The Lone Star Conference (LSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the South Central states, with schools in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico, with two members in the Pacific Northwest states of Oregon and Washington competing as affiliates for football only. The Lone Star Conference operates from the same headquarters complex in the Dallas suburb of Richardson as the American Southwest Conference.

History

The conference was formed in 1931 when five schools withdrew from the old Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Charter members included East Texas State (now East Texas A&M), North Texas State (now University of North Texas), Sam Houston State, Southwest Texas State (now Texas State), and Stephen F. Austin. With East Texas A&M (then named Texas A&M–Commerce) starting its transition to Division I in July 2022, none of the five charter members remain in Division II or in the conference – all have moved up to Division I (in football as of 2024, North Texas, Sam Houston, and Texas State compete in NCAA Division I FBS, while Stephen F. Austin and East Texas A&M compete in NCAA Division I FCS).

Chronological timeline

Below is a timeline of the conference's history.

Member schools

Current members

The LSC currently has 17 full members. All but five are public schools. Reclassifying members in yellow.

Future members

Affiliate members

The LSC currently has two affiliate members, both of which are public schools.

Former members

The LSC had 20 former full members, 13 of which were public schools.

Former affiliate members

The LSC had two former affiliate members, both of which were also public schools:

Membership timeline

Sponsored sports

Men's sponsored sports by school

Women's sponsored sports by school

Other sponsored sports by school

In addition to the above: Only schools that explicitly list cheerleading and dance teams as men's, women's, or coed sports are counted in this listing. Some schools feature links to said teams on their athletics websites, but place them in a specific menu for "spirit teams" or a similar term.

Facilities

Champions

This is a list of conference champions since 1997.

Men

Note: (HC) denotes the Heartland Conference. In 2012–2013, the LSC stopped sponsoring Men's soccer. In 2016, 4 schools (Eastern New Mexico, Midwestern State, UT-Permian Basin, and West Texas A&M) joined the Heartland as affiliate members for Men's soccer. When the Heartland folded, most schools became non-football members of the LSC.

Women

Conference tournament champions

Division championships

From 1997 to 2011, and 2020–present, the LSC has been divided into divisions. From 1997 to 2011, the split was north–south. Beginning in the 2019–2020 academic year, the LSC was split into three nameless divisions among the non-football sports: West Texas and New Mexico in the western division; South Texas, Central Texas, and DFW in the central division; East Texas, North Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas in the eastern division. The divisional split was temporarily discontinued for the 2021–2022 season; but divisions were reintroduced for basketball for the 2022-23 season under the names East and West. 2014-2015 In the 2014 season, a conference playoff was added due to the small number of football programs in the conference. At the end of the season, the teams were guaranteed two more conference games in the Lone Star Conference playoffs, the teams were split into two separate brackets, the championship bracket (seeds 1–4) and the non-championship bracket (seeds 5–7). This format ended after the 2015 season due to the addition of Western New Mexico, UT Permian Basin, and Oklahoma Panhandle State.

Notable athletes

Abilene Christian University Angelo State University Cameron University University of Central Oklahoma East Texas A&M University (formerly Texas A&M University–Commerce) Eastern New Mexico University Midwestern State University Tarleton State University Texas A&M University–Kingsville Texas Woman's University West Texas A&M University