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 (now Troy). Scheduling problems for the 1970?71 academic year limited the league to football, won by Jacksonville State.
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 (MUW) (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.
2006?07 was another season of change for the GSC. Central Arkansas moved to Division I, leaving the West Division with eight schools while Lincoln Memorial left for the South Atlantic Conference due to travel and location issues, leaving the East Division with seven schools.
Montevallo announced on June 27, 2008 that they will be leaving for the Peach Belt Conference following the 2008-09 season.
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.
The GSC is perhaps best known for being the premier conference in NCAA Division II football. The three-year run put together by North Alabama in the mid-1990s is one of the most amazing feats in college football history. North Alabama went 41-1 during that span with the only loss being a 3 point loss to that season?s NCAA Division I-AA champion Youngstown State. No other football team on any level has ever won 41 games during a 3 year period.
↑ Valdosta State was not a member of the GSC in 1979
↑ Although not a conference-sanctioned sport, Alabama-Huntsville fields a men's ice hockey team. It won the Division II national championship in 1996 and 1998. After the NCAA discontinued Division II ice hockey, UAH moved to Division I for that sport, and currently competes in the College Hockey America conference.
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