| Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association | |
| Association: | NCAA |
| Teams: | 72 (total) |
| Region: | Southern United States Deep South |
| Map: | Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association-USA-states.png |
| Map Size: | 250 |
The Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) was one of the first collegiate athletic conferences in the United States. Twenty-seven of the current Division I FBS (formerly Division I-A) football programs were members of this conference at some point, as were at least 19 other schools. Every member of the current Southeastern Conference except Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, as well as six of the 15 current members of the Atlantic Coast Conference formerly held membership in the SIAA.
| J. B. Robertson | 1892–1893 |
| William Lofland Dudley | 1894–1912 |
| Walter Riggs | 1912–1915 |
| Buz M. Walker | 1917 |
| Henry D. Phillips | 1919–1922 |
| J. W. Provine | 1927–1942 |
During the week of Thanksgiving, 1892, southern football promoters organized a series of football games at Brisbane Park in Atlanta, Georgia, in an effort to crown a "Southern champion", calling it the "first championship series of football games ever held in the south".[1] The idea soon grew into a plan to hold a yearly football championship around Thanksgiving determined by games played between the champions of five southern states. The organization overseeing the championship would be called the Southern Inter-Collegiate Athletic Association, which was originally planned to be formalized during the first football championship series taking place the week of November 21, 1892. It was envisioned to include two members from each of the five states: Alabama and Auburn from Alabama, Georgia and Georgia Tech from Georgia, North Carolina and Trinity (Duke) from North Carolina, Sewanee and Vanderbilt from Tennessee, and Virginia and Washington and Lee from Virginia. Charles Baskerville (North Carolina), Dr. George Petrie (Virginia), and Frank Spain (Georgia Tech) were the prominent promoters of the plan.[2] However, the formation of the SIAA did not materialize during the championship series in Atlanta.
On December 28, 1892, members of the Virginia's athletic association organized a meeting of southern college athletic programs at Richmond's Exchange Hotel, with the purpose of organizing southern collegiate athletics, especially regular athletic championships in baseball, football, tennis, and track.[3] Colleges present at the meeting were Alabama, Johns Hopkins, North Carolina, Saint John's (of Maryland), Sewanee, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wake Forest. Presiding over the first meeting was Dr. F. P. Venable, of North Carolina, and secretary was J. B. Robertson, of Virginia; Robertson was later elected as president, with W. S. Symington, of Johns Hopkins, elected as vice president, and W. H. Graham, of Sewanee, elected as secretary and treasurer.[4]
The league was split into two "circuits", with the "Northern" one comprising Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, and the "Southern" one comprising Tennessee and Alabama; the champion of each circuit would play each other for the championship of the SIAA each year, with yearly championship matches scheduled for Thanksgiving for football and May 13 for baseball. Interestingly, whichever team won the championship in baseball had the privilege of naming the next session's president, while the winner of each year's football championship was to name the next vice president.
The original division of the teams had Virginia, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Johns Hopkins, and St. John's College in the Northern Division, and Tennessee, Sewanee, and Alabama in the Southern Division. In mid-February, a special session was held to add Vanderbilt to the Southern Division, resulting in a 5-team Northern Division and a 4-team Southern Division.[5]
The league also took on the usual matters of interest in terms of purifying and organizing athletics at the time, including banning former professional players. The overall goal was generally to "encourage and stimulate athletics among colleges of the South."[6]
After just one season of baseball, the Association was embroiled by controversy. Virginia had a straightforward claim to champion of the Northern Division; though Virginia and Johns Hopkins had been scheduled to meet in a game for champion of the Northern Division, Johns Hopkins forfeited the game after faculty forbade the team from leaving campus on May 3, the day the final division game had been scheduled for.[7] The champion of the Southern Division was not so easily decided. On May 11, 1893, after a full season of SIAA baseball play, an arbitration committee set out to determine whether Vanderbilt, Alabama, or Sewanee had topped the Southern Division, as the teams had a split record with no clear winner. This was made more difficult due to an eligibility controversy between Vanderbilt and Alabama, with Vanderbilt claiming that two Alabama baseball players were ineligible due to professionalism rules. Owing to this, Vanderbilt claimed Alabama should forfeit two wins to Vanderbilt, despite losing one of the games 2–1.[8]
Eventually, the arbitrators decided in favor of Vanderbilt, leaving a contest between Vanderbilt and Sewanee to determine champion of the Southern Division.[9] Despite this, there was some discontent within the organization; Secretary Wilders, of Sewanee, opined at length about the decision, describing his distaste about the "secret" nature of the arbitrators. He closed his column by noting that Vanderbilt and Sewanee need not face off in a championship game, as Sewanee had a better record against member teams (2–1 as opposed to 2–2).[10] William Dudley, representative of Vanderbilt, fired back a long retort of his own, accusing Wilders of not understanding the rules of the SIAA's constitution.[11] The game to determine champion of the Southern Division was never played.
