When the Southern Conference wrestling tournament gets under way this morning in Chattanooga, history will be made.
It's the 75th such tournament, and two schools will compete in it for the first time.
Campbell University and Gardner-Webb will join regular-season champion Appalachian State, defending champ University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, The Citadel, Davidson and VMI.
The tournament begins at 10 a.m. in McKenzie Arena with doors opening at 9. Championship finals in the seven-team event are scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.
Campbell finished fourth behind Appalachian, UTC and The Citadel, and Gardner-Webb was sixth in the regular-season standings. Next year the league will have eight teams with Southern Illinois-Edwardsville stepping in.
"Any time you can increase the number of teams in the conference and the strength of those teams in the conference, it's a good thing," UTC assistant coach Rocco Mansueto said. "When start adding teams to the conference, and now we're up to seven, it keeps us out of that danger zone."
To keep their 10 automatic bids to the NCAA tournament, conferences must have at least five schools with wrestling teams, and the SoCon was facing that jeopardy last year after UNC Greensboro dropped its program.
The additions were welcomed with open arms by SoCon coaches.
"It's great for the conference," The Citadel's Rob Hjerling said. "It can only help everyone from top to bottom. As a team, Gardner-Webb and Campbell were competitive this year. Each has some individuals who have a shot at getting to the national tournament. Both are pretty young and it's apparent they're going to be teams to be dealt with in the very near future.
"I definitely feel the conference is tougher, and it's young and moving in the right direction."
Appalachian's JohnMark Bentley welcomes the competition.
"By having those three, hopefully they'll be improving and then pushing schools like us and UTC and The Citadel. This conference is a lot stronger than it was when I came here six years ago," he said. "Every program has coaches that are committed to success."
Gardner-Webb has moved from NAIA to NCAA Division II and now to NCAA Division I.
"Although it's a harder road to qualifying for the NCAA tournament, our kids feel it's a more legitimate road than was the East region," coach Richard Wince said. "It has helped our recruiting already because some prospective students who want a more prestigious experience believe they can get the best of both worlds -- a meaningful conference in which to compete and the unique experience of a Christian institution. As orphans in every conference in which the university has been a member, it's been frustrating that there has been no meaningful championship at stake until now."
Campbell had some success, beating longtime conference members Davidson and VMI.
"We got our clocks cleaned," Fighting Camels coach Joe Boardwine said. "We did some winning, yes, but in the dual meets with Citadel, Chattanooga and Appalachian, our inexperience showed and it was a wakeup call for many of our young starters."
While he is excited about the conference membership, Boardwine's team suffered growing pains in January.
"I was disgusted with how we wrestled most of January after a pretty good start in November and December," he said. "We did some backsliding and had to really change some things. I was much more satisfied with how we looked at the end of February."
The Camels wound up with five guys on the league's all-freshman team.
"I don't think it necessarily translates to future success," Boardwine said. "We have some talent and it is young, and if those guys and our incoming freshmen will commit to training year-round and living the wrestling lifestyle, then I think you will see that youth start to improve and grow."
SIU-Edwardsville has made the jump to Division I also.
"Appalachian State and Chattanooga have given the league respectability, and the league is better top to bottom than last year and I see it getting better every year," coach David Ray said. "High school athletes are looking at the SoCon more now than the past, and I see this attention increasing over the years, which will make the league more competitive nationally."
SIUE has kept the sport going the past four years on more of a club level.
"It will take a few years to compete in the SoCon top echelon, but I think we will improve quickly being in a solid conference like the SoCon," Ray said.