The Sunshine State Conference is a

college athletic conference In college athletics in the United States, institutions typically join in Athletic conference, conferences for regular play under different governing bodies. Varsity sports There are several national and regional associations governing the var ...

affiliated with the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

(NCAA) at the Division II level. All of its member institutions are located in the state of

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, which is popularly known as the Sunshine State. The conference was originally formed in 1975 as a men's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

conference. It has since expanded to sponsor championships in 18 sports, including men's and women's

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

, men's and women's

lacrosse Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game w ...

, women's

rowing Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...

, men's and women's

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

, men's and women's

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...

, men's and women's

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

, women's

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

. SSC institutions have won a total of 111 NCAA national team championships, including a conference record seven in the 2014–15 and 2018–19 academic years. The conference has also claimed a total of 90 national runner-up trophies.

History

The conference was preceded by the Florida Intercollegiate Conference, which was disbanded in the mid-1960s. The Sunshine State Conference was founded in 1975 by

Saint Leo University Saint Leo University is a private Catholic university in St. Leo, Florida. It was established in 1889. The university is associated with the Holy Name Monastery, a Benedictine convent, and Saint Leo Abbey, a Benedictine monastery. The universi ...

(then Saint Leo College) basketball coach & athletic director Norm Kaye. Kaye served as Commissioner the first year until Dick Pace was named Commissioner in 1976. Kaye continued as Executive Director of the Conference for an additional 12 years. Pace was inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame in 1985. The six charter Conference members were: Biscayne College (now St. Thomas University), Florida Technological University (now University of Central Florida),

Eckerd College Eckerd College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. Founded in 1958, part of the campus is waterfront (area), waterfront and beach on Boca Ciega ...

Florida Southern College Florida Southern College (Florida Southern, Southern or FSC) is a private college in Lakeland, Florida. In 2019, the student population at FSC consisted of 3,073 students along with 130 full-time faculty members. It offers undergraduate, gradua ...

Rollins College Rollins College is a Liberal arts college, private liberal arts college in Winter Park, Florida. It was founded in November 1885 and has about 30 undergraduate majors and several master's programs. Florida's fourth oldest post-secondary institut ...

, and Saint Leo College. The Conference has seen dozens of athletes go on to have successful professional careers. Some examples include: Current PGA Tour players Lee Janzen and Rocco Mediate went to Florida Southern. Janzen won golf's U.S. Open in 1993 & 1998; on the baseball side are Tino Martinez (Tampa),

Tim Wakefield Timothy Stephen Wakefield (August 2, 1966 – October 1, 2023) was an American professional baseball knuckleball pitcher. Wakefield began his Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but is most remembered for his 17-year ...

(Florida Tech), Ryan Hanigan (Rollins), Bob Tewksbury (Saint Leo), and J. D. Martinez (Nova Southeastern). Wakefield tied a career high of 17 wins pitching for the 2007 World Series Champion

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

and Tewksbury was third in balloting for the National League

Cy Young Award The Cy Young Award is given annually to the best pitchers in Major League Baseball (MLB), one each for the American League (AL) and National League (baseball), National League (NL). The award was introduced in 1956 by Commissioner of Baseball ( ...

while going 16–5 for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1992.

Chronological timeline

* March 2, 1975 – Basketball conference exploration meeting is held at

in Lakeland. Main purpose of meeting is to discuss formation of an NCAA Division II mid-Florida basketball conference. * March 16, 1975 – Second exploration meeting is held at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg. The name "Sunshine State Conference" is suggested by Dr. Calvin C. Miller and is adopted for league use. Norm Kaye of Saint Leo is named Interim Commissioner. Dr. Thomas B. Southard, president of Saint Leo College, is named as first conference president. * June 1975 – Conference constitution adopted. * October 8, 1975 – First meeting of the SSC is held in Orlando. Basketball regulations and league bylaws are revised and approved. * December 3, 1975 – Florida Southern defeats Eckerd, 96–84, in first SSC basketball game played in Saint Petersburg. * April 8, 1976 – Dick Pace is named league commissioner. NCAA approves automatic bid for SSC basketball champion. Golf and Tennis are added to league for 1976–77, baseball and soccer are added for 1977–78. * May 18, 1977 – First Sunshine State Conference men's basketball tournament held * February 1, 1981 – Norm Kaye of Saint Leo is appointed as executive of SSC. Executive Committee is formed, consisting of league athletic directors. * July 1, 1981 – Florida Institute of Technology joins the Sunshine State Conference. * September 2, 1981 – The

