The American Southwest Conference has been in existence since 1996, but its beginnings date back to 1976 with the formation of the Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association (TIAA).The TIAA, a non-scholarship and coeducational athletic conference (the first organization of its kind in the Southwest), was formed on May 2, 1976 and consisted of five charter members -- Austin College (Sherman, Texas), McMurry College (Abilene, Texas), Sul Ross State University (Alpine, Texas), Tarleton State University (Stephenville, Texas) and Trinity University (San Antonio, Texas).
Before aligning with the new TIAA organization, Sul Ross State and Tarleton State were members of the Lone Star Conference, McMurry participated in the Texoma Conference and both Austin College and Trinity were independents.
At the time of its formation, the member schools of the TIAA maintained their individual institutional affiliations with national intercollegiate athletic organizations such as the NCAA and NAIA before the conference solely became NCAA Division III.
Initially, the conference sponsored championships in six sports for men and five for women. Football, basketball, track and field, golf, tennis and soccer titles were competed for among the men, and the women contested basketball, volleyball, golf, tennis and track and field championships. The ASC presently sponsors men’s and women’s championships in cross country, soccer, basketball, golf, tennis and track & field, in addition to championships in football, baseball, softball and women’s volleyball.
Expansion and membership changes within the TIAA during the late 1970s and into the 80s played a large role in forming the current membership. Lubbock Christian College joined the conference in the spring of 1979, but withdrew in 1982 faced with a football program that never lived up to expectations (one conference win in four years and a national record setting 36-game losing streak). In 1981, Trinity, stating that it could no longer compete with the financial advantages of member state schools, became the first charter member to leave the TIAA.
Howard Payne University (Brownwood, Texas) decided to move to the TIAA from the NCAA Division II Lone Star Conference in 1987. Midwestern State University (Wichita Falls, Texas) was an associate member in 1987, competing only in football before becoming a full member in 1990.
In June of 1989, University of Dallas (Irving, Texas) became the seventh conference member, and Hardin-Simmons University (Abilene, Texas) joined the TIAA in April of 1990.
Tarleton State became the second charter member to withdraw from the conference on May 15, 1991. Citing its recent growth and evolution as a regional, comprehensive state university (enrollment had double since 1976 to 6,000 students) Tarleton State became the first TIAA member to join the Lone Star Conference (Midwestern State moved to the Lone Star Conference in 1995).
Further expansion in the early 1990s, with the addition of University of the Ozarks (Clarksville, Ark.) and Mississippi College (Clinton, Miss.), along with the hiring of the first commissioner, brought further exposure and recognition to the TIAA. At its spring meeting in May of 1996, the TIAA hired Fred Jacoby as its first commissioner and renamed itself the American Southwest Conference (ASC) to better reflect the geography of the conference.
University of Mary Hardin-Baylor (Belton, Texas) joined the conference in 1997, becoming the first school to be added to the newly named ASC. The end of 1997 brought four new schools into the conference with the addition of University of Texas at Dallas (Richardson, Texas), Schreiner College (Kerrville, Texas), LeTourneau University (Longview, Texas), East Texas Baptist University (Marshall, Texas) and Concordia University at Austin (Austin, Texas). With total membership at 14 schools, the ASC moved to a East-West Divisional alignment to determine its conference champions.
