The Mid-South Conference (MSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Member institutions are located in Kentucky and Tennessee. The league is headquartered in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and the commissioner is Eric Leach. The Mid-South Conference has 7 full members: Bethel (TN), Campbellsville, Cumberland (TN), Cumberlands (KY), Freed–Hardeman, Georgetown (KY) and Lindsey Wilson. Six of these members sponsor football; Freed–Hardeman does not. The Mid-South Conference also has six associate members that compete primarily in other conferences. Faulkner, Kentucky Christian, Union Commonwealth and recently former member Bluefield are associate members of the MSC for football and men's volleyball, and Reinhardt is an associate member of the MSC for football and men's volleyball. This gave the conference 13 members for football. In the spring of 2016, the conference expanded to 20 members, adding the six football members of the Sun Conference, as well as Faulkner University for football, On January 4, 2018, the conference added Keiser University for football, and St. Thomas announced in July they were joining the conference for football in 2019. Another Sun Conference member, Florida Memorial in Miami Gardens, Florida, joined the MSC as an affiliate member for football in 2020, after re-adding the sport.

History

In April 2018, Thomas More University (then Thomas More College), which had been an NAIA member before moving to NCAA Division III in 1990, announced that it had been formally invited to re-join the NAIA in the 2019–20 academic year as a member of the Mid-South Conference. The school, while acknowledging that it was considering this move, denied published reports that it had accepted the invitation. Thomas More eventually confirmed in July that it would join the Mid-South in 2019. In 2020, Bethel University became a Mid-South full member, brought track and field back to the MSC, and transferred all sports other than football and archery to the conference (prior to that, Bethel was an associate member of the MSC for football and archery only); additionally, Freed–Hardeman and UT Southern, then known as Martin Methodist College, also joined Mid-South. In December 2020, Life University also announced its departure from the MSC for the Southern States Athletic Conference in 2022–23. Most recently, Thomas More announced in August 2021 that it would return to the NCAA, but this time in Division II as a member of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC). It joined the G-MAC as a provisional member in July 2022, but continued as an NAIA member and in the Mid-South through 2022–23, after which it started G-MAC competition. Later, the Sun Conference announced on December 22, 2021, that it would reinstate football starting with the 2022 season. Then in July 2022, the Appalachian Athletic Conference announced it would add football as a sponsored sport.

Chronological timeline

Member schools

Current members

The Mid-South currently has seven full members, all are private schools:

Affiliate members

The Mid-South currently has 23 associate members. All but one are private schools; the remaining school operates private and public institutions within a single entity.

Former members

The Mid-South has 14 former full members. Ten of these are private schools, and one other operates private and public institutions within a single entity.

Former affiliate members

The Mid-South had 28 associate members, all but two were private schools:

Membership timeline

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Sports

Member teams compete in 28 sports: 13 men's, 13 women's and 2 mixed. In addition, the Mid-South Conference also conducts championships for Esports and competitive dance. The MSC also stages invitational tournaments for junior varsity squads in the sports of men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball, and women's volleyball, if enough schools sponsor JV teams in a given year.

Football divisions

Beginning with the 2017 season, The Sun Conference and Mid-South merged their football conferences into the largest football conference in college sports. Edward Waters was previously a full member of the Sun Conference from 2006 to 2010 and a football affiliate member from 2014 to 2016 seasons. Edward Waters left after the 2018 football season. However, the Sun Division folded when its teams left the Mid-South after the Sun Conference reinstated football for 2022, leaving the Mid-South with 15 football members. Later, the Appalachian Division folded when the AAC announced to sponsor the sport for the 2022 fall season, leaving the Mid-South with 9 football members.