A month later sounded the beginning of the end for the first SIAA, when Vanderbilt withdrew from the Association, preceded by Tennessee.[12] Another month later, the SIAA formally folded. Football analysts of the time wrote that the failure was because the association was composed of colleges scattered too far apart. Though the hopes were high that Virginia, North Carolina, and Johns Hopkins would form a new association in September, this appears to have never come to fruition.[13]
The SIAA was founded on December 21, 1894, by Dr. William Dudley, a chemistry professor at Vanderbilt,[14] at the Kimball House in Atlanta.[15] Dudley was a member of the Vanderbilt Athletic Association, formed in 1886 with Dr. W. M. Baskerville as president. Most students at Vanderbilt were members. The early sports played on the Vanderbilt campus were baseball, bicycling, and track and field events.[16] Dudley was primarily responsible for the formation of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The first advance in the direction of its formation was in March 1888 when the Vanderbilt Athletic Association endeavored to secure track and field meets at Vanderbilt from Southwestern Presbyterian University, Sewanee, and Tennessee. Sewanee's opposition stopped it from occurring.[17]
The original members were Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Johns Hopkins, North Carolina, Sewanee, Vanderbilt, and Virginia.[18] [19] Virginia and North Carolina soon dropped out, even before the inaugural 1895 season.[20] [21]
Central (Eastern Kentucky), Clemson, Cumberland, Kentucky, LSU, Mercer, Mississippi A&M (Mississippi State), Southwestern Presbyterian University, Texas, Tulane, and the University of Nashville joined the following year in 1895 as invited charter members.[22] [23] The conference was originally formed for "the development and purification of college athletics throughout the South".[24] They crafted a constitution, created an executive committee, elected officers, and set rules for:
The league did not, however, sponsor much in the way of championship competition for its member schools. It did hold an annual track and field competition for a trophy, and it also held some basketball tournaments over the years, but apparently some member schools did not compete in the tournament during some years, and sometimes non-member southern schools were even allowed to compete in it as well. In 1903, a single-game football playoff occurred, but it seems to have been coordinated more so by the two competing schools (Clemson and Cumberland) than the conference itself. Several other efforts over the years by individual schools (rather than by the SIAA) to hold a conference title game fell through. Most SIAA titles claimed by schools in various sports were actually more mythical in nature than officially sanctioned by the league. Indeed, some schools centrally-located in the conference played far more conference games than others on the periphery, making it difficult to form a fair comparison to determine just which team was truly the best, especially once the league began to constantly expand its membership.
