The Gulf Star was a short lived DI conference consisting of Sam Houston St, Stephen F Austin, (SW) Texas St, NW State, Nichols St and SE Louisiana from 1984-87. It was much easier then to qualify as a full fledged DI conference after moving up from DII.

Was it just a moveup reclassification conference (formed to get a conference schedule) or did it get an auto-bid and was it intended to be a competition for the Southland? Most of that conference gained admission to the Southland, which had just lost SW La, Ark St, Lamar, and La Tech when most of the Gulf Star was added. Nichols St and SE Louisiana became independents for a time and SE La dropped football only to restart it.

Didn’t realize that Texas St has only been in DI a relatively short time.

(08-11-2018 03:29 AM)NoDak Wrote:  The Gulf Star was a short lived DI conference consisting of Sam Houston St, Stephen F Austin, (SW) Texas St, NW State, Nichols St and SE Louisiana from 1984-87. It was much easier then to qualify as a full fledged DI conference after moving up from DII.

Was it just a moveup reclassification conference (formed to get a conference schedule) or did it get an auto-bid and was it intended to be a competition for the Southland? Most of that conference gained admission to the Southland, which had just lost SW La, Ark St, Lamar, and La Tech when most of the Gulf Star was added. Nichols St and SE Louisiana became independents for a time and SE La dropped football only to restart it.

Didn’t realize that Texas St has only been in DI a relatively short time.

I remember the Gulf Star Conference. They never had an auto-bid. It would be safe to say that it was a move-up conference.

Sam Houston, SFA, and (SW) Texas State are historically sister schools and moved up together. Texas State has since outgrown the other two.

Northwestern State is a traditional nearby rival to SFA. In football, they play for a statue of Chief Caddo. The Caddo tribe originally settled both Natchitoches and Nacogdoches.

(08-11-2018 08:32 AM)johnintx Wrote:  

(08-11-2018 03:29 AM)NoDak Wrote:  The Gulf Star was a short lived DI conference consisting of Sam Houston St, Stephen F Austin, (SW) Texas St, NW State, Nichols St and SE Louisiana from 1984-87. It was much easier then to qualify as a full fledged DI conference after moving up from DII.

Was it just a moveup reclassification conference (formed to get a conference schedule) or did it get an auto-bid and was it intended to be a competition for the Southland? Most of that conference gained admission to the Southland, which had just lost SW La, Ark St, Lamar, and La Tech when most of the Gulf Star was added. Nichols St and SE Louisiana became independents for a time and SE La dropped football only to restart it.

Didn’t realize that Texas St has only been in DI a relatively short time.

I remember the Gulf Star Conference. They never had an auto-bid. It would be safe to say that it was a move-up conference.

Sam Houston, SFA, and (SW) Texas State are historically sister schools and moved up together. Texas State has since outgrown the other two.

Northwestern State is a traditional nearby rival to SFA. In football, they play for a statue of Chief Caddo. The Caddo tribe originally settled both Natchitoches and Nacogdoches.

Thanks. Thought Lamar had more history with Sam Houston and SF Austin. Didn’t realize that Texas St was part of that triangle.

(08-11-2018 07:56 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(08-11-2018 08:32 AM)johnintx Wrote:  

(08-11-2018 03:29 AM)NoDak Wrote:  The Gulf Star was a short lived DI conference consisting of Sam Houston St, Stephen F Austin, (SW) Texas St, NW State, Nichols St and SE Louisiana from 1984-87. It was much easier then to qualify as a full fledged DI conference after moving up from DII.

Was it just a moveup reclassification conference (formed to get a conference schedule) or did it get an auto-bid and was it intended to be a competition for the Southland? Most of that conference gained admission to the Southland, which had just lost SW La, Ark St, Lamar, and La Tech when most of the Gulf Star was added. Nichols St and SE Louisiana became independents for a time and SE La dropped football only to restart it.

Didn’t realize that Texas St has only been in DI a relatively short time.

I remember the Gulf Star Conference. They never had an auto-bid. It would be safe to say that it was a move-up conference.

Sam Houston, SFA, and (SW) Texas State are historically sister schools and moved up together. Texas State has since outgrown the other two.

Northwestern State is a traditional nearby rival to SFA. In football, they play for a statue of Chief Caddo. The Caddo tribe originally settled both Natchitoches and Nacogdoches.

Thanks. Thought Lamar had more history with Sam Houston and SF Austin. Didn’t realize that Texas St was part of that triangle.

Lamar, Texas State, and Sam Houston are all part of the Texas State University System. SFA was formerly part of it. Lamar has been in D-I longer. They were making NCAA tournament runs in the late 70's-early 80's from the Southland Conference. Billy Tubbs coached there before moving to OU. According to Wikipedia, Lamar moved to D-I with the Southland in 1973. They later moved to the American South and Sun Belt before moving back to the Southland Conference. They also dropped football in 1989 before bringing it back in 2010.

