For more than 40 years, the Big South Conference has been an exemplary leader in college athletics, dedicated to developing student-athletes through the pursuit of excellence in the classroom, community and field of play. The league’s growing presence as an NCAA Division I athletic conference is made evident by its multitude of athletic accomplishments, innovative marketing and media partnerships, increased television packages and most importantly, its commitment to fostering the academic, personal, social, athletic and leadership development of its student-athletes. Comprised of nine member institutions sharing a common geographic region and similar academic values and purposes, the Big South’s remarkable history of achievement is characterized by the league’s 19 championship sports and the profound academic and life successes of its more than 3,200 student-athletes. This has evolved into the conference’s “Where Winners Are Made” mantra as part of a strategic emphasis on the educational model of collegiate athletics that puts student-athletes at the center of the experience not only as competitors, but as scholars, leaders and future professionals.
The Big South Conference has experienced numerous athletic and academic accomplishments since its founding in 1983, including the following in the last 20 years:
• NCAA Baseball National Champion in 2016
• Nine individual National Champions
• Two top 10 finishes in the NCAA Men’s Golf Championship -- including fifth in 2007
• The No. 1 ranked team in the national polls in 2014 and 2015 (football)
• Reached the quarterfinals of the FCS Playoffs five times in a six-season span from 2013-18
• Multiple teams in the FCS playoffs five times since 2012
• Reached the NCAA “Sweet 16” in men’s soccer, women’s basketball, baseball and women’s lacrosse
• Four wins in both the NCAA Men’s Basketball and Women’s Basketball Tournaments
• Reached the NCAA Softball Regional Championship game five times
• Three Top 24 finishes in the NCAA Women’s Golf Championship since 2011
• The No. 1 seed in the NCAA Baseball Regionals four times, including the national No. 4 seed in 2010
• Three berths in the NCAA Baseball Super Regionals
• Multiple teams in the NCAA Baseball Regionals nine times
• Qualified three teams for NCAA postseason play in the same sport for the first time in 2016 (men’s soccer, men’s golf)
• Multiple postseason berths in at least four sports for five straight years from 2014-18
• First-ever appearance in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Women’s Tennis Doubles Championship
• Appearances in the round of 32 in the NCAA Men’s Singles Championship
• First All-Americans in men’s and women’s cross country, and men’s tennis
• No. 1-ranked collegiate men’s golfer (Dustin Johnson, 2007) and men’s tennis doubles team (Henry Patten & Oli Nolan, 2019)
• The first-ever national finalist for NCAA Woman of the Year
• A Big South-record 45 All-Americans in 2021-22
• A Big South-record 13 Academic All-Americans in 2003-04 and 2013-14
• A Big South-record 32 NCAA Public Recognition Awards for APR Success in 2019 and 2020
• A Big South-record 90 percent Graduation Success Rate in 2021 – sixth consecutive year at or above 85 percent
On April 24, 1983, Charleston Southern (then Baptist College) Athletic Director Howard Bagwell and Augusta President George Christenberry began recruiting members into the fledgling league, and less than four months later on August 21, the Big South Conference was formed when Augusta, Charleston Southern, Campbell, Coastal Carolina and Winthrop committed to the new conference. One month later, Dr. Edward M. Singleton was selected as the league’s first Commissioner and continued to solicit new members. His efforts led to the additions of Armstrong State, Radford and UNC Asheville, giving the Big South more than the required six members to constitute an official conference. The Big South’s first year of competition was in the Fall of 1984, and in September 1986, the Big South Conference was granted full-fledged NCAA Division I status.
During its infancy and prior to securing automatic bids to NCAA Championships, the Big South made early strides in earning at-large berths in several national postseason events, including volleyball, women’s basketball and women’s golf. In 1989, George F. “Buddy” Sasser replaced the retiring Dr. Singleton as Commissioner, and in 1990, the league received its first automatic bid -- an automatic qualifier to the NCAA Baseball Championship. Under Sasser’s seven years of leadership, the conference implemented its public relations and compliance programs, and introduced its first-ever men’s basketball television package.
In August 1996, Kyle B. Kallander replaced Sasser as the league’s third Commissioner, and in his 27 years at the helm of the Big South before retiring in June 2023, Kallander was instrumental in aggressively promoting the conference to unprecedented heights. During his tenure, men’s and women’s indoor track & field (1997), football (2002) and women’s lacrosse (2013) were added as sponsored sports. The conference also benefitted from record levels in marketing revenue, in addition to extensive television coverage for women’s basketball, baseball, softball, men’s and women’s soccer, volleyball and women’s lacrosse for the first time. The league as a whole enjoyed increased national television exposure through aggressive and unique television packages – including the women’s basketball championship game televised on a national linear network for the first time in 2022. Conference membership was solidified with double-digit full members for 14 consecutive years during his administration with the additions of High Point, Gardner-Webb, Presbyterian College, Longwood and USC Upstate. Kallander’s long range vision included technological advancements, as the conference introduced its first live streaming event in 2005 and has consistently provided video offerings of more than 900 annually through a partnership with the member institutions, as well as the creation of several online and social media platforms. Ongoing equipment upgrades have allowed these productions to reach linear television quality, while the emphasis on video integration has allowed the conference to expand its reach globally as well as serve as a model for peer conferences to emulate. Kallander also pushed initiatives around student-athlete wellness, such as an annual Health & Safety Summit that began in 2016, along with programs and services to address racial inequality and social injustice.