In 1915, a disagreement arose within the conference regarding the eligibility of freshman athletes, the so-called "one-year rule." Generally, the larger universities opposed the eligibility of freshman players, while the smaller schools favored it. As a result, some of the large universities formed the Southern Intercollegiate Conference (now the Southern Conference), which used the one-year rule, while still maintaining membership within the SIAA.[25]
At the conference's annual meeting on December 10, 1920, the SIAA rejected proposals to ban freshman athletes and abolish paid summer baseball.[26] In protest, some schools that had voted in favor of the propositions immediately announced they would seek to form a new conference. On February 25, 1921, Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Georgia, Georgia Tech, Kentucky, Mississippi State, and Tennessee left the SIAA to form the Southern Conference, along with non-SIAA members Maryland, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Washington and Lee.[27] In 1922, the Southern Conference underwent an expansion and added six more members, all at the expense of the SIAA: Florida, Louisiana State, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tulane, and Vanderbilt.[25]
With the departure of most of the major colleges, the SIAA became a de facto small college conference in 1923. In the 1920s and 1930s, the SIAA increased its membership with the addition of many additional small universities. The conference eventually disbanded in 1942 with the onset of American involvement in World War II.[25] League archives were kept at Vanderbilt, the league's founding school, but the building housing the archives was eventually gutted with fire, taking countless irreplaceable items pertaining to the SIAA's history with it.
In 1947 there was an attempt, led by Western Kentucky, to revive the SIAA. Western Kentucky hosted an SIAA basketball tournament that turned out to be little more than an invitational tournament because former SIAA members declined to participate.[28]
Original charter members from the 1894 SIAA are denoted in boldface; this list is the same as the members from the 1892–1893 SIAA with the replacement of Wake Forest, Tennessee, and St. John's from the 1892 league with Auburn and Georgia. Invited charter members are denoted with an asterisk. In the era in which the SIAA operated, teams tended to join in December; therefore, the first year of conference play in a given sport was often the following calendar year.[29]
Conference affiliations reflect those for the 2016–17 school year.
| School | City | State | Tenure | Conference left for | Current conference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 1892–1893, 1895–1917, 1919–1921 | Southeastern Conference | ||||
| Auburn | 1895–1921 | Southeastern Conference | ||||
| 1925–1941 | ||||||
| 1896–1897, 1899–1900 | Merged with Centre College in 1901 | |||||
| 1910–1917, 1919–1941 | ||||||
| 1914–1916, 1919–1932 | Southern Conference | |||||
| 1908–1935[30] | Southern Conference | |||||
| 1896–1921 | Atlantic Coast Conference | |||||
| Cumberland | 1896–1907 | |||||
| 1936–1941 | ||||||
| 1936–1941 | ||||||
| 1925–1941 | Conference Carolinas (Gulf South Conference for football) | |||||
| 1912–1917, 1919–1921 | Southeastern Conference | |||||
| 1902–1904, 1906–1910, 1914–1929, 1932–1935 | Southern Conference | |||||
| 1915–1916, 1919–1941 | ||||||
| Georgia | 1895–1916, 1919–1921 | Southeastern Conference | ||||
| 1897–1900, 1902–1913, 1916–1921 | Atlantic Coast Conference | |||||
