The Sun Belt Conference was founded on August 4, 1976, primarily as a basketball league. It began sponsoring men’s soccer in 1986, but didn’t add women’s soccer until 2000.
While women’s soccer has consistently had participating teams, the men’s league experienced several inactive years as affiliate members moved to other conferences. The men’s final season was in 1996. Vanderbilt moved its program to the Missouri Valley Conference because the SEC does not sponsor men’s soccer. UT Pan American (now Texas Rio Grande Valley) went independent before shutting down its program for nearly 20 years, while Alabama A&M participated for just one season in 1996.
Of the three full-time conference members, Jacksonville joined the Trans America Athletic Conference (now the Atlantic Sun). Western Kentucky moved to the Missouri Valley Conference before discontinuing its program in 2008, and South Alabama joined the Big South for two seasons before ending its program in 1999.
Conference realignment brought in three teams with men’s soccer programs, prompting the Sun Belt to relaunch the sport in 2014 by adding three affiliate members. “The reintroduction of men’s soccer to the Sun Belt Conference means that we will be able to provide valuable opportunities for student-athletes and deliver them a first-class championship experience,” said then-Sun Belt Conference Commissioner Karl Benson in the official press release.
The revamped league’s full-time members included Appalachian State, Georgia State, and Georgia Southern, along with affiliates Howard, NJIT, and Hartwick. Hartwick was a member through the 2017 season, when the school cut its Division I programs. The Hawks are now part of the Division III Empire 8 Conference. NJIT played in the Sun Belt for two years before moving to the Atlantic Sun, where most of its athletic programs were already based. Howard, whose primary conference is the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, remained in the Sun Belt before moving to the Northeast Conference in July 2020.
After Appalachian State dropped its men’s soccer program due to COVID-related budget cuts, and Howard moved to the Northeast Conference, only four men’s soccer teams remained in the Sun Belt. As a result, the conference discontinued the sport after the 2020–21 season. However, realignment eventually revived the sport when three of the conference’s newest members added men’s soccer programs.
The six teams, including Coastal Carolina (a full member since 2016), were later joined by three powerhouse programs: Kentucky, South Carolina, and West Virginia. Those three programs have made a combined 53 appearances in the NCAA Tournament. UCF joined the Sun Belt as an affiliate member in 2023 after becoming a full member of the Big 12 Conference.
COASTAL ADVANCE! We are headed to the @NCAASoccer Sweet 16 after the Chants upset @ClemsonMSoccer 3-1. #CoastalRising #ChantsUp #RoadtoPhilly #NCAA #TourneyTime #TealNation pic.twitter.com/wnxtA5nXu5
— Coastal Men's Soccer (@CoastalMSoccer) November 20, 2017
Those additions have strengthened the conference’s presence in postseason play. Before 2022, Coastal Carolina was the only Sun Belt team with an NCAA Tournament win. The Chanticleers won at least one match in three of their first four seasons, including a run to the third round in 2017.
On the women’s side, the conference has remained stable and has never needed affiliate members to support the sport. However, that stability has not translated into postseason success. Only Denver (in 2006) and South Alabama—twice, most recently in 2020–21—have won a first-round NCAA Tournament match.
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