Southwestern athletics photo by Carlos Barron

Southwestern University announced its football program will move to the Southern Athletic Association to start the 2023 season as an affiliate member.

“We are thrilled to add Southwestern as an affiliate in football,” said SAA commissioner Jay Gardiner. “All of us associated with the SAA are excited at the prospect of competing against a program representing such high academic standards and competing as a true believer in the ideals of NCAA Division III. On behalf of our conference, I want to thank Southwestern president Laura Skandera Trombley and director of athletics Glenn Schwab on their leadership throughout this process.”

"Southwestern has a previous history with many of the schools in the SAA, and we are excited about renewing old rivalries," Schwab said. "This change is not a reflection of our relationship with the schools of the ASC, and we will look to play as many of these schools as our schedule will allow moving forward."

SAA core members include Birmingham-Southern, Centre, Hendrix, Millsaps, Oglethorpe, Berry, Rhodes and Sewanee. Trinity (Texas) also competes in football as an affiliate member.

"When we started this program in 2012, we established our vision to be the elite high-academic football team in Division III," Southwestern coach Joe Austin said. "Playing in the SAA against other high-academic schools will allow us to aggressively pursue that vision."

The modern Southwestern football program had its inaugural season in 2013 as a member of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference , where it competed until 2016, ending as the conference's final football champion. Southwestern joined the American Southwest Conference in 2017. Next season will be Southwestern's last as a member of the ASC.

Southwestern posted a 14-13 mark in conference play in its first three seasons in the ASC before going 0-5 in the spring 2021 season.