| Howard College (Samford) | 1907–1912, 1914–1917, 1919–1931 | Southern Conference | ||||
| 1939–1940 | Conference USA | |||||
| Johns Hopkins | Maryland | 1892–1893, Part of 1894 | ||||
| Kentucky | 1896–1904, 1911–1916, 1919–1921 | Southeastern Conference | ||||
| 1925–1930 | ||||||
| 1922–1941 | Red River Athletic Conference (Sooner Athletic Conference for football) | |||||
| Louisiana State | 1896–1917, 1919–1921 | Southeastern Conference | ||||
| 1925–1942 | Conference USA | |||||
| 1914–1941 | Atlantic Coast Conference | |||||
| 1925, 1930–1937 | ||||||
| Memphis State (Memphis) | 1935–1942 | Independent | American Athletic Conference | |||
| Mercer | 1896–1937 | |||||
| 1929–1942 | Independent | Atlantic Coast Conference | ||||
| 1931–1942 | Conference USA | |||||
| 1908–1909, 1913–1938 | ||||||
| Mississippi | 1898–1921 | Southeastern Conference | ||||
| 1910–1917, 1919–1941 | ||||||
Mississippi A&M
| 1896–1921 | Southeastern Conference | ||||
| 1934–1942 | Ohio Valley Conference (Pioneer Football League for football) | |||||
| 1931–1942 | Missouri Valley Conference (Missouri Valley Football Conference for football) | |||||
| Nashville | 1896–1900, 1902–1908 | University closed in 1909 | ||||
| 1922–1942 | ||||||
| North Carolina | 1892–1893, Part of 1894, 1899–1902[31] | Atlantic Coast Conference | ||||
| 1928–1941 | Southland Conference | |||||
| 1919–1929, 1937–1941 | ||||||
| 1921–1942 | Big South Conference (Pioneer Football League for football) | |||||
| 1925–1942 | ||||||
| 1892–1893 | ||||||
| University of the South (Sewanee) | 1892–1893, 1895–1900, 1902–1924 | |||||
| 1915–1921 | Southeastern Conference | |||||
| 1925–1930 | ||||||
| 1928–1941 | Conference USA | |||||
| Southern University (Birmingham-Southern) | 1901–1912; 1930–1931 | College closed in 2024 | ||||
Southwestern Presbyterian
| 1896–1900, 1902–1903 | |||||
| Southwestern Louisiana (Louisiana–Lafayette) | 1925–1942 | Sun Belt Conference | ||||
| 1927–1931 | ||||||
| 1925–1931, 1933–1940 | ASUN Conference (Pioneer Football League for football) | |||||
| 1936–1942 | ||||||
| 1892–1893, 1897–1916, 1919–1921 | Southeastern Conference | |||||
| 1933–1942 | Ohio Valley Conference | |||||
| Texas | 1896–1903[32] | Southwest Intercollegiate Athletic Conference | Southeastern Conference | |||
| 1903–1908, 1912–1914[33] | Southwest Intercollegiate Athletic Conference | Southeastern Conference | ||||
| 1914–1916, 1919–1924, 1926–1941 | ||||||
| Trinity College (Duke) | 1903–1912 | Atlantic Coast Conference | ||||
| Troy State (Troy) | 1936–1942 | no team (WWII) | Sun Belt Conference | |||
| Tulane | 1896–1906, 1911–1917, 1919–1921 | American Athletic Conference | ||||
| 1933–1941 | ||||||
| 1925–1942 | ||||||
| Vanderbilt | 1892–1893, 1895–1924 | Southeastern Conference | ||||
| Virginia | Charlottesville | Virginia | 1892–1893, Part of 1894 | Atlantic Coast Conference | ||
| 1892–1893 | Atlantic Coast Conference | |||||
| 1926–1942 | Conference USA | |||||
| 1903–1942[34] | Southern Conference |
Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white
PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:powderblue from:1892 till:1893 text:Alabama (1892–1893, 1895–1917, 1919–1921) bar:1 color:powderblue from:1895 till:1917 bar:1 color:powderblue from:1919 till:1921 bar:2 color:powderblue from:1892 till:1893 text:Johns Hopkins (1892–1893, 1894) bar:2 color:powderblue from:1894 till:1895 bar:3 color:powderblue from:1892 till:1893 text:North Carolina (1892–1893, 1894, 1899–1902) bar:3 color:powderblue from:1894 till:1895 bar:3 color:powderblue from:1899 till:1902 bar:4 color:powderblue from:1892 till:1893 text:St. John's (1892–1893) bar:5 color:powderblue from:1892 till:1893 text:Sewanee (1892–1893, 1895–1900, 1902–1924) bar:5 color:powderblue from:1895 till:1900 bar:5 color:powderblue from:1902 till:1924 bar:6 color:powderblue from:1892 till:1893 text:Tennessee (1892–1893, 1896–1916, 1919–1921) bar:6 color:powderblue from:1896 till:1916 bar:6 color:powderblue from:1919 till:1921 bar:7 color:powderblue from:1892 till:1893 text:Vanderbilt (1892–1893, 1895–1924) bar:7 color:powderblue from:1895 till:1924 bar:8 color:powderblue from:1892 till:1893 text:Virginia (1892–1893, 1894) bar:8 color:powderblue from:1894 till:1895 bar:9 color:powderblue from:1892 till:1893 text:Wake Forest (1892–1893) bar:10 color:powderblue from:1895 till:1921 text:Auburn (1895–1921) bar:11 color:powderblue from:1895 till:1916 text:Georgia (1895–1916, 1919–1921) bar:11 color:powderblue from:1919 till:1921 bar:13 color:powderblue from:1896 till:1921 text:Clemson (1896–1921) bar:14 color:powderblue from:1896 till:1907 text:Cumberland (1896–1907) bar:15 color:powderblue from:1896 till:1904 text:Kentucky (1896–1904, 1911–1916, 1919–1921) bar:15 color:powderblue from:1911 till:1916 bar:15 color:powderblue from:1919 till:1921 bar:16 color:powderblue from:1896 till:1917 text:LSU (1896–1917, 1919–1921) bar:16 color:powderblue from:1919 till:1921 bar:17 color:powderblue from:1896 till:1937 text:Mercer (1896–1937) bar:18 color:powderblue from:1896 till:1921 text:Mississippi A&M (Miss. St.) (1896–1921) bar:19 color:powderblue from:1896 till:1900 text:Nashville (1896–1900, 1902–1908) bar:19 color:powderblue from:1902 till:1908 bar:20 color:powderblue from:1896 till:1900 text:Southwestern Presbyterian (Rhodes) (1896–1900, 1902–1903) bar:20 color:powderblue from:1902 till:1903 bar:21 color:powderblue from:1896 till:1903 text:Texas (1896–1903) bar:22 color:powderblue from:1896 till:1906 text:Tulane (1896–1906, 1911–1917, 1919–1921) bar:22 color:powderblue from:1911 till:1917 bar:22 color:powderblue from:1919 till:1921 bar:23 color:powderblue from:1896 till:1897 text:Central (Eastern Kentucky) (1896–1897, 1899–1900, 1928–1942) bar:23 color:powderblue from:1899 till:1900 bar:23 color:powderblue from:1928 till:1942 bar:12 color:powderblue from:1897 till:1900 text:Georgia Tech (1896–1900, 1902–1913, 1916–1921) bar:12 color:powderblue from:1902 till:1913 bar:12 color:powderblue from:1916 till:1921 bar:24 color:powderblue from:1897 till:1921 text:Mississippi (1897–1921) bar:25 color:powderblue from:1898 till:1900 text:Furman (1898–1900, 1902–1904, 1906–1910, 1914–1929, 1932–1935) bar:25 color:powderblue from:1902 till:1904 bar:25 color:powderblue from:1906 till:1910 bar:25 color:powderblue from:1914 till:1929 bar:25 color:powderblue from:1932 till:1935 bar:26 color:powderblue from:1901 till:1912 text:Southern University (1901–1912) bar:27 color:powderblue from:1903 till:1908 text:Texas A&M (1901–1912) (1903–1908, 1912–1914) bar:27 color:powderblue from:1912 till:1914 bar:28 color:powderblue from:1903 till:1912 text:Trinity College (1903–1912) bar:29 color:powderblue from:1909 till:1935 text:The Citadel (1909–1935) bar:30 color:powderblue from:1907 till:1912 text:Howard College (Samford) (1907–1912, 1914–1917, 1919–1931, 1933–1938) bar:30 color:powderblue from:1914 till:1917 bar:30 color:powderblue from:1919 till:1931 bar:30 color:powderblue from:1933 till:1938 bar:32 color:powderblue from:1910 till:1917 text:Mississippi College (1910–1917, 1919–1941) bar:32 color:powderblue