman Trophy runner-up in 1948 and 1949. In 1949, Justice earned first-team all-conference honors for the fourth consecutive season, becoming the first player in league history to achieve that feat. He was a member of the league's inaugural Hall of Fame Class in 2009.
 
Another of the league's football products that made it to the College Football Hall of Fame is Sam Huff of West Virginia. Huff was a three-year starter on both the offensive and defensive lines for the Mountaineers. In 1955, Huff earned first-team All-America honors on the field and was a first-team Academic All-American for his work in the classroom. He played 12 seasons in the National Football League for the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins. Also a member of the conference's first Hall of Fame class, he was a five-time All-Pro linebacker and is also a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
 
Former Appalachian State coach Jerry Moore was enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame in December 2014. The winningest coach in Appalachian State and Southern Conference history, Moore compiled a 215-87 record in his 24 seasons at Appalachian State (1989-2012), including 10 SoCon championships, 18 postseason appearances and an unprecedented three straight NCAA Division I FCS/IAA national titles (2005-07).
 
In 1999, Georgia Southern's Adrian Peterson captured the Walter Payton Award, presented annually to the Football Championship Subdivision's most outstanding offensive player. Peterson, a four-time All-American who finished his career as the NCAA Division I leader in rushing yards with 6,559, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in December 2017.
 
Furman's Louis Ivory earned the Walter Payton Award in 2000, giving the SoCon consecutive winners, while Georgia Southern's Jayson Foster was presented with the 2007 trophy and Appalachian State quarterback Armanti Edwards became the first two-time winner in Payton Award history, claiming the honors in 2008 and 2009 to make it three consecutive years a SoCon player took home the award.
 
Record-breaking quarterback Devlin Hodges of Samford became the Southern Conference's most recent Walter Payton Award winner in 2018, when the senior was also named the FCS ADA Offensive Player of the Year. The consensus All-American, who led the FCS in passing yards and completion percentage that season, wrapped up his career with FCS records for passing yardage (14,584), pass attempts and completions.
 
The league saw a pair of former players enter the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018, as former Chattanooga standout Terrell Owens and Marshall star Randy Moss, who enjoyed a record-breaking freshman year in the SoCon, earned the nod.
 
Appalachian State's Dexter Coakley was a three-time all-conference selection and consensus All-American in 1994, '95 and '96 before going on to stardom with the Dallas Cowboys. Coakley won a pair of Buck Buchanan Awards, given to Football Championship Subdivision's top defensive player each year.

In 2020-21, VMI coach Scott Wachenheim became the Southern Conference's fifth winner of the Eddie Robinson Award, joining The Citadel's Charlie Taaffe (1992), Georgia Southern's Paul Johnson (1998), Wofford's Mike Ayers (2003) and App State's Moore (2006).

Western Carolina's David Patten and Appalachian State's Matt Stevens were both members of the New England Patriots' Super Bowl champion team in 2002 and Patten also earned Super Bowl rings with the Patriots in 2004 and '05. Appalachian State's Daniel Kilgore appeared in Super Bowl XLVII for the San Francisco 49ers in 2013. Chattanooga's Keionta Davis was a member of the Patriots' organization for New England's appearance in Super Bowl LII in 2018, while Davis and Western Carolina's Keion Crossen were teammates for the Super Bowl LIII-winning Patriots in 2019. Former Samford safety Jaquiski Tartt played in Super Bowl LIV for the 49ers in 2020.
 
Basketball
The 2020 edition of the tournament was the 100th in league history. Top-seeded ETSU downed Wofford 72-58 in the historic title game.
 
Not only was the Southern Conference tournament the first of its kind, but the league also helped change the face of college basketball. In 1980, the league began a season-long experiment with a 22-foot 3-point field goal with the approval of the NCAA Rules Committee. Ronnie Carr of Western Carolina made the first 3-point field goal in college basketball history in a game against Middle Tennessee State on Nov. 29, 1980.
 
Another college basketball tradition that originated in the Southern Conference is the traditional cutting of the nets by the winning team in important tournaments. According to USA Today, the practice of net-cutting originated in 1947 with NC State head coach Everett Case. As a first-year head coach, Case led the Wolfpack to the Southern Conference tournament title. Case celebrated by claiming the nets as souvenirs to commemorate the event. Basketball coaching legend Red Auerbach gave credit to former George Washington coach Bill Reinhart, who coached in the conference for nearly 30 years, as one of the originators of the modern fast break.
 