University of Tampa The University of Tampa (UTampa, UT or Tampa U) is a private university in Tampa, Florida. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. UTampa offers more than 200 programs of study, including 19 master's degrees and a br ...

joins the Sunshine State Conference. * April 15, 1982 – League adopts women's competition in basketball, cross country, slow-pitch softball, tennis, and volleyball. * May 1, 1984 – University of Central Florida (formerly Florida Technological University) withdraws from the conference. Women's fast-pitch softball is adopted for league play in 1985. * February 2, 1986 – Bob Vanatta, athletic director at Louisiana Tech University, is named as league's first full-time commissioner. * June 13, 1988 – Barry University joins the conference. * November 1990 – Conference signs a two-year contract with the Sunshine Network for seven events. * February 11, 1991 –

University of North Florida The University of North Florida (UNF) is a public university, public research university in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. It is part of the State University System of Florida and is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern ...

joins the conference, effective July 1, 1992. * July 1, 1994 – Don Landry is named conference commissioner and conference relocates to Orlando. * November 22, 1994 – Conference announces three-year deal to have postseason basketball tournament at The Lakeland Center. The SSC will serve as host in 1996 and 1997. * December 1, 1994 – Sunshine Network announces nine-event television package for school year. * June 9, 1995 – Inaugural SSC Awards Luncheon held in Orlando. * February 29, 1996 – Inaugural SSC Hall of Fame/Honors banquet held in Lakeland. * September 30, 1996 – University of North Florida withdraws from the Sunshine State Conference, effective June 30, 1997. * October 15, 1996 – Women's crew added to Sunshine State Conference sponsored sports. * December 18, 1996 –

Lynn University Lynn University is a private university in Boca Raton, Florida, United States. Founded in 1962, the university awards Associate degree, associate, Bachelor's degree, baccalaureate, Master's degree, master's, and Doctorate, doctoral Academic degr ...

joins the Sunshine State Conference, effective July 1, 1997. * July 15, 1998 – League adds women's soccer and women's golf as sponsored sports. * August 24, 1999 – Saint Leo College becomes Saint Leo University and adopts new nickname ("Lions") and logo. * July 1, 2000 – 25th Anniversary of the Sunshine State Conference. * August 26, 2002 –

Nova Southeastern University Nova Southeastern University (NSU) is a Private university, private research university in Florida with its main campus in Fort Lauderdale-Davie, Florida, Davie, Florida, United States. The university consists of 14 colleges, offering over ...

joins the Sunshine State Conference as a provisional member. * May 26, 2004 – Don Landry announced retirement as SSC Commissioner, effective August 1, 2004. Landry remained acting commissioner through September 6, 2004. * July 26, 2004 – Michael J. Marcil named SSC commissioner, effective September 7, 2004. * September 14, 2009 – Jay Jones officially begins duties as the SSC commissioner, replacing Mike Marcil, who left the post June 30, 2009. * April 7, 2010 – League adds men's and women's swimming as sponsored sport. * July 1, 2013 – League adds men's lacrosse as sponsored sport. * February 3, 2014 – Ed Pasque officially begins duties as the SSC commissioner, replacing Jay Jones, who left the post December 31, 2013. * July 1, 2014 – League adds women's lacrosse as sponsored sport. – Palm Beach Atlantic University and

Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) is a private university focused on aviation and aerospace programs based in Daytona Beach, Florida, and Prescott, Arizona, United States. It is the largest accredited university system specializing in ...

join Sunshine State Conference as provisional members; effective July 1, 2015. * December 13, 2023 – The SSC announced the addition of three sports in 2024–25—beach volleyball, plus men's and women's outdoor track & field. The SSC will become the first conference outside

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

to officially sponsor beach volleyball.

Member schools

Current members

The SSC currently has 11 full members, all are

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * "In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorded ...

schools: ;Notes:

Former members

The SSC had three former full members, all but one were

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

schools: ;Notes:

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1975 till:2030 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:5 left:5 bottom:40 top:5 Colors = id:line value:black id:bg value:white id:Full value:rgb(0.7,0.9,0.8) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:FullxF value:rgb(0.9,0.8,0.7) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football id:AssocF value:rgb(0.9,0.7,0.8) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.8,0.9,0.7) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for another sport only id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved in another conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved in another conference when the other color has already been used id:MSCF value:rgb(0.9,0.9,0.7) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved its football to another conference PlotData = width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:FullxF from:1975 till:end text: Eckerd (1975–present) bar:2 color:FullxF from:1975 till:end text: Florida Southern (1975–present) bar:3 color:FullxF from:1975 till:end text: Rollins (1975–present) bar:4 color:FullxF from:1975 till:end text: Saint Leo (1975–present) bar:5 color:FullxF from:1975 till:1984 text:

Central Florida Central Florida is a Regions of the United States#Florida, region of the U.S. state of Florida. Different sources give different definitions for the region, but as its name implies it is usually said to comprise the central part of the state, in ...

