ROCK HILL, S.C. – The Barton College football team has been chosen as an Associate Member of the South Atlantic Conference for the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
Barton will join the league along with fellow Conference Carolinas member Erskine College. The Bulldogs and the Flying Fleet will be eligible for the league championship and individual awards (Player of the Week and All-South Atlantic Conference) in the 2022 and 2023 campaigns.
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We are thrilled to have Barton and Erskine join the South Atlantic Conference as associate members in football," said South Atlantic Conference Commissioner Patrick Britz. "
As two new programs in the region, both institutions have done a tremendous job of getting football off the ground and we look forward to having them join our conference for the 2022 and 2023 seasons."
The addition of Barton and Erskine will increase the number of South Atlantic Conference Football institutions to 12 starting in 2022 with the addition of full member Emory & Henry College. In addition to Barton, Emory & Henry, and Erskine, the SAC football programs are Carson-Newman, Catawba, Lenoir-Rhyne, Limestone, Mars Hill, Newberry, Tusculum, UVA Wise and Wingate.
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Barton College is grateful to the South Atlantic Conference Presidents Council for accepting our application as an Associate football member," said
Todd Wilkinson, Barton Director of Athletics. "
The support of Commissioner Britz and the team assembled to visit Barton to consider our request is much appreciated. I am really excited for Barton College and the football program to be an Associate Member in the SAC. The competitive challenge is huge, but the notoriety and prestige that our new football program will receive from this regional relationship was a goal of ours from the beginning and a true game-changer in the football program's immediate future."
Barton announced the return of football to its NCAA Division II athletic offerings in January of 2018 and played an abbreviated schedule this past spring for the first time since 1950. The Bulldogs, under Head Coach
Chip Hester, went 1-4 on the season. Hester is no stranger to the league, serving as Catawba's mentor for 11 years (2002-12).
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We are thrilled to become an associate member of the SAC," added Hester. "
We are thankful for the opportunity and the challenge to compete in one of the premier football conferences in the country."
In conjunction with the addition of Barton, Emory & Henry, and Erskine, the South Atlantic Conference will look to play a divisional football schedule based on geography with the plan for the two divisional winners to meet in a conference championship game during the final week of the regular season beginning in 2022.
Among the nation's premier NCAA Division II Conferences, the South Atlantic Conference has sent at least one team to the NCAA playoffs for the last 27 years and have sent at least two teams in three of the last five years, including Lenoir-Rhyne advancing to the NCAA Quarterfinals in 2018 and 2019.
