Rhodes College is among eight small private colleges across the south that will form a new athletic conference set to being operations in July 2012.
The announcement was made in Atlanta on Tuesday. Officials have not yet named the conference.
Rhodes, founded in 1848 and relocated to Memphis in 1925, is an NCAA Division III school and has been a member of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference since it’s formation in 1961.
The unnamed conference will focus on small liberal arts colleges in the Southeast to help reduce travel time and costs for teams and focus on academics.
Jay Gardiner, athletic director at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta, will serve as the conference’s interim commissioner.
In addition to Rhodes, six other current members of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference announced their intentions to leave the league and form the new conference.
Those colleges are: Hendrix College, Millsaps College, the University of the South, Berry College, Birmingham-Southern College and Centre College.
Colleges forming the new conference are expected to compete in baseball, basketball, cross country, field hockey, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, outdoor track and field and volleyball.
