Location of AAC members: current, departing, and future
The conference is the successor to the Volunteer State Athletic Conference (VSAC), which began in the 1940s;[2] and later the Tennessee-Virginia Athletic Conference (TVAC) that operated during the 1980s and 1990s.[2] The Appalachian Athletic Conference was formed in 2000 with the additions of members from Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina.[2] In 2019 the conference added Kentucky Christian University as a full member and Savannah College of Art and Design as an associate member in men's and women's lacrosse.[3]
Bluefield College was a member of the AAC from 2000 until 2012 when it left to join the Mid-South Conference. On March 3, 2014, Bluefield announced that it would return to the AAC in fall 2014.[4]
2009 - King (Tenn.) left the AAC to become an NAIA Independent (to later join the NCAA Division II ranks as an NCAA D-II Independent during the 2010–11 academic year; before join Conference Carolinas, beginning the 2011–12 academic year) after the 2008–09 academic year.
2009 - Reinhardt College (now Reinhardt University) joined the AAC in the 2009–10 academic year.
2010 - UVa Wise left the AAC to join the Mid-South Conference (MSC) after the 2009–10 academic year.
2016 - Allen University joined the AAC in the 2016–17 academic year.
2017 - Brenau University joined the AAC in the 2017–18 academic year.
2017 - Georgetown College joined the AAC as an affiliate member for women's lacrosse, while West Virginia Tech added men's wrestling to its AAC affiliate membership, both effective in the 2017–18 academic year.
2018 - Cumberlands (Ky.) and Georgetown (Ky.) left the AAC as affiliate members for women's lacrosse to compete in their primary home conference in the Mid-South (where they began sponsoring that sport) after the 2017–18 academic year.
2019 - Asbury left the AAC as an affiliate member for men's lacrosse as the school announced to discontinue the sport in mid-season after the 2019 spring season (2018–19 academic year).
2020 - Allen left the AAC and the NAIA to join the NCAA Division II ranks and to re-join the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) after the 2019–20 academic year.
2020 - Webber International University joined the AAC as an affiliate member for men's lacrosse in the 2021 spring season (2020–21 academic year).
2021 - Asbury left the AAC as an affiliate member for women's lacrosse, men's and women's swimming after the 2020–21 academic year.
2021 - The Tennessee campus of Johnson University joined the AAC in the 2021–22 academic year.
2021 - Keiser University joined the AAC as an affiliate member for men's lacrosse in the 2022 spring season (2021–22 academic year).
2022 - Seven institutions joined the AAC as affiliate members: Life University for men's volleyball and men's wrestling; Warner University and Webber International for men's volleyball; Keiser, Brewton-Parker College, St. Thomas University, and Southeastern University for men's wrestling, beginning the 2022–23 academic year. Point announced its departure from the conference in 2023–24 for the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) and was replaced by University of Pikeville from Mid-South. The AAC began to sponsor football, with core members Bluefield, Kentucky Christian, Point, Reinhardt, St. Andrews, and Union (Ky.) in the 2022 fall season (2022–23 academic year).
Member schools
Current members
The AAC currently has 16 full members, all are private schools. It is the largest conference in the NAIA:[3]
^Represents the calendar year when fall sports competition begins.
^Bluefield left the AAC after the 2011–12 school year to join the Mid-South Conference; before re-joining the AAC in the 2014–15 school year.
^This institution is a women's college, therefore it does not compete in men's sports.
^This institution was a women's college, but has since then been a co-educational institution, therefore it does compete in some men's sports (Columbia (S.C.) since 2020–21).
Affiliate members
The AAC currently has ten affiliate members, all but one are private schools:
^Point remains in the AAC as an affiliate member for football.
^UVA Wise dropped "Highland" from its athletic nickname in 2017.
^ abUVA Wise left the Mid-South after the 2012–13 school year. Originally it joined the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) as a charter member for most sports as a transitional NCAA Division II member school during the 2012–13 school year, but was fulfilling its commitments to the final year of competition in the Mid-South and in the NAIA. However it never began competition as a full G-MAC member, as it would later announce that it would join the Mountain East Conference (MEC), beginning the 2013–14 school year.
