(This is the first of a four-part series looking at an overview of the four new Conference USA teams joining the league July 1).
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Jacksonville State University
Location: Jacksonville, Ala.
Mascot: Gamecocks
Enrollment: 9,021
Founded: 1883
Former Conference: A-Sun (just 2022-23; formerly in the Ohio Valley Conference from 2003-2022)
Notable Alums: Eric Davis (All-Pro and Super Bowl safety with NFL’s San Fran 49ers), Ashley Martin (NCAA First Female to play & score in a college football game), Rick Bragg (Pulitzer Prize winning author), Heather Whitestone McCallum (Miss America 1995), Todd Jones (former MLB All-Star relief pitcher)
NCAA Sponsored Men’s Programs (7): Baseball, Basketball, Cross Country, Football, Golf, Rifle, Tennis
NCAA Sponsored Women’s Programs (11): Basketball, Bowling, Cross Country, Golf, Soccer, Softball, Tennis, Indoor Track and Field, Outdoor Track and Field, Volleyball, Beach Volleyball
Notes: During its time in the Ohio Valley Conference from 2003-22, Jacksonville State won 81 OVC Championships over 18 years … JSU has seen 15 of its 17 programs bring home various titles and combine for 55 trips to NCAA postseason play … Jacksonville State spent one year as a member of the Atlantic Sun (2023-24) before moving to C-USA this coming year … Head baseball coach Jim Case (who the JSU baseball stadium is named after) is a 1983 Louisiana Tech alum … Case was an all-conference catcher for the Bulldogs in the early 1980s … This will be Jacksonville State’s first year as a member of the Football Bowl Subdivision, moving up from the FCS … Former West Virginia, Michigan, Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez is the head coach of the Gamecocks football program ….
Athletic Budget: $18,500,000
About Jacksonville State University (from JSU.edu): Located in the Appalachian foothills almost midway between Birmingham and Atlanta, JSU has grown from very humble beginnings as a state teachers college in 1883 into the Alabama regional university with the highest percentage of accredited programs.