West Virginia's 10 tournament championships rank as the second-most in league history behind Davidson's 12. The Mountaineers were led by the incomparable Jerry West from 1958 through 1960. West, a two-time All-America selection, spurred West Virginia to the Final Four in 1959. The Mountaineers lost in the championship game that season to California, 71-70, but West earned Final Four Most Valuable Player honors. West was a three-time Southern Conference tournament MVP, a two-time league regular-season MVP, and was twice named the conference's Athlete of the Year. He went on to a spectacular career with the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979. A 14-time NBA All-Star while with the Lakers, it is West whose silhouette comprises the NBA's globally recognized logo.
 
Frank Selvy set the NCAA record for points in a game while at Furman. On Feb. 13, 1954, the senior scored 100 points in a game against Newberry, a record that still stands. Selvy was the Southern Conference Most Valuable Player in 1953 and 1954 and the league's Athlete of the Year in 1954. He went on to a 10-year career in the NBA. Selvy and his former Lakers teammate West were both enshrined in the league's Hall of Fame in 2009.
 
Rod Hundley was another West Virginia star during the 1950s. "Hot Rod" made a name for himself as one of the most spectacular players to tour the league during his era. Hundley averaged 24.5 points per game in his three seasons as a Mountaineer and was an all-conference and all-tournament performer in each of those three years. After being named the Southern Conference Most Valuable Player and Athlete of the Year as a senior in 1957, he was the first player selected in the NBA Draft that year and enjoyed a six-year career in that league. He was inducted into the SoCon Hall of Fame in 2010. Rod Thorn was yet another Mountaineer to earn inclusion in the SoCon Hall of Fame, as he was inducted in 2020. A two-time league athlete of the year, Thorn was the No. 2 selection in the 1963 NBA Draft, enjoying an eight-year playing career before transitioning to coaching and then the front office. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as an executive and a contributor in 2018.
 
ETSU's Keith "Mister" Jennings made his mark on the college basketball world in the early 1990s. Despite standing less than 6 feet tall, Jennings was a two-time all-conference choice and the league's Player of the Year and Athlete of the Year in 1991. Jennings played with the Golden State Warriors of the NBA and was inducted into the SoCon Hall of Fame in 2016.
 
Besides West Virginia's team in 1959, the Southern Conference has been represented in the Final Four on two other occasions. North Carolina advanced to the NCAA championship game in 1943 before falling 43-40 to Oklahoma State. NC State finished third in the tournament in 1950.
 
Davidson continued the record of success by advancing to the NCAA tournament's Elite Eight in 2008 as coach Bob McKillop's Wildcats came within a basket of making the Final Four behind the play of sophomore guard Stephen Curry. Curry, a two-time SoCon Male Athlete of the Year winner, led the nation in scoring as a junior at 28.6 points per game and has gone on to star for the NBA's Golden State Warriors, earning league MVP honors twice and leading the Warriors to NBA titles in 2015, 2017 and 2018. He was also inducted into the SoCon Hall of Fame in 2016.
 
The Southern Conference was back in the national spotlight in 2018-19, with Furman and Wofford both spending time in the national rankings to give the league multiple ranked teams in the same season for the first time since 1960. Both squads earned their first-ever rankings from the Associated Press that season, with the Terriers riding a 20-game winning streak into the NCAA tournament before picking up a first-round win over Seton Hall, their first in school history in NCAA postseason play. Wofford's Fletcher Magee would set the NCAA Division I career record for 3-pointers made in that first-round win, finishing his career with 509.
 
In 2019-20, ETSU would go 30-4 overall en route to SoCon regular-season and tournament titles, becoming just the fourth team in league history to reach the 30-win plateau. The Bucs joined the 1945-46 North Carolina (30-5), 1950-51 NC State (30-7) and 2018-19 Wofford (30-5) squads in the exclusive club.
 
The league's ascent continued in 2020-21, as SoCon squads combined to finish ninth in the RPI and 10th in the NET Rankings. Six of the conference's 10 squads were ranked in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 for at least three weeks of the season.

Women's basketball competition began in the Southern Conference in 1983-84 with seven teams. In the sport's history, eight schools have won the league's tournament at least once, with Chattanooga winning 18 and Appalachian State owning six titles. UNCG won the 1998 tournament as head coach Lynne Agee – who in 2020 became the first UNCG representative in the SoCon Hall of Fame – became the first coach to take a team to the NCAA tournament in all three divisions. In 2001, Chattanooga head coach Wes Moore became the first coach in NCAA history to take three different teams to the NCAA tournament in all three divisions. After Moore's departure to helm NC State following the 2012-13 season, Chattanooga hired coach Jim Foster, who was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in June 2013.
 
