SUNBELT CONFERENCE

On July 1, 2013, the Georgia State Athletic Department officially became a full member of the Sun Belt Conference and competed for championships in 14 league-sponsored sports during its first year.

The Panthers performed well during their first seven seasons, winning six men’s basketball championships, along with three titles in women’s tennis, two in men’s golf, and one in men’s soccer and men’s tennis.

In his I have a Dream speech made 57 years ago today, Martin Luther King, Jr. declared, “Now is the time to rise from the dark . . . to the sunlit path of racial justice.” The Sun Belt Conference is providing its student-athletes, coaches, and staff with a path for promoting racial equity through its BE THE CHANGE initiative.

Founded in 1976, the Sun Belt has adapted and evolved in its 44 years of existence. The league was originally formed as a home for some of the nation’s premier mid-major basketball teams and it wasn’t until a number of chang¬es and the demand for a higher national profile that the league began sponsoring football in 2001. Because of this decision to move the league in the group of football playing conferences, the Sun Belt Conference has a permanent seat

NCAA PRINCIPLE OF SPORTING BEHAVIOR AND ETHICAL CONDUCT

For intercollegiate athletics to promote the character development of participants, to enhance the integrity of higher education and to promote civility in society, student-athletes, coaches, and all others associated with these athletics programs and events should adhere to such fundamental values as respect, fairness, civility, honesty and responsibility. These values should be manifest not only in athletics participation, but also in the broad spectrum of activities affecting the athletics program.

SUN BELT BASKETBALL

For the ninth year the Sun Belt Conference sent multiple men’s basketball teams to the postseason in nine straight years before the COVID-19 pandemic eliminated postseason play in March 2020. Little Rock won the Sun Belt Conference regular season title for the 2019-20 season, however multiple teams, including Georgia State, were expected to go on to postseason play. Formed in 1976, the Sun Belt quickly rose to the greatest heights of collegiate athletics by sending a team to the NCAA Men’s Final Four in the league’s first year of existence.