from:1919 till:1941 bar:33 color:powderblue from:1910 till:1917 text:Centre (1910–1917, 1919–1941) bar:33 color:powderblue from:1919 till:1941 bar:34 color:powderblue from:1911 till:1917 text:Florida (1911–1917, 1919–1921) bar:34 color:powderblue from:1919 till:1921 bar:35 color:powderblue from:1914 till:1916 text:Chattanooga (1914–1916, 1919–1932) bar:35 color:powderblue from:1919 till:1932 bar:36 color:powderblue from:1914 till:1941 text:Louisville (1914–1941) bar:37 color:powderblue from:1915 till:1916 text:Georgetown (KY) (1915–1916, 1919–1941) bar:37 color:powderblue from:1919 till:1941 bar:38 color:powderblue from:1915 till:1916 text:Transylvania (1915–1916, 1919–1924, 1926–1941) bar:38 color:powderblue from:1919 till:1924 bar:38 color:powderblue from:1926 till:1941 bar:39 color:powderblue from:1915 till:1921 text:South Carolina (1915–1921) bar:40 color:powderblue from:1916 till:1942 text:Wofford (1916–1942) bar:41 color:powderblue from:1919 till:1929 text:Oglethorpe (1919–1929, 1937–1941) bar:41 color:powderblue from:1937 till:1941 bar:42 color:powderblue from:1920 till:1938 text:Millsaps (1920–1938) bar:43 color:powderblue from:1922 till:1931 text:Birmingham-Southern (1922–1931) bar:44 color:powderblue from:1923 till:1942 text:Newberry (1923–1942) bar:45 color:powderblue from:1923 till:1942 text:Presbyterian (1923–1942) bar:46 color:powderblue from:1924 till:1941 text:Louisiana College (1924–1941) bar:47 color:powderblue from:1925 till:1941 text:Erskine (1925–1941) bar:48 color:powderblue from:1925 till:1941 text:Centenary (1925–1941) bar:49 color:powderblue from:1925 till:1930 text:Kentucky Wesleyan (1925–1930) bar:50 color:powderblue from:1925 till:1942 text:Louisiana Tech (1925–1942) bar:51 color:powderblue from:1925 till:1926 text:Loyola N.O. (1925, 1930–1937) bar:51 color:powderblue from:1930 till:1937 bar:52 color:powderblue from:1925 till:1942 text:Rollins (1925–1942) bar:53 color:powderblue from:1925 till:1930 text:Southern (FL) (1925–1930) bar:54 color:powderblue from:1925 till:1942 text:Southwestern Louisiana (La.-Lafayette) (1925–1942) bar:55 color:powderblue from:1925 till:1931 text:Stetson (1925–1931, 1933–1940) bar:55 color:powderblue from:1933 till:1940 bar:56 color:powderblue from:1925 till:1942 text:Union (TN) (1925–1942) bar:57 color:powderblue from:1926 till:1942 text:Western Kentucky (1926–1942) bar:58 color:powderblue from:1927 till:1931 text:Spring Hill (1927–1931) bar:59 color:powderblue from:1928 till:1941 text:Northwestern State (1928–1941) bar:60 color:powderblue from:1928 till:1941 text:Southern Miss (1928–1941) bar:61 color:powderblue from:1929 till:1942 text:Miami (FL) (1929–1942) bar:62 color:powderblue from:1931 till:1942 text:Middle Tennessee State (1931–1942) bar:63 color:powderblue from:1931 till:1942 text:Murray State (1931–1942) bar:64 color:powderblue from:1933 till:1942 text:Tennessee Tech (1933–1942) bar:65 color:powderblue from:1933 till:1941 text:Union (KY) (1933–1941) bar:66 color:powderblue from:1934 till:1942 text:Morehead State (1934–1942) bar:67 color:powderblue from:1935 till:1942 text:Memphis State (1935–1942) bar:68 color:powderblue from:1936 till:1941 text:Delta State (1936–1941) bar:69 color:powderblue from:1936 till:1941 shift:(-20) text:Emory & Henry (1936–1941) bar:70 color:powderblue from:1936 till:1942 text:Tampa (1936–1942) bar:71 color:powderblue from:1936 till:1942 text:Troy State (1936–1942) bar:72 color:powderblue from:1939 till:1940 shift:(-80) text:Jacksonville State (1939–1940)
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1895