It would be easy to write off Mercer University this Saturday as another bottom-feeding meal for Auburn to devour.
The Macon, Ga. university returned to playing football in 2013 following a 72-year hiatus stemming from the United State’s involvement in World War II. It had been 72 years since the Bears took any football field, but they did so as a member of the same conference they began with -- the Southern Conference.
The Southern Conference (SoCon) was founded on Feb. 21, 1921, after half of the massive, 28-team Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA) dissolved to form their own conference. It is, arguably, the third-oldest collegiate conference in the United States.
As an original member of the SIAA, Alabama Polytechnic Institute -- now recognized as Auburn University -- had to play Mercer before the start of the 20th century. Mercer had joined SIAA in 1896 after its establishment in 1895, and John Heisman’s team routed the Bears in Auburn’s 1896 season-opening win, 46-0.
Even after losing Heisman to Georgia School of Technology (Georgia Tech), Auburn continued its winning streak against Mercer for the next 10 seasons.
After the SIAA lost 14 teams, which include seven future members of the eventual Southeastern Conference (SEC) and Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), Mercer remained loyal until 1937. They would move to the Dixie Conference before the start of World War II.
While Mercer was away, the SoCon lived on as a prehistoric SEC-ACC predecessor.
Had the conference remained intact through the years, it would have had no opposition in comparable success. Notable founding SoCon teams include the University of Alabama, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Kentucky University.
Through basketball and football alone, the conