11 Schools•Division II•Est. 1975
The SSC was founded in 1975, when six schools met in Lakeland and St. Petersburg to build a Division II basketball league. The name came from a suggestion at that second meeting and stuck. Florida Southern beat Eckerd in the first conference game ever played, and the league grew from one sport into a full slate of championships across the state. Headquarters sit in Orlando, and every member is a private Florida institution.
They call it the Conference of National Champions, and the trophy case backs it up. SSC schools have won more than 140 NCAA Division II team championships, including a Division II record nine in a single year. Florida Southern leads the way with more than 30, built on baseball and men's golf. Tampa and Barry are close behind, Tampa in baseball, swimming, lacrosse and volleyball, Barry in tennis, soccer and rowing. Nova Southeastern, Lynn and Rollins have all stacked titles of their own, and the league has claimed more than 100 national runner-up trophies on top of that.
The alumni list runs to the majors, the tours and the Games. Tino Martinez came out of Tampa, Tim Wakefield out of Florida Tech, J.D. Martinez out of Nova Southeastern. Lee Janzen won two U.S. Opens after Florida Southern. SSC athletes turn up at every Olympics in swimming, rowing, basketball, track and ice hockey, competing for Italy, Malta, Spain, Paraguay, El Salvador, South Sudan, Finland and the United States.
The classroom record matches. The SSC has led all Division II conferences in Academic Success Rate for a decade running and set a Division II record at 90 percent. More than 1,500 athletes make the Commissioner's Honor Roll each year.
Rivalries are short drives. Florida Southern and Tampa is the league's oldest and best. Eckerd and Saint Leo trade punches across four sports an hour apart. Florida Southern and Rollins goes back nearly a century.
Official Website
The SSC was founded in 1975, when six schools met in Lakeland and St. Petersburg to build a Division II basketball league. The name came from a suggestion at that second meeting and stuck. Florida Southern beat Eckerd in the first conference game ever played, and the league grew from one sport into a full slate of championships across the state. Headquarters sit in Orlando, and every member is a private Florida institution.
They call it the Conference of National Champions, and the trophy case backs it up. SSC schools have won more than 140 NCAA Division II team championships, including a Division II record nine in a single year. Florida Southern leads the way with more than 30, built on baseball and men's golf. Tampa and Barry are close behind, Tampa in baseball, swimming, lacrosse and volleyball, Barry in tennis, soccer and rowing. Nova Southeastern, Lynn and Rollins have all stacked titles of their own, and the league has claimed more than 100 national runner-up trophies on top of that.
The alumni list runs to the majors, the tours and the Games. Tino Martinez came out of Tampa, Tim Wakefield out of Florida Tech, J.D. Martinez out of Nova Southeastern. Lee Janzen won two U.S. Opens after Florida Southern. SSC athletes turn up at every Olympics in swimming, rowing, basketball, track and ice hockey, competing for Italy, Malta, Spain, Paraguay, El Salvador, South Sudan, Finland and the United States.
The classroom record matches. The SSC has led all Division II conferences in Academic Success Rate for a decade running and set a Division II record at 90 percent. More than 1,500 athletes make the Commissioner's Honor Roll each year.
Rivalries are short drives. Florida Southern and Tampa is the league's oldest and best. Eckerd and Saint Leo trade punches across four sports an hour apart. Florida Southern and Rollins goes back nearly a century.
Official Website