For college athletic conference known as the Dixie Intercollegiate Athletic Conference or the Dixie Conference from 1962 to 2013, see USA South Athletic Conference.
The Dixie Conference was the name of two collegiate athletic leagues in the United States. The first operated from 1930 until the United States' entry into World War II in 1942. The second conference to use the name existed from 1948 to 1954.
At the time of formation, conference president Dean G. W. Meade of Birmingham-Southern stated, "We are still members of the S. I. A. A. and will continue to be so."[1] However, at the SIAA convention the following year, Birmingham-Southern, Howard and Spring Hill resigned from the association.[3] University officials at Chattanooga announced their resignation from the SIAA in 1932, explaining that they "saw no purpose in remaining in the unwieldy association after successful launching of the Dixie Conference two years ago".[4]
Two years prior to the SIAA, the Dixie Conference approved the use of scholarships in 1936.[5]
After a university planning committee recommendation to either drop competitive football or to compete at the "big time" level, on June 3, 1939, Birmingham-Southern announced that it was ending its football program in favor of an enlarged intramural athletic program.[18] Loyola followed suit the following December and also dropped football from the University's athletic program.[19] The remaining slate of Dixie Conference membership lasted until the American entry into World War II, when several league schools suspended athletics.[20][21]
Dixie Conference (1948)
Formation of purely amateur conference
In 1948, the administration of Florida State University, which had returned to coeducation in 1947 after more than 40 years as a women's college, wrote leaders at other southern institutions seeking to create a "purely amateur" athletic conference.[22] The NCAA had recently tightened its rules on the amount of money that could be paid to collegiate athletes, which caused difficulty for many established athletic programs.[23] Florida State hoped to create a new conference based on the principle of complete amateurism, including no athletic scholarships.[22]
In 1949, Lambuth, Stetson and Tampa left the conference, while Florida Southern College joined.[25] In December 1950, after winning the first three Dixie football titles without losing a single conference game, founding member Florida State withdrew to become an independent and began offering scholarships.[26][27]
1951–1954
In the four years following the departure of Florida State, Millsaps won three conference football titles and Mississippi College won one. Citing "operation difficulties and limited competition between members", the league disbanded in December 1954 following the resignation of Howard, Millsaps and Mississippi College.[28]
References
^ abc"Dixie Conference Formed in South", New York Times, p. 29, December 16, 1930.
^Salor, Roger (February 1993), "Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association"(PDF), College Football Historical Society Newsletter, VI (II), College Football Historical Society: 13–14, archived from the original(PDF) on 2011-05-23, retrieved 2008-01-16
^"3 Alabama College Resign from S.I.A.A.", New York Times, p. 35, December 15, 1931
^"Chattanooga Quits Body", New York Times, p. 29, December 6, 1932
^"South Relaxes Rules on Help to Athletes", New York Times, p. 28, December 19, 1938
