Southern Athletic Association Adds Washington U. as Affiliate Football Member

Atlanta, Ga., December 13, 2011 — The Southern Athletic Association (SAA) has announced the addition of Washington University in St. Louis as an affiliate football member of the recently formed conference. The affiliate membership begins in the fall of 2015 and includes all the rights and privileges provided to other football participating institutions in the SAA.

In addition, the University of Chicago has also been selected an affiliate member of the SAA.

“Washington University is honored to affiliate its football program, effective with the 2015 season, with the newly formed Southern Athletic Association,” said Washington University Director of Athletics John Schael. “We have a history with several SAA member institutions dating back to1962 when the Bears were a member of the former College Athletic Conference. It will be nice to re-connect.”

Both the University of Chicago and Washington University in St. Louis have storied football traditions dating back over a century. The Maroons began play in 1892 and were originally members of the Big 10 Conference, while the Bears first kicked off the sport in 1890 and were a member of the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC).

“The association with the SAA for football only, is a win-win opportunity for our student-athletes and coaches and will bring long term stability to our football scheduling dilemma,” added Schael.

Officially formed in June 2011 and spanning six states, the Southern Athletic Association includes Berry (Ga.), Birmingham-Southern College (Ala.), Centre College (Ky.), Hendrix College (Ark.), Millsaps College (Miss.), Oglethorpe University (Ga.), Rhodes College (Tenn.) and Sewanee: The University of the South (Tenn.).

While Washington University and Chicago will affiliate their football programs with the SAA fellow University Athletic Association (UAA) members, Case Western Reserve University and Carnegie Mellon University will become affiliate members of the President Athletic Conference (PAC).

As a result of the cooperative efforts of the three conferences, the four football playing UAA schools will continue to play each other once they begin their affiliate memberships. Washington University, Carnegie Mellon, Case Western Reserve and Chicago will remain as full members of the UAA in all intercollegiate sports programs.