Since 1984, 10 different teams have claimed at least a share of the regular-season crown. Chattanooga has the most overall titles with 22, nine of them shared. Chattanooga also owns the most outright championships with 13. Mercer won its fourth SoCon tournament title in five seasons in 2022.

In 2018, Mercer guard Kahlia Lawrence became the only player in SoCon history to win the Player of the Year award three times. Only six others have done it twice: ETSU's DeShawne Blocker (1993 and 1995), Furman's Jackie Smith (1998 and 1999), Chattanooga's Damita Bullock (2000 and 2001), Alex Anderson (2007 and 2008) and Shanara Hollinquest (2009 and 2010) and Davidson's Sophia Aleksandravicius (2012 and 2013).
 
Other sports
In baseball, Wake Forest advanced to the championship game of the NCAA College World Series in 1949. The Citadel made history in 1990 by becoming the first military school to make an appearance at the College World Series. The Bulldogs were joined that season at the College World Series by future conference member Georgia Southern.
 
One of the Southern Conference's more famous baseball alums is Duke's Dick Groat. The Blue Devil shortstop, who was also a basketball standout, was the conference's Athlete of the Year in 1951 and 1952. He went on to a 14-year career in the major leagues and was named the National League MVP in 1960 after leading the league with a .325 batting average for the World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates.
 
Among Southern Conference alums to grace Major League Baseball fields have been Atlee Hammaker (ETSU), Jeff Montgomery (Marshall), Mike Ramsey (Appalachian State) and Wayne Tolleson (Western Carolina). Other SoCon players to go on to play in the major leagues include third baseman Dallas McPherson (The Citadel), who played for the Anaheim/Los Angeles Angels, the Florida Marlins and the Chicago White Sox; pitchers Britt Reames (The Citadel) and Ryan Glynn (VMI), who both pitched with the Oakland A's in 2005; Furman's Tom Mastny, a pitcher with the Cleveland Indians (2007); College of Charleston's Graham Godfrey, who pitched for Oakland in 2011 and 2012; Georgia Southern's Everett Teaford, a pitcher with Kansas City from 2011-13; The Citadel's Chris McGuiness, who made his MLB debut with the Texas Rangers in 2013; and Western Carolina's Jared Burton, who played for Cincinnati and Minnesota in a career that spanned seven years (2007-14). The Catamounts' Tyler White, who made his MLB debut with the Houston Astros in April 2016, earned a World Series ring in 2017.
 
Several other SoCon alumni have played in the majors in the last decade, including College of Charleston's Brett Gardner, who earned a World Series ring with the New York Yankees in 2009, and Michael Kohn (Atlanta Braves); The Citadel's Asher Wojciechowski (Houston Astros); Western Carolina right-handed pitcher Greg Holland, a three-time All-Star who helped the Kansas City Royals to the 2014 AL pennant and their first World Series appearance since 1985, saving Game 3; and Wofford's John Cornely, who debuted with the Atlanta Braves in April 2015. Three SoCon alums made their debuts in 2017: Samford's Phillip Ervin with the Cincinnati Reds, UNCG's Max Povse with the Seattle Mariners and Elon's John Brebbia with the St. Louis Cardinals. Former UNCG pitcher Andrew Wantz was called up by the Los Angeles Angels in July 2021 and former Citadel pitcher JP Sears made his debut for the New York Yankees in 2022. Two former VMI Keydets that played in the SoCon also made their MLB debuts in 2022, with Josh Winder (Minnesota Twins) and Nathan Eaton (Kansas City Royals) seeing action.
 

In the summer of 2016, Mercer's Kyle Lewis made league history, becoming the highest-ever SoCon draft pick when he was selected 11th overall by the Seattle Mariners in the MLB First-Year Player Draft. The SoCon's first Golden Spikes Award winner, Lewis was a starter for the All-Star Futures Game in 2018 and made his major league debut on Sept. 10, 2019, with a home run off Trevor Bauer of the Cincinnati Reds. He would go on to be the unanimous winner of the American League Rookie of the Year award in 2020, claiming all 30 first-place votes from the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
 
Legendary golfer Arnold Palmer competed under the Southern Conference banner as a collegian at Wake Forest. He took medalist honors at the Southern Conference tournament in 1948 and 1949 and was the tournament's runner-up in 1950. Palmer was the medalist at the NCAA Golf Championships in 1949 and 1950. He went on to become one of the most accomplished golfers to play on the professional tour. Palmer won 62 tournaments while competing on the PGA Tour and added 10 more victories as a member of the Senior PGA Tour. A member of the SoCon Hall of Fame, he won eight major championships – four Masters, two British Opens, one U.S. Open and one U.S. Amateur.

