Dixie Conference

The Dixie Conference was the name of three collegiate athletic leagues in the United States. The first operated from 1930 until the United States' entry into World War II in 1942. The second conference to use the name existed from 1948 to 1954. The third was the original name of the current USA South Athletic Conference.

At the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) annual convention in 1930, nine of the association's members announced the formation of the Dixie Conference to facilitate scheduling of games among the group. The charter members were Birmingham-Southern College, Howard College (now Samford University), Southwestern of Memphis (now Rhodes College), Centre College, University of Chattanooga, Spring Hill College and Mercer University;Loyola University New Orleans joined the Dixie two years later.

At the time of formation, conference president Dean G. W. Meade of Birmingham-Southern stated, "We are still members of the S. I. A. A. and will continue to be so." However, at the SIAA convention the following year, Birmingham-Southern, Howard and Spring Hill resigned from the association. University officials at Chattanooga announced their resignation from the SIAA in 1932, explaining that they "saw no purpose in remaining in the unwieldy association after successful launching of the Dixie Conference two years ago".

Two years prior to the SIAA, the Dixie Conference approved the use of scholarships in 1936.

List of conference football champions by year:

After a university planning committee recommendation to either drop competitive football or to compete at the "big time" level, on June 3, 1939, Birmingham-Southern announced that it was ending its football program in favor of an enlarged intramural athletic program. Loyola followed suit the following December and also dropped football from the University's athletic program. The remaining slate of Dixie Conference membership lasted until the American entry into World War II, when several league schools suspended athletics.

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