Talk:Gulf South Conference

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I deleted this material from the category page-- it looked like a copyvio, but the facts can be taken and reworked for this article. - choster 01:35, 12 January 2006 (UTC)

The GULF SOUTH CONFERENCE (GSC) begins its 35th year of excellence, continuing a tradition of growth and success that has brought it distinction as one of the elite NCAA Division II conferences. With 17 universities in six southeastern states, the GSC is the largest playing Conference in Division II.

GSC members feature comprehensive athletic programs that compete for 14 official conference championships: football, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, women’s volleyball, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball, men’s and women’s tennis and men’s and women’s golf.

We take pride in our 38 National Team Championships in 12 sports and the emphasis on academic success by our coaches and student-athletes. The 2003-04 season was a banner campaign for the GSC, which claimed its first-ever National Championships in Women’s Volleyball (North Alabama) and Men’s Tennis (West Florida). Delta State capped it off by winning its first-ever national crown in baseball, the fifth time a GSC school has captured the Title.

Originally known as the Mid-South Conference, the GSC was formed by six universities in the summer of 1970: Delta State, Florence State (now North Alabama), Jacksonville State, Livingston (now West Alabama), Tennessee-Martin and Troy State. Scheduling problems for the 1970-71 academic year limited the league to football, won by Jacksonville State.

In 1971, the league changed its name to the GULF SOUTH CONFERENCE, added Southeastern Louisiana (SELA) and Nicholls State (increasing the membership to eight), opened an office in Hammond, LA, and began championships in all men’s sports. The following year, Mississippi College and Northwestern Louisiana (NWLA, now Northwestern State) were admitted. NELA withdrew to go Division I two years later, followed by SELA and Nicholls State in 1979.

The conference continued with seven teams until 1981, when the presidents admitted Valdosta State. West Georgia joined in 1983. Eight years of stability ended in 1991 when Tennessee-Martin and Troy State went Division I, briefly dropping the GSC back to seven members, before the beginning of an expansion resulting in ten new members: Lincoln Memorial (1992-93); Alabama-Huntsville, Henderson State, Central Arkansas and Mississippi University for Women (1993-94); West Florida (1994-95); and Arkansas-Monticello, Arkansas Tech, Montevallo and Southern Arkansas (1995-96). Jacksonville State went Division I at the end of 1992-93. Mississippi College dropped to Division III at the end of 1995-96, and was replaced by Christian Brothers to keep the Conference at 16 schools. In July 2000, the GSC welcomed Harding University and Ouachita Baptist University, making it the largest NCAA conference at any level with 18 schools. The Conference membership decreased to 17 when MUW dropped its athletics program at the end of the 2002-03 season.

Former Commissioner Jim McCullough moved the GSC office to its present Birmingham location. The current Commissioner, Nathan (Nate) N. Salant, has been in office since October, 1992. He is assisted by Sports Information Director Michael Anderson, Assistant Sports Information Director Tim Andrzejewski, Office Manager Mary Jean Box and Assistant to the Commissioner Andrea Nguyen. The Chairman of the GSC Board of Directors is Dr. Robert McChesney (University of Montevallo). Joining him on the executive committee are past-Chair Dr. Robert Brown (Arkansas Tech University) and Vice Chair Dr. Andy Westmoreland (Ouachita Baptist University). The Supervisors of Officials are Bill Johnson (Football), Mike Murphy (Basketball-East Division) and John Caldwell (Basketball-West Division).

[edit] Logos

There is a discussion to clarify our policy/guideline on the use of sports team logos. Please see Wikipedia_talk:Logos#Clarification_on_use_of_sports_team_logos if you wish to participate in the discussion. Johntex\^talk 16:26, 4 August 2006 (UTC)