University of Dallas to join Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

SUWANEE, Ga. — The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) announced today that the University of Dallas has accepted an invitation to join the Conference. Currently a Division III independent, Dallas will join the SCAC at the beginning of the 2011-12 academic year.

“We are excited and very pleased to have the University of Dallas join the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference,” said SCAC commissioner Dwayne Hanberry. “Our foremost goal, when seeking a new member, was to find an institution that shares the vision of our membership, which is a commitment to the overall educational experience where athletics serves as a proper compliment to academics. We are confident that Dallas shares this same vision.”

“The addition of the University of Dallas provides us another valuable member of the conference,” said Oglethorpe University president Lawrence Schall, who currently serves as the chair of the SCAC Board of Directors. “It further affirms the distinctive quality of the conference and it will certainly enhance athletic competition within it.”

Dallas, which currently sponsors 14 of 21 SCAC sports, has been a Division III independent since leaving the American Southwest Conference following the 2000-2001 academic year.

“It is my pleasure to have the University of Dallas associate with other Division III schools that have similar high academic standards and profiles,” said University of Dallas president Thomas Keefe. “We look forward to a mutually beneficial relationship.”

“I am appreciative of this opportunity that the SCAC has offered the University of Dallas,” said athletics director Dick Strockbine. “Dallas already enjoys a scheduling relationship with several SCAC institutions in a variety of sports. We look forward to establishing those same relationships with the rest of the membership.”

Founded in 1956, the University of Dallas is a Catholic, co-educational university located in Irving, Texas, a city of 150,000 residents on the northwest boundary of the city of Dallas. Its athletics teams are known as the Crusaders and wear team colors of navy blue and white.

Dallas sponsors 14 intercollegiate varsity programs, including: baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s golf, men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, men’s and women’s outdoor track & field and volleyball.

The current members of the SCAC are Austin College in Sherman, Texas, Birmingham-Southern College in Birmingham, Ala., Centre College in Danville, Ky., Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colo., Hendrix College in Conway, Ark., Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, Ga., Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., The University of the South (Sewanee) in Sewanee, Tenn., Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, and Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

DePauw University, a member of the SCAC since 1998, announced in June that it would leave the conference following the completion of the 2010-11 academic year to pursue an offer of membership in the North Coast Athletic Conference.