The Sun Conference, formerly the Florida Sun Conference, is heading into its 20th season of competition and continues to be one of the most successful intercollegiate athletic conferences in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).
The league unveiled its new name, "The Sun Conference" on August 18, 2008 to be inclusive of member schools from Georgia and South Carolina.
The institutions in the conference believe in strong educational commitment combined with balanced athletic competition. Originally formed in March 1990 as the Florida Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (FIAC), the Sun Conference was established as a conference for small independent institutions within the NAIA. The name "Florida Sun Conference" was adopted in 1992.
The league sponsors championships in baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s track and field, and field and women’s volleyball.
The Sun Conference showed that it is a league to be reckoned with as it placed two teams in the top 20 in the 2008-09 Learfield Sports Directors' Cup race presented by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics. Embry-Riddle finished eighth with 625.25 points, while Savannah College of Art & Design was eighth with 475.5 points.
Embry-Riddle turned in top 10 finishes in women’s golf (3rd), men’s tennis (3rd) men’s cross country (7th), men’s track and field (5th) and baseball (9th). The women’s track team, led by Beth McCubbin’s national championship in the 1,000m, was 13th at the national indoor meet. SCAD's women’s swimming and diving team bringing home the Bees' first national title. SCAD also received top 10 performances from men’s swimming and diving (4th), men’s tennis (5th) and women’s tennis (9th), and were 13th and 14th in women’s and men’s golf, respectively.
Embry-Riddle and Northwood finished one, two in The Sun Conference Commissioner’s Cup Standings. Since the league’s inception in 1990, only five teams have captured the Commissioner’s Cup, formerly known as the All-Sports Trophy. Embry-Riddle won its 10th straight cup in 2008-09, continuing to set the mark for cups won. Former member (now NCAA II) Nova Southeastern is second with five honors (1992-93, 1994-95, 1995-96, 1996-97 & 1998-99), St. Thomas is third claiming the cup twice in the 1993-94 and 1998-99 seasons, while Webber International (1990-91) and Flagler (1991-92) each earned the award during the first two years of the conference when the league was known as the FIAC.
The cup is awarded annually to the strongest athletic program in the league. Points are awarded in descending order to the nine schools in the 15 conference sports based on regular season standings in each sport; nine for first place, eight for second place, and so on. In addition, one bonus point is awarded to both the tournament champions in each sport that has a regular season conference schedule as well as a post season tournament.
During its 19-year existence, the conference has quickly established postseason tradition, consistently winning region championships and representing the Southeast at the NAIA national tournaments. In fact, last year 15 league teams found themselves in the Top 10 of their respective NAIA national polls.
Individually speaking, student-athletes from The Sun Conference have proven themselves worthy of national recognition year after year. In 2008-09 alone, 51 FSC athletes earned NAIA All-America and honorable-mention accolades. 77 Sun Conference athletes were also named Daktronics-NAIA Scholar Athletes. Embry-Riddle's Beth McCubbin claimed her second individual national title in track in 2009. The conference also boasts two NAIA National Players of the Year. In baseball, Embry-Riddle’s Frank Thompson claimed the highest honor in 1996, while Warner's Josh Hall was pegged as the Association’s top basketball player following the 1998-99 season.
The roots of The Sun Conference date back to 1990 when the league was originally formed as the Florida Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Original membership consisted of Embry-Riddle, Flagler, Florida Memorial, Nova (now Nova Southeastern), Palm Beach Atlantic, St. Thomas, Webber International and Warner Southern.
The league grew to nine members with the addition of Northwood in 1994. Between 2002 and 2006, Nova Southeastern, Palm Beach Atlantic and Flagler moved to NCAA II, but was able to recruit new members as Savannah College of Art and Design joined in 2004 followed by Edward Waters in 2006. In February 2008, the University of South Carolina at Beaufort was accepted into the league to begin membership in 2008-09, and Johnson and Wales, Southeastern and Ave Maria (Associate Member) will bring the league membership to 12 schools when they begin membership in 2009-10.