(1975–1984) bar:5 color:OtherC1 from:1984 till:1990 text: D-I Indy bar:5 shift:(-30) color:OtherC2 from:1990 till:1991 text: AmSouth bar:5 color:OtherC1 from:1991 till:1992 text:

Sun Belt The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered stretching across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the Parallel 36°30′ north. Several climates can be found in the re ...

bar:5 shift:(40) color:OtherC2 from:1992 till:2005 text: Atlantic Sun bar:5 color:OtherC1 from:2005 till:2013 text:

C-USA Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern United States, Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Associ ...

bar:5 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:2023 text: The American bar:5 color:OtherC1 from:2023 till:end text:

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

bar:6 color:FullxF from:1975 till:1987 text: St. Thomas (1975–1987) bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:1987 till:1991 text: NAIA Indy bar:6 color:OtherC2 from:1991 till:end text:

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

bar:7 color:FullxF from:1981 till:end text: Florida Tech (1981–present) bar:8 color:FullxF from:1981 till:end text:

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

(1981–present) bar:9 color:FullxF from:1988 till:end text: Barry (1988–present) bar:10 color:AssocOS from:1992 till:1993 text:

North Florida North Florida is a Regions of the United States#Florida, region of the U.S. state of Florida comprising the northernmost part of the state. Along with South Florida and Central Florida, it is one of Florida's three most common "directional" regi ...

(1992–1997) bar:10 color:FullxF from:1993 till:1997 text: bar:10 shift:(50) color:OtherC1 from:1997 till:2005 text: Peach Belt bar:10 color:OtherC2 from:2005 till:end text: Atlantic Sun bar:11 color:AssocOS from:1997 till:1998 text: Lynn (1997–present) bar:11 color:FullxF from:1998 till:end text: bar:12 color:AssocOS from:2002 till:2004 text: Nova Southeastern (2004–present) bar:12 color:FullxF from:2004 till:end text: bar:13 color:AssocOS from:2015 till:2017 text: Embry–Riddle (2015–present) bar:13 color:FullxF from:2017 till:end text: bar:14 color:AssocOS from:2015 till:2016 text: Palm Beach Atlantic (2015–present) bar:14 color:FullxF from:2016 till:end text: ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1975 TextData = fontsize:M textcolor:black pos:(0,25) tabs:(400-center) text:^"Sunshine State Conference membership history" #> If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following three options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. <#

Conference facilities

National championships

Sunshine State Conference schools have won 135 NCAA Division II National Championships as of 2024-25.

Championships by year

Championships by school

Controversy

On July 17, 2007, NCAA vacated Lynn's 2005 Women's Division II Softball Championship due to extra benefits given to two players. The NCAA found that former coach Thomas Macera gave two Lynn softball players cash payments totaling more than $3,000. Lynn was also placed on probation for two years. As of 2024-25 Lynn University has won 17 national championships at the Division II level, but now the NCAA recognizes only 16 of them because of the unsanctioned actions.

Mayors' Cup Champions

The Mayors' Cup was originally presented following the 1986–1987 academic year to recognize the annual SSC all-sports champion. The men's division recognizes competition in eight sports: soccer, cross country, basketball, swimming, golf, tennis, lacrosse and baseball. The Women's Mayors' Cup recognizes competition in ten sports: volleyball, soccer, cross country, basketball, swimming, golf, tennis, lacrosse, softball and rowing.

Sports

SSC is adding Beach Volleyball, Men's Outdoor Track, and Women's Outdoor Track championships in 2024–25.

Men's sponsored sports by school

* Saint Leo is resuming Outdoor Track and Field in 2025-26

Women's sponsored sports by school

* Saint Leo is resuming Outdoor Track and Field in 2025-26

Other sponsored sports by school

Discontinued Sports

Florida Tech= Football, Men's Cross Country, Men's Golf, Women's Cross Country, Women's Golf, Women's Rowing Rollins= Football, Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country St. Leo= Men's Swimming, Women's Swimming Tampa= Football, Men's Tennis, Men's Wrestling

References

External links

* {{NCAA Division II conferences