The Big South Conference began sponsoring football in 2002, with Charleston Southern, Elon (at the time) and Liberty (Gardner–Webb University also joined as a football-only member) fielding teams; Coastal Carolina and Virginia Military Institute (VMI) joined the conference as football-only members in 2003. In that same athletic year, VMI also joined the conference for all sports, but left to re-join the Southern Conference in 2014. Presbyterian College joined the conference in 2007, moving up from Division II, and became eligible for regular-season championships and conference honors during the 2008–09 athletic year.[2] Gardner–Webb, which had been a football-only member since 2002, joined the conference for all sports on July 1, 2008.[2] Campbell rejoined the Big South for all sports except football in the 2011–12 athletic year. Longwood University accepted an invitation to join the Big South on January 23, 2012, and membership formally began July 1 of that year; Longwood had been independent since 2004, during their transition to Division I.[3] In 2014, following the departure of VMI, the conference returned to a single-division structure.[4] On September 1, 2015, Coastal Carolina announced they would leave the conference following the 2015–16 school year to transition to FBS-level football and the Sun Belt Conference.[5] On June 30, 2016, the day before the school joined the Sun Belt, Coastal Carolina won the 2016 College World Series in baseball. This was the first time in conference history that a team won an NCAA championship in any sport.
In September 2016, the Big South and the ASUN Conference (ASUN) announced a football partnership that effectively combined the two conferences in that sport. Under its terms, any members of either conference that add or upgrade to scholarship football, provided they fall within the current geographic footprint of the two leagues, automatically join Big South football. At the time of announcement, the only ASUN member that played scholarship football, Kennesaw State, was already a Big South football member. The partnership also provides a guaranteed football home to the leagues' non-scholarship football programs (at that time, Campbell from the Big South, and Jacksonville and Stetson from the ASUN) should they upgrade to scholarship status.[6]
In November 2016, Campbell announced that it would begin offering scholarships and move its football program from the Pioneer Football League to the Big South in 2018.[7]
In December 2016, the University of North Alabama, ASUN, and the Big South Conference announced that, effective in 2018, the school will leave the Division II Gulf South Conference and will join ASUN in non-football sports and the Big South in football. UNA has won three Division II NCAA national championships in football and has won at least a share of the Gulf South Conference football championship for four consecutive seasons through 2016.
Three months later, Liberty announced that it would begin a transition to FBS football in July 2017 and leave the Big South football league in 2018.[8] Liberty and the Big South agreed later in 2017 that the school would continue to house all of its non-football sports (except for field hockey and women's swimming, neither of which is sponsored by the Big South) in that conference for the immediate future. Once Liberty became a full FBS member at the start of the 2019–20 school year, it would have technically become a Big South associate member (barring the school joining an FBS conference).[9] However, Liberty's plans would change several months later, as it instead announced in May 2018 that it would move its non-football sports to the ASUN effective that July (except for the aforementioned field hockey and women's swimming, also not sponsored by the ASUN).[10]
On November 19, 2017, Presbyterian College announced it would be moving its football program to the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League.[13] Presbyterian's last Big South football season was in 2019; the Blue Hose planned to play the 2020 season as an independent before joining the Pioneer League for 2021 and beyond.[14] The Blue Hose remain a member of the Big South in all other sports.[15]
A more recent change to its core membership was the July 2021 arrival of North Carolina A&T State University from the MEAC as a full member, including football.[16] At the same time, Robert Morris University was planned to join as a football-only member.[17] North Carolina A&T joined on the originally planned schedule, but Robert Morris became a Big South football member in November 2020. COVID-19 led the conference to move its 2020 football season to spring 2021. Since two of the eight Big South football members (apart from RMU) chose to play in the originally scheduled fall 2020 season and a third chose not to play football at all in 2020–21, the Big South chose to bring the Colonials into the football league for spring 2021.[18]
More recently, the Big South added three new single-sport members in women's lacrosse effective with the 2022 season (2021–22 school year): Furman University, Mercer University, and Wofford College. All three are full members of the Southern Conference (SoCon), which disbanded its women's lacrosse league after the 2021 season.[19]
On January 25, 2022, the Colonial Athletic Association (now the Coastal Athletic Association) announced that Hampton University would join that conference, as well as CAA Football, its technically separate football league, on July 1, 2022.[20] On February 22, that conference announced that North Carolina A&T State University would be leaving the Big South, joining the all-sports CAA on July 1. North Carolina A&T would play Big South football in 2022 and join CAA Football on July 1, 2023.[21]
Also on February 22, the conference announced its intent to combine its football membership with the Ohio Valley Conference beginning in 2023 and operate as the Big South–OVC Football Association.[22] The following month saw Bryant University announced as a new football-only member effective with the 2022 season.[23] Campbell announced on August 3 that it would join both sides of the CAA in 2023 as well.[24] This was followed by Bryant announcing that it would join CAA Football in 2024.[25]
^Presbyterian's football team competes in the Pioneer Football League, a Division I FCS football-only conference whose members choose not to offer athletic scholarships for football.
^Robert Morris was originally intended to join Big South football in the 2021 football season (part of the 2021–22 academic year). With the 2020 Big South football season
moved to spring 2021, RMU was brought into the football league early.
^Formerly known as Augusta State University until January 2013, when it merged with another Augusta institution (Georgia Health Sciences University) to create Georgia Regents University. At the time of the merger, only GRU (as Augusta State) had an athletic program, and GRU's sports teams continued to compete as "Augusta State" through the end of the 2012–13 school year. The school changed its name again to the current Augusta University in 2015.
^Campbell was a founding member of the Big South in 1983. The Fighting Camels left the Big South after the 1993–94 school year to join the Trans Atlantic Athletic Conference (TAAC; later the Atlantic Sun Conference, now the ASUN Conference); before rejoining effective the 2011–12 school year for all sports, except for their football program, which remained in the Pioneer Football League until joining Big South football in the 2018 fall season (2018–19 school year). Campbell then left the Big South again in 2023 to the Colonial Athletic Association as its primary athletic conference.[27]
^Liberty was ineligible for the Big South football title in its final conference season of 2017 (2017–18 school year), as it had started a transition to FBS football in that season.
^Measured from North Carolina A&T's departure as a full Big South member.
^ abcCAA Football is technically a separate entity from the all-sports CAA.
^Presbyterian football left the Big South after the 2019 season. It played as an FCS independent in the 2020–21 school year and is now in the Pioneer Football League.
Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the Big South Conference which are played by Big South schools:
^Part of the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program; national championship competition is governed by the National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association.
^Part of the NCAA Emerging Sports program; national championship competition is governed by the Women's Collegiate Wrestling Association.
In addition to the above, Campbell, Gardner–Webb, and Presbyterian consider their female cheerleaders to be varsity athletes, with Campbell also considering its male cheerleaders as such.
Football – players drafted to the NFL
The Big South has had a number of players to get drafted and play football professionally in the NFL.
In addition to basketball games being broadcast on regional and national television, member schools of the Big South Conference are required to provide a live stream of all home games for all sports when playing teams both within and outside the conference. These streams are run by the university hosting the event. All streams are featured on the conference website and are available for free. The football games broadcast on the web are branded as part of a Big South Network.
^Charleston Southern uses the CSU Field House for all conference basketball games. Home games against local rivals or major-conference teams are played at the North Charleston Coliseum when available.
