ROUSES_SeptOct2019_Magazine

ncaa conferences by luke johnson

There are more than 1,000 member schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and fall Saturdays are a thing to celebrate thanks to several of those institutions sprinkled throughout our region.

Get to a Southeastern Conference (SEC) campus early to catch the signature smell of a tailgate and stay late to witness some of the nation’s finest college football. The 14 SEC schools — including charter members LSU, Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi State and Ole Miss — have combined to win nine of the last 13 national championships. Or catch another charter member of the SEC, Tulane — now one of 12 schools in the American Athletic Conference (AAC) — playing in its recently built Yulman Stadium, which opened its doors on campus in 2014. Two of the top programs in Conference USA (CUSA) reside in our region, as Louisiana Tech and Southern Miss have combined to win 67 percent of their conference games since 2015. If you feel the need to get your midweek football fix, catch a prime-time broadcast of the Sun Belt Conference’s (SBC) Wednesday night games. The SBC footprint extends from Texas Hill Country to the South Carolina coast, including the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, the University of South Alabama and the University of Louisiana Monroe. If playoff football is more your cup of tea, keep an eye on the Southland Conference (SLC). Its member schools are part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) and compete to be one of the 24 schools to make the NCAA Division I FCS playoff at the end of the year. From Louisiana alone, the SLC includes member schools McNeese State, Nicholls State, Southeastern and Northwestern State.

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JULY•AUGUST 2019