Beginning with fall 2002 competition, the South Atlantic Conference will be in its 28th year of athletic tradition and excellence. The conference has enjoyed tremendous success due to dedicated people building a premier athletic conference throughout its history.

The distant forerunner of the South Atlantic Conference was the North State Atlantic Conference (NSIAC). The NSIAC was formed when the "Little Six", as it was called, broke from the North Carolina Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 1930. These charter members included Lenoir-Rhyne College, Atlantic Christian, Catawba College, Guilford College, Elon College, and High Point University.

The North State continued to grow over the next 30 years, adding Western Carolina (1933), East Carolina (1947) and Pfeiffer (1960). A name change became necessary when the league accepted Newberry as its first South Carolina member in 1961. The league took on the name Carolinas Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (CIAC) on May 20th of that year.

The CIAC saw several changes in the following years as East Carolina withdrew from the league in 1962. Appalachian State and Western Carolina followed in 1971 and 1976. All three landed in the Southern Conference.

The South Atlantic Conference was founded in 1975 solely as a football conference. The league received its name from a contest in which Kurt Brenneman of Greensboro, NC became the first to submit the SAC-8 moniker.

The SAC-8 consisted of Carson-Newman College, Catawba College, Elon College, Gardner-Webb University, Lenoir-Rhyne College, Mars Hill College, Newberry College, and Presbyterian College. Dr. Fred Bentley, of Mars Hill College, was named league president for its inaugural year, by a vote of the member institutions.

After the first season of play in the SAC-8, the Bears of Lenoir-Rhyne College captured the first football title.

In 1989, the league's 15th year of operation, the South Atlantic Conference became a comprehensive, all-sports conference. That year the South Atlantic Conference sponsored 10 sports - football, men's and women's basketball, baseball, softball, men's soccer, volleyball, men's golf, men's and women's tennis. Later the conference grew to 14 championship sports by adding women 's soccer (1990), men's and women's cross country (1993) and women's golf (1999).

The South Atlantic Conference was composed of the same eight member institutions from 1975 until 1988, when Wingate University replaced Newberry College as the eighth member institution. Newberry later rejoined the conference in 1996.

Today the conference is a group of eight church affiliated colleges and universities, similar in size and athletic philosophy. Since becoming eligible for NCAA Division II postseason play in 1993, the league has sent representatives from all of its sponsored sports to NCAA postseason play.

In July of 1998, Tusculum College was admitted as a member of the league. The league membership now includes Carson-Newman in Jefferson City, TN, Catawba College in Salisbury, NC, Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, NC, Mars Hill College in Mars Hill, NC, Newberry College in Newberry, SC, Presbyterian College in Clinton, SC, Tusculum College in Greeneville, TN, and Wingate University in Wingate, NC.