Gulf Coast Athletic Conference

Gulf Coast Athletic Conference
GCAC
Established	1981
Association	NAIA
Members	5 (8 in 2022)
Sports fielded	7 men's: 3 women's: 4
Region	Southeastern United States
Commissioner	Kiki Baker-Barnes (Interim)
Website	gcaconf.com
Locations

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The Gulf Coast Athletic Conference (GCAC) is a college athletic conference made up entirely of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Member institutions are located in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

History[]

The GCAC was established in 1981, with the following charter institutions: Belhaven College, Dillard University, Louisiana College (now Louisiana Christian University), Spring Hill College, Tougaloo College, William Carey University, and Xavier University of Louisiana. The first sports were men and women's basketball and men's tennis, with other sports soon following.^[1]

The University of Mobile was admitted in October 1985, Southern University at New Orleans was granted admission in May 1986, Loyola University was admitted in April 1995, and Louisiana State University in Shreveport became a member in April 2000. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina forced Dillard and Xavier (Louisiana) to cancel all athletic competition for the 2005–06 season and Loyola and Southern–New Orleans were able only to compete partially. All schools returned to competition in 2006–07, although in most cases with a reduced number of sports.

Louisiana College left the GCAC to join the American Southwest Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III in 2000. Belhaven also left in 2000, only to re-join in 2002; while Talladega College, which joined in 1999, left in 2002. In 2010, Belhaven, Loyola–New Orleans, Spring Hill, Mobile, and William Carey left the GCAC to join the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC).^[2] In 2010 LSU–Shreveport left the conference to join the Red River Athletic Conference (RRAC). Edward Waters College and Fisk University joined to replace the departed schools in 2010. Philander Smith College also joined the GCAC in 2011. Talladega College re-joined the conference starting in the 2011–12 academic year. Talladega had been a member of the GCAC from 1999–2000 to 2001–02.^[3]

On April 17, 2018, it was announced that Rust College had joined the GCAC in the 2018–19 season.^[4]

In 2019, Steve Martin resigned from the conference after 5 years to become commissioner of the Mississippi Association of Community and Junior Colleges ^[5]

In 2019, Southern University at New Orleans suspended its sports program.^[6]

On September 14, 2020, it was also announced that Xavier (La.) would leave the GCAC for the RRAC^[7] and on December 18, Talladega was accepted by the SSAC as a new member.^[8] Both departures became effective after the 2020–21 season concluded, coinciding with Fisk's return to the GCAC as published on March 16, 2021.^[9] On July 19, it was reported that Edward Waters would leave the GCAC to join NCAA Division II for the first time in its history and re-join the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, effectively the 2021–22 season.^[10]

In October 2021, Southern at New Orleans began to offer sports again after adding a student fee to fund it.^[11] On January 20, 2022, the GCAC extended its membership to Oakwood University and Wiley College, the conference's first Texas member, in addition to the returning Southern at New Orleans. Oakwood and Wiley are expected to join the conference later in July.^[12]

Member schools[]

Current members[]

Notes

Future members[]

Former members[]

Membership timeline[]

 Full member (non-football) 

Conference sports[]

Old logo

Conference sports

Sport	Men's	Women's
Basketball	Y	Y
Cross Country	Y	Y
Track & Field Outdoor	Y	Y
Volleyball		Y

Conference champions[]

Baseball[]

References[]

External links[]

• Official website