Great American Conference

The Great American Conference (GAC), created in 2010, is an athletic conference comprising institutions located in Arkansas and Oklahoma. The conference is associated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II, and the conference headquarters are in Russellville (Pope County).

The Arkansas institutions that created the conference previously participated in the Gulf South Conference (GSC). These universities include Arkansas Tech University, Harding University, Henderson State University, Ouachita Baptist University, Southern Arkansas University, and the University of Arkansas at Monticello. These institutions also previously participated in the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference. The GSC includes member institutions from Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi, but due to the large travel costs associated with conference play, the member universities in Arkansas began exploring the creation of a new conference in 2010. The institutions worked with East Central University in Oklahoma, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, and Southwestern Oklahoma State University to organize the conference. The institutions located in Oklahoma were members of the Lone Star Conference, which also included universities in Texas and New Mexico. In 2012, Northwest Oklahoma State University and Southern Nazarene University joined the conference, and in 2015 Oklahoma Baptist College joined. Oklahoma Christian University and Rogers State University both joined the conference in 2015 as affiliate members in men and women’s track and field.

The conference began play in the 2011–12 academic year, sponsoring eight men’s sports (baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, soccer, tennis, and track and field) and eight women’s sports (basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, tennis, track and field, and volleyball). All of the full members of the conference sponsor baseball, men and women’s basketball, women’s cross country, football, softball, and volleyball.

For additional information:
Great American Conference. http://www.greatamericanconference.com/ (accessed September 27, 2017).

Pickle, David. “GAC Becomes 23^rd DII Conference.” March 9, 2011. National Collegiate Athletic Association. http://www.ncaa.com/news/ncaa/2011-03-09/gac-becomes-23rd-dii-conference (accessed September 27, 2017).

David Sesser
Henderson State University