Under Kallander’s leadership, the Big South developed and initiated its first long-range strategic plan, re-affirming the league’s vision as a distinctive athletic conference committed to the quality of institutional life through athletic competition. An updated strategic plan was launched in 2015 with the objective to transform the Big South Conference into the premiere non-FBS conference in the Southeast. Five primary areas of focus were established: basketball success, media exposure, academic centrality, student-athlete experience and messaging/branding. In 2017, the league overhauled its identity with the most comprehensive rebrand in the 33-year history of the Big South Conference.
The rebrand included a new brand identity featuring a more favorable and distinctive color scheme, the introduction of a secondary logo and an extensive advertising campaign to enliven the conference’s distinct values, its roots in the Southeast region of the United States and its vision for the future. The foundation of the rebrand was built from the conference’s Live, Love and Life pillars, which are externally expressed through the conference’s “Where Winners Are Made” mantra. Crafted in collaboration with conference leadership and student-athletes, the tagline (and corresponding #BigSouthMade hashtag) embodies and affirms the Big South’s commitment to developing student-athletes for profound success through Division I collegiate athletics and transformative academics to achieve their full potential as students, athletes and citizens.
In April 2023, former Big South student-athlete and administrator Sherika A. Montgomery was named the successor to the retiring Kallander, and she began her tenure a month later on May 15 as the conference’s fourth Commissioner. In her two years of leadership, the Big South…
• Celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2023-24
• Elevated the student-athlete experience with ingenious approaches and enhancements to Conference Championships
• Had a student-athlete provide testimony before members of the U.S. House of Representatives as Radford volleyball player and Big South SAAC Chair Meredith Page presented during the “NIL Playbook: Proposal to Protect Student Athletes’ Dealmaking Rights” hearing of the House Innovation, Data and Commerce Subcommittee
• Had the women’s basketball championship televised on ESPN2 for the first time
• Had a men’s basketball program compete in the finals of a postseason event for the first time as High Point played for the championship of the 2024 College Basketball Invitational
• Sponsored the Atlantic Slam MTE, and will sponsor both the Atlantic Slam and Western Slam in 2024-25
• In 2023-24, just the third time in Big South history that every full-time member won a conference championship – but with the most members from a number standpoint (9)
• Helped facilitate a new enhanced agreement for the Big South-OVC Football Association that will provide an opportunity to extend the original partnership through 2030 and beyond
• Conducted the first-ever Individual Tennis Championships in Conference history in October 2024
• 18 total victories over power conference members in 2024-25, including a win over the nation’s No. 1-ranked men’s soccer program
• Has a total of eight sports with multiple NCAA postseason participants
• Multiple National Softball Freshman of the Year finalists for the first time in 2025
• Enjoyed a record 81.22 percentage of student-athletes maintaining a 3.0 grade point average for the 2024-25 academic year
• Addition of associate members Bryant University (men’s tennis) and NJIT (men’s and women’s tennis)
Prominent Big South athletic alumni include NBA player Javonte Green; multi-Olympians Amber Campbell and Taylor Milne; two-time Major Champion Dustin Johnson; MLB players Cedric Mullins, Zach Neto, Mason Miller and MLB manager Mike Shildt; former NFL cornerback Josh Norman, former NFL running back and “Dancing with the Stars” champion Rashad Jennings; ESPN personalities Kelsey Riggs Cuff and Sam Ponder, three-time NFL Pro Bowler Justin Bethel, two-time Grand Slam Champion Henry Patten, former WNBA veteran Avery Warley and Paralympian Gold Medalist Nick Mayhugh.
Distinguished alumni from Big South member institutions include U.S. Senator Tim Scott (Charleston Southern), Basketball Hall of Famer Artis Gilmore (Gardner-Webb), Grammy-award winning singer/songwriter Donna Fargo (High Point), former LPGA player Tina Barrett (Longwood), former HGTV President Jim Samples (Presbyterian), former U.S. National Men’s Soccer Team member Dante Washington (Radford), former Weather Channel anchor Kristina Abernathy (UNC Asheville), NBA player Torrey Craig (USC Upstate) and actress Andie MacDowell (Winthrop).
The conference’s on-field accomplishments have been duplicated in the classroom. For the past six years, more than 60 percent of conference’s student-athletes have been named to the Big South’s Presidential Honor Roll for maintaining a 3.0 grade-point average for the academic year -- including a record 81.22 percent in 2024-25 that featured an all-time high 277 student-athletes with a 4.0 and more than 66 percent of honorees with at least a 3.50 GPA. The league experienced year-to-year APR improvement during a seven-year period during the 2010s, and the conference achieved its highest Graduation Success Rate (GSR) from 2019-21 – including a record 90 percentage in 2021 to mark the sixth consecutive year at or above the 85 percentile.