Lets take a look back at Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association which was replaced by the Southern Conference. Lets take a look at the first bunch. 72 total different members before disbanded.

Alabama 1895–1917, 1919–1921
Auburn 1895–1921
Centenary, Louisiana 1925–1941 D3
Central University merged into Centre in 1901 1896-1897, 1899-1900
Centre 1929–1941 D3
Chattanooga 1914–1916, 1919–1932 Wow, they were in the same conference as some SEC teams.
The Citadel 1908–1935
Clemson 1896–1921
Cumberland 1896–1907 NAIA
Davidson 1902, 1906
Delta State 1936–1941 D2
Emory and Henry 1936–1941 D3
Erskine 1923–1941 D2
Florida 1912–1917, 1919–1921
Furman 1902–1904, 1906–1910, 1914–1929, 1932–1935
Georgetown, Kentucky 1915–1916, 1919–1941 NAIA
Georgia 1895–1916, 1919–1921
Georgia Tech 1896–1900,[17] 1902–1913, 1916–1921
Howard College (Samford) 1909–1912, 1914–1917, 1919–1931
Jacksonville State 1939–1940
Johns Hopkins 1894 D3
Kentucky Wesleyan 1925–1930 D2
Kentucky 1896[9]–1904, 1911–1916, 1919–1921
Louisiana College 1922–1941 D3
LSU 1896–1917, 1919–1921
La. Tech 1925–1942
Louisville 1914–1941
Loyola, New Orleans 1925, 1930–1937 NAIA
Memphis State 1935–1942
Mercer 1896–1937
Miami Florida 1929–1942
Middle Tennessee State 1931–1942
Millsaps 1908–1909, 1913–1938 D3
Ole Miss. 1898–1921
Mississippi A&M 1896–1921 Miss. State
Mississippi College 1910–1917, 1919–1941 D2
Morehead State 1934–1942
Murray State 1931–1942
Nashville closed in 1909 1896–1900 1902–1908
Newberry 1922–1942 D2
UNC 1894 and 1901
NW La. State 1928–1941
Oglethorpe 1920–1925
Presbyterian 1921–1942
Rollins 1925–1942 D2
South Carolina 1915–1921
Florida Southern 1925–1930 D2
Southern Miss. 1928–1941
Birmingham University (Birmingham Southern) 1901–1912; 1930–1931 D3
Southwestern Louisiana (Lafayette) 1925–1942
Southwestern Presbyterian (Rhodes) 1896–1900, 1902–1903 D3
Spring Hill 1927–1931 D2
Stetson 1925–1931, 1933–1940
Tampa 1936–1942 D2
Tennessee 1897–1916, 1919–1921
Tennessee Tech 1933–1942
Texas A&M 1903–1906, 1912–1914
Texas 1896–1906
Transylvania 1914–1916, 1919–1924, 1926–1941 D3
Trinity College (Duke) 1903-1912
Troy State 1936-1942
Tulane 1896-1906, 1911–1917, 1919–1921
Union Kentucky 1933–1941 NAIA
Union Tennessee 1925–1942 D2
Sewanee 1895–1900, 1902–1924 D3
Vanderbilt 1895–1924
Virginia 1894
Western Kentucky 1921–1942
Wofford 1903–1942

Founding members were Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Johns Hopkins, UNC, Sewanee, Vanderbilt and Virginia.

You got to wonder where some of these schools would be today if they have not dropped football, or dropped down levels.

Could you imagine what following realignment was like back then?

Helps explain why so many small Southern schools have delusions of grandeur.

Never understood a school like Presbyterian having DI scholarship football, but it played the big boys back in the day.

Are there any archived message boards from 1894-1942 to follow what people were saying about realignment then?

(04-28-2018 10:56 AM)NoDak Wrote:  Helps explain why so many small Southern schools have delusions of grandeur.

Never understood a school like Presbyterian having DI scholarship football, but it played the big boys back in the day.

the big boys usually start out small afterall.

Rutgers for example started out as Queens College in 1766 and eventually transitioned from an Ivy League type of colonial religious/private institution to a public one a hundred years later when they got the land grant over rival Princeton. The past 70 years saw Rutgers become the official state U of NJ and the university system has rapidly been consolidating power within the state.

I think the Gulf Coast Conference in D2 added Mississippi College recently to beat off the threat of Delta State bolting to D1 and Southland Conference. Delta State was an outlier in the conference, and they are closer to the D1 schools in Louisiana and Mississippi then they are now in D2. They seemed to be still a D1 target if the Southland Conference splits in 2.

Erskine, Tampa, Rollins, Oglethorpe and Union Tennessee all had news articles about them looking at restarting their football programs. Tampa denied the reports, and Oglethorpe past on the football. No word from the other three schools. Rollins does play club football that takes on the club team from Clemson and them.