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Get to Know a College Basketball Mid-Major: Southern Conference
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Get to Know a College Basketball Mid-Major: Southern Conference

#Southern Conference #March Madness #mid-major #conference tournament #3-point line #automatic bid #ETSU #SoCon

📌 Key Takeaways

  • The Southern Conference is a historic mid-major conference founded in 1921, with 10 teams across six southern states.
  • All 10 teams qualify for both men's and women's conference tournaments, with the top six seeds receiving byes to the quarterfinals.
  • The conference pioneered the 3-point line in college basketball in 1980 and includes two schools (The Citadel and VMI) without women's basketball programs.
  • The only path to March Madness for SoCon teams is via the automatic bid, as none are considered bubble teams for at-large selections.

📖 Full Retelling

You know all about the Power 5 conferences in college basketball. You hear about those more than any other, and those groups often dominate the March Madness conversation. There are 26 other conferences out there, however, and our goal is to get you up to speed on the teams, players and fights in the standings to know before the conference tournaments, Selection Sunday and the official start of March Madness. It’s time for you to get to know a mid-major: this time, it’s the Southern Conference. The Southern Conference is an old one, forming all the way back in 1921. It remains entirely in the southern United States, with schools in Alabama, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. There are 10 teams in the conference — 11 in the 2026-2027 academic year — and all 10 of them will make the men’s and women’s basketball conference tournaments. Fun Southern Conference fact: it was the first conference to implement the 3-point line and shot in college basketball, all the way back in 1980. And another fun Southern Conference fact: there are 365 men’s college basketball teams in Division I, and just 363 women’s programs. The missing two are both thanks to SoCon: The Citadel and VMI do not sponsor women’s basketball, and both only began to admit women students in the 1990s. And a final fact: the automatic bid is the only way that a men’s or women’s team from SoCon is going to participate in March Madness, as none of the teams are anywhere near the bubble. Southern — Men’s College Basketball Leaders: The field is already set for the men’s Southern tournament. The top six seeds get a bye to the quarterfinals, while the bottom four have a play-in first round. What this means is that the top two seeds, East Tennessee and Wofford, are waiting for the winners of Chattanooga vs. The Citadel and UNC Greensboro vs. VMI, while Samford (3) takes on Furman (6), and Mercer (4) faces off against Western Carolina (5). ETSU is not just the 1-seed, but is also SoCon’s

🏷️ Themes

College Basketball, Mid-Major Conferences

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American collegiate athletic conference

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Original Source
- No Data Available - BROWSE BY SPORTS & TEAMS PLAYERS SHOWS PERSONALITIES TOPICS Built on College Basketball College Basketball Get to Know a College Basketball Mid-Major: Southern Conference Published Mar. 5, 2026 2:20 p.m. ET share facebook x reddit link You know all about the Power 5 conferences in college basketball. You hear about those more than any other, and those groups often dominate the March Madness conversation. There are 26 other conferences out there, however, and our goal is to get you up to speed on the teams, players and fights in the standings to know before the conference tournaments, Selection Sunday and the official start of March Madness. It’s time for you to get to know a mid-major: this time, it’s the Southern Conference. The Southern Conference is an old one, forming all the way back in 1921. It remains entirely in the southern United States, with schools in Alabama , Virginia , North Carolina, South Carolina , Tennessee and Georgia . There are 10 teams in the conference — 11 in the 2026-2027 academic year — and all 10 of them will make the men’s and women’s basketball conference tournaments. Fun Southern Conference fact: it was the first conference to implement the 3-point line and shot in college basketball, all the way back in 1980. And another fun Southern Conference fact: there are 365 men’s college basketball teams in Division I, and just 363 women’s programs. The missing two are both thanks to SoCon: The Citadel and VMI do not sponsor women’s basketball, and both only began to admit women students in the 1990s. And a final fact: the automatic bid is the only way that a men’s or women’s team from SoCon is going to participate in March Madness, as none of the teams are anywhere near the bubble. Southern — Men’s College Basketball Leaders: Points Per Game: Jadin Booth, Samford, 21.2 Rebounds Per Game: Justin Neely, UNC Greensboro, 11.4 (3rd in D-I) Assists Per Game: Baraka Okojie, Mercer, 5.4 Steals Per Game: Kahmare Holmes, Wofford, 2...
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