Chattanooga's Stephen Jaeger was the 2012 champion at the NCAA Bowling Green Regional and has played in a pair of U.S. Opens, in 2015 and 2017. Chattanooga's Steven Fox won the U.S. Amateur in 2012, going on to play in the 2013 Masters, U.S. Open and Arnold Palmer Invitational, among other PGA Tour events. ETSU's Adrian Meronk represented Europe in the Palmer Cup in 2015 and 2016, becoming the first Polish player to do so, and helped the European side to the title in 2016. He would go on to be the first Polish men's golfer in Olympic history at the 2020 Tokyo Games and in the summer of 2022, became the first Polish player to win on the DP Tour (formerly known as the European Tour) when he claimed the Irish Open. Wofford alum William McGirt won the Memorial Tournament in June 2016 for his first PGA Tour win, while Western Carolina's J.T. Poston, a two-time SoCon medalist and now a PGA TOUR member, made his major debut at the U.S. Open in June 2017 and won his first professional tournament in 2019, claiming the Wyndham Championship. He would add the John Deere Classic in 2022, fittingly winning the same day that Meronk won the Irish Open. Poston and Meronk overlapped in the SoCon for one year, with Poston topping Meronk in a playoff for the SoCon Championship individual title in 2015.

Furman golfer Dottie Pepper was named the Southern Conference Women's Athlete of the Decade in the 1980s and was honored as part of the league's 25th anniversary of women's championships celebration in 2007-08. The Paladins' Brandi Jackson won the NCAA Women's Golf East Regional in the spring of 2003, and most recently, Furman's Natalie Srinivasan was named the WGCA PING National Player of the Year and won the ANNIKA Award and the inaugural Juli Inkster Senior Award in 2020.
 
In track and field, Appalachian State's Mary Jayne Harrelson won NCAA outdoor titles in the 1,500-meter run in 1999 and 2001, while UNCG's Paul Chelimo posted runner-up finishes in the outdoor 5,000 meters in 2012 and 2013 and won a silver medal for the United States in the 5,000 meters at the Olympic Games in Rio in the summer of 2016. Samford's Karisa Nelson made history in March 2017, becoming the Bulldogs' first Division I national champion when she won the mile run at the NCAA indoor championships.
 
Coaches and administrators
The Southern Conference has also been a breeding ground for some of college athletics' most recognized coaches and administrators.

Legendary basketball coaches Adolph Rupp of Kentucky and Everett Case of NC State both worked the sidelines in the Southern Conference. Rupp guided the Wildcats to a 30-5 mark during the 1931 and 1932 seasons. Yet, for all his coaching accomplishments, Rupp never led Kentucky to a Southern Conference tournament championship. Case mentored the Wolfpack to six consecutive Southern Conference tournament championships from 1947 through 1952.

West Virginia's Fred Schaus, who was named the Southern Conference Coach of the Year four times from 1954-60 and led the Mountaineers to SoCon tournament titles in all six seasons, would go on to be the first head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers after the team relocated from Minneapolis.
 
Lefty Driesell coached Davidson to Southern Conference tournament championships in 1966, 1968 and 1969. Driesell also won the league's Coach of the Year award four straight times from 1963 through 1966. Former Georgia Tech coach Bobby Cremins earned league Coach of the Year honors three times in the late '70s and early '80s while at Appalachian State and again in 2010-11 as the head coach at the College of Charleston.
 
Terry Holland saw his basketball coaching career take off at Davidson when he returned to his alma mater in 1970. Holland was honored as the Southern Conference Coach of the Year for three consecutive seasons from 1970-72 and led the Wildcats to the conference tournament title and an appearance in the NCAA tournament in 1970. J. Dallas Shirley, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, spent 21 years as the assistant to the commissioner and supervisor of officials in the Southern Conference. He also served as president of the International Association of Basketball Officials and the United States Olympic Basketball Committee.
 
The legendary Paul "Bear" Bryant got his coaching start in the Southern Conference as he guided the Maryland Terrapins in 1945. Another famous Southern Conference football coach is the late Frank Howard of Clemson, who guided the Tigers as a league member from 1940-52. The incomparable Howard won 69 Southern Conference games.

Bobby Ross, who piloted the San Diego Chargers to the 1996 Super Bowl, was the head coach at The Citadel from 1973-77. Former Buffalo Bills head coach Marv Levy, who coached the Bills in four Super Bowls, directed former league member William & Mary from 1964-68 and was succeeded there by Lou Holtz. The Carolina Panthers, then owned by Wofford alum Jerry Richardson and with former Wofford athletic director and SoCon commissioner Danny Morrison serving as team president, played in Super Bowl 50.