My cousin played golf at Sam Houston. He transferred there from a junior college in the early 80's. When he was there, they were in NAIA for a year, then moved to D-II his senior year. They weren't in D-II long before moving to D-I. SFA is their blood rival, and made the move with them and SW Texas State.

Sam Houston, SFA, and Texas State were long-time members of the Lone Star Conference, and moved from the NAIA to D-II with the conference in 1982. The three left the Lone Star in 1983 as they moved to D-I.

These days, Lamar is more tied athletically to Sam Houston and SFA.

(08-11-2018 08:31 PM)johnintx Wrote:  

(08-11-2018 07:56 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(08-11-2018 08:32 AM)johnintx Wrote:  

(08-11-2018 03:29 AM)NoDak Wrote:  The Gulf Star was a short lived DI conference consisting of Sam Houston St, Stephen F Austin, (SW) Texas St, NW State, Nichols St and SE Louisiana from 1984-87. It was much easier then to qualify as a full fledged DI conference after moving up from DII.

Was it just a moveup reclassification conference (formed to get a conference schedule) or did it get an auto-bid and was it intended to be a competition for the Southland? Most of that conference gained admission to the Southland, which had just lost SW La, Ark St, Lamar, and La Tech when most of the Gulf Star was added. Nichols St and SE Louisiana became independents for a time and SE La dropped football only to restart it.

Didn’t realize that Texas St has only been in DI a relatively short time.

I remember the Gulf Star Conference. They never had an auto-bid. It would be safe to say that it was a move-up conference.

Sam Houston, SFA, and (SW) Texas State are historically sister schools and moved up together. Texas State has since outgrown the other two.

Northwestern State is a traditional nearby rival to SFA. In football, they play for a statue of Chief Caddo. The Caddo tribe originally settled both Natchitoches and Nacogdoches.

Thanks. Thought Lamar had more history with Sam Houston and SF Austin. Didn’t realize that Texas St was part of that triangle.

Lamar, Texas State, and Sam Houston are all part of the Texas State University System. SFA was formerly part of it. Lamar has been in D-I longer. They were making NCAA tournament runs in the late 70's-early 80's from the Southland Conference. Billy Tubbs coached there before moving to OU. According to Wikipedia, Lamar moved to D-I with the Southland in 1973. They later moved to the American South and Sun Belt before moving back to the Southland Conference. They also dropped football in 1989 before bringing it back in 2010.

My cousin played golf at Sam Houston. He transferred there from a junior college in the early 80's. When he was there, they were in NAIA for a year, then moved to D-II his senior year. They weren't in D-II long before moving to D-I. SFA is their blood rival, and made the move with them and SW Texas State.

Sam Houston, SFA, and Texas State were long-time members of the Lone Star Conference, and moved from the NAIA to D-II with the conference in 1982. The three left the Lone Star in 1983 as they moved to D-I.

These days, Lamar is more tied athletically to Sam Houston and SFA.

Great info!

Why did the American South teams break away from the Southland?

It couldn’t have been football, as UNO and UTPA didn’t even play it. Ark St, La Tech, La-La, and Lamar may have some good reasons, but it not very clear. It appears to be for basketball reasons, but Fb is much more important to those last four.

(08-11-2018 09:33 PM)NoDak Wrote:  Great info!

Why did the American South teams break away from the Southland?

It couldn’t have been football, as UNO and UTPA didn’t even play it. Ark St, La Tech, La-La, and Lamar may have some good reasons, but it not very clear. It appears to be for basketball reasons, but Fb is much more important to those last four.

I don't know the official or unofficial reason. I know the American South was a pretty good basketball conference. It was 1987. La Tech had just made noise in the tournament with Karl Malone, UNO was at its highest point, UL-L had a good history, and Lamar wasn't far removed from their runs in the tournament. Those schools were spending more money on athletics than the other Southland schools. The American South merged with the Sun Belt in 1991 after the Sun Belt lost all but three members. The merged conference took the Sun Belt name.

Arkansas State, Lamar, and Louisiana Tech wanted a better hoops league and were getting tired of having to block the efforts of McNeese State, North Texas, and ULM to expand. There was constant agitation to add Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, SW Texas St, NW State (La) and then the whole business of UT-Arlington dropping football and staying was a point of contention

Just looked up Nicholas St on wiki. Has less than 6000 undergrads, less than $8.5 million endowment, 64% women, won one FCS playoff game in its history, relatively recent JC, culinary arts seems like a big major, and Louisiana always seems like in it is a crisis for higher education funding.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholls...University

But they are the only La school that is in DI that is in seemingly perpetual crisis. Northwestern St, ULM, Southeastern La, Grambing St, and Southern should all be DII schools as they all have pathetic endowments, low enrollments, little athletic interest except the Grambling vs Southern fb game. SeLa dropped FCS for a time only to bring it back. ULM is FBS in spite of less than a $25 million endowment and under 10k enrollment.

Louisiana DI schools should be LSU, La-La, Tulane, UNO, La Tech and maybe McNeese St just based on the costs involved. Centenary was a recent DI dropout. What’s with La that nearly every regional College seems to think DI is the place to be in spite of low finances?