Photo by Mike Atherton, d3photography.com

The Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference announced that Gallaudet has accepted affiliate membership in football, effective with the 2026 season. The addition keeps the league’s football membership at six and satisfies NCAA Division III requirements for the SCAC and its champion to receive an automatic qualifier in football. The SCAC last earned an AQ in football in 2011.

When the 2026 season opens, the SCAC will field six football programs: four core members (Austin College, Centenary (La.), Hendrix and Texas Lutheran) and two affiliates (Lyon and Gallaudet). Under current NCAA policy, the conference will have an automatic bid to the 2026 playoffs.

The Division III championships committee announced 28 automatic bid conferences for 2026 recently, including the New England Small College Athletic Conference, which will be participating in the playoffs for the first time. The SCAC was not on that list of 28, but that might not be a deal-breaker.

“It’s not exactly the pathway we imagined when we agreed to reinstate the sport back in 2022, but I could not be more pleased that we can now offer our football student‑athletes a guaranteed pathway to the NCAA Championships,” said SCAC commissioner Dwayne Hanberry.

Specific to the addition of Gallaudet, Hanberry said, “Gallaudet enriches our league with a proud tradition of excellence, a strong commitment to student‑athlete development, and a unique cultural perspective that will strengthen competition and community across the conference. We are excited to have them participate as a vital part of our championship weekend.”

Gallaudet, which competed last season as an affiliate of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference, will not play a SCAC conference schedule. Instead, the Bison will be placed into the conference championship pairings based on the team’s NPI ranking entering Week 11. Gallaudet has committed to this arrangement for the 2026 and 2027 seasons.

The Bison have seven Division III games on their schedule for next year, plus a few games against club-level opponents that do not count in the institution's stats, or for their NPI.

“Gallaudet football has been around since 1883 and has a rich history, as the Home of the Huddle™ so it was vital for us to preserve the sustainability of our program,” said Gallaudet athletics director Warren Keller. “That meant balancing scheduling autonomy with a clear pathway to compete for the NCAA Tournament. The SCAC has been developing exceptional student-athletes since 1962, and we are honored and thrilled for our institution to be a part of something special as an affiliate member, compete at the famed War Memorial Stadium, and expand our recruiting base.”

The 2026 SCAC Football Championships will be held Saturday, November 14, at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Arkansas. This will be the second consecutive year the league’s season‑ending championship is played at the historic venue. All six teams will participate, with three games scheduled across Championship Saturday. The championship game winner will receive the SCAC’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Football Championship.