The Volunteer State Athletic Conference (VSAC) was a college athletic conference which was predominantly for smaller college

College

A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

s in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

.

The VSAC was organized in the 1940s and dissolved in the early 1980s. Member schools were in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics is an athletic association that organizes college and university-level athletic programs. Membership in the NAIA consists of smaller colleges and universities across the United States. The NAIA allows colleges and universities outside the USA...

 (NAIA). Long-term members of the conference included the institutions now known as Belmont University

Belmont University

Belmont University is a private, coeducational, liberal arts university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. It is the largest Christian university in Tennessee and the second largest private university in the state, behind nearby Vanderbilt University.-Belmont Mansion:Belmont Mansion...

, Bethel College

Bethel College (Tennessee)

Bethel University is a Cumberland Presbyterian college in McKenzie, Tennessee.-Biography:It was founded in 1842 in McLemoresville, Tennessee as Bethel Seminary, becoming Bethel College in 1850, and given a state charter in 1847, making it one of the oldest colleges to use the name "Bethel...

, Bryan College

Bryan College

Bryan College is a Christian liberal arts college in Dayton, Tennessee. It was founded in the aftermath of the 1925 Scopes Trial to establish an institution of higher education that would teach from a Christian worldview.-History:...

, Carson-Newman College

Carson-Newman College

Carson–Newman College is a historically Baptist liberal arts college located in Jefferson City, Tennessee, United States. Enrollment as of 2006-2007 was about 2,050. The college's students come from 44 U.S. states and 30 other countries. Studies are offered in approximately 90 different academic...

, Christian Brothers University

Christian Brothers University

Christian Brothers University is the oldest collegiate degree-granting institution in the city of Memphis. The university is run by the Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic religious order founded by St. John Baptist de la Salle, the patron saint of teachers...

, King College, Lambuth College, Lee University

Lee University

Lee University is an American accredited, private, four-year liberal arts college located in Cleveland, Tennessee, United States. It is historically affiliated with the Church of God, a Pentecostal denomination, and was the denomination's Bible Training School from 1918 until 1947, when the name...

, Lincoln Memorial University

Lincoln Memorial University

Lincoln Memorial University is a private four-year co-educational liberal arts college located in Harrogate, Tennessee.LMU's campus borders on Cumberland Gap National Historical Park....

, Lipscomb University

Lipscomb University

Lipscomb University is a private, coeducational, liberal arts university in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. It is affiliated with the Churches of Christ. The campus is located in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville between Belmont Boulevard to the west and Granny White Pike on the east...

, Milligan College

Milligan College

Milligan College is a Christian liberal arts college founded in 1866 and located immediately outside of Elizabethton in Carter County, Tennessee, United States. The school has a student population of just over 1,100 students as well as a campus that is located just minutes from downtown Johnson City...

, Tusculum College

Tusculum College

Tusculum College is a coeducational private college affiliated with the Presbyterian Church , with its main campus in Tusculum, Tennessee, United States, a suburb of Greeneville...

, Tennessee Wesleyan College

Tennessee Wesleyan College

Tennessee Wesleyan College is a small liberal arts college founded in 1857, located in the East Tennessee city of Athens. It is affiliated with the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church...

 and Union University

Union University

Union University is a private, evangelical Christian, liberal arts university located in Jackson, Tennessee, with additional campuses in Germantown, Tennessee, and Hendersonville, Tennessee...

. The conference dissolved when the institutions in the eastern portion of the state seceded to form the Tennessee Valley Athletic Conference (TVAC). Those in the western part of the state formed in turn the Tennessee Collegiate Athletic Conference

Tennessee Collegiate Athletic Conference

The Tennessee Collegiate Athletic Conference was a former college athletic conference which was predominantly for smaller, private colleges in Western and Middle Tennessee.-Conference History:...

 (TCAC). The Appalachian Athletic Conference

Appalachian Athletic Conference (NAIA)

The Appalachian Athletic Conference is a college athletic conference that competes in National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Division II competition. Members of the conference are located in the Southeast United States in Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia...

 is the direct successor of the Tennessee Valley Athletic Conference and was known as such until the mid-1990s when the addition of schools in Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina necessitated the name change. The current TranSouth Athletic Conference

TranSouth Athletic Conference

The TranSouth Athletic Conference is a college athletic conference for smaller colleges and universities located in the Southern United States...

 is sometimes regarded as something of a successor to the TCAC.

Other founding members of the VSAC include East Tennessee State University

East Tennessee State University

East Tennessee State University is an accredited American university located in Johnson City, Tennessee. It is part of the Tennessee Board of Regents system of colleges and universities, the nation's sixth largest system of public education, and is the fourth largest university in the state...

, Middle Tennessee State University

Middle Tennessee State University

Middle Tennessee State University, commonly abbreviated as MTSU, is a public university located in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, United States....

, Austin Peay State University

Austin Peay State University

Austin Peay State University is a four-year public university located in Clarksville, Tennessee, and operated by the Tennessee Board of Regents. It is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools .-History:...

 and Tennessee Technological University

Tennessee Technological University

Tennessee Technological University, popularly known as Tennessee Tech, is an accredited public university located in Cookeville, Tennessee, US, a city approximately seventy miles east of Nashville. It was formerly known as Tennessee Polytechnic Institute , and before that as Dixie College, the...

.