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Atlantic Sun Conference facts for kids

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The Atlantic Sun Conference, branded since the 2016–17 school year as the ASUN Conference, is a NCAA conference whose members play in the NCAA Division I. The conference is headquartered in Macon, Georgia and mostly features universities and colleges from the southeastern United States. The ASUN does not play football.

The ASUN began in 1978 as the Trans America Athletic Conference (TAAC). It became the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2001.

Members

As of the 2019–20 school year, the ASUN has nine full members, or schools that play almost all of their sports in the conference.

School Location Founded Type Nickname Joined
ASUN
Florida Gulf Coast University Fort Myers, Florida 1991 Public Eagles 2007
Jacksonville University Jacksonville, Florida 1934 Private Dolphins 1998
Kennesaw State University Kennesaw, Georgia 1963 Public Owls 2005
Liberty University Lynchburg, Virginia 1971 Private Flames 2018
Lipscomb University Nashville, Tennessee 1891 Private Bisons 2003
New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) Newark, New Jersey 1881 Public Highlanders 2015
University of North Alabama Florence, Alabama 1830 Public Lions 2018
University of North Florida Jacksonville, Florida 1969 Public Ospreys 2005
Stetson University DeLand, Florida 1883 Private Hatters 1985

Future member

School Location Founded Type Nickname Joining
ASUN
Bellarmine University Louisville, Kentucky 1950 Private Knights 2020

The most recent membership changes took effect in July 2018. The University of South Carolina Upstate, known for sports purposes as USC Upstate, left for the Big South Conference. At the same time, Liberty University and the University of North Alabama joined. Liberty left the Big South for the ASUN, and North Alabama arrived from the NCAA Division II Gulf South Conference.

The next change in membership comes in July 2020 with the arrival of Bellarmine University from the Division II Great Lakes Valley Conference.

Associate members

The ASUN also has five "associate members" that play one or two sports in the conference while being full members of another conference. Two of these schools will leave in July 2020—Akron and Kent State will move women's lacrosse to their full-time home of the Mid-American Conference, which is adding that sport.

The "Joined" column indicates the year in which a school joined the ASUN. Since both ASUN sports that have associate members (beach volleyball and women's lacrosse) are spring sports, this means the year of joining is the calendar year before the first season of ASUN play.

School Location Founded Type Nickname Joined ASUN sport(s) Main
conference
University of Akron Akron, Ohio 1870 Public Zips 2019 Women's lacrosse Mid-American Conference
Coastal Carolina University Conway, South Carolina 1954 Public Chanticleers 2015 (BV)
2016 (WLAX)
Beach volleyball,
women's lacrosse
Sun Belt Conference
Kent State University Kent, Ohio 1910 Public Golden Flashes 2018 Women's lacrosse Mid-American Conference
Howard University Washington, D.C. 1867 Private Lady Bison 2012 Women's lacrosse Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference
Mercer University Macon, Georgia 1833 Private Bears 2014 Beach volleyball Southern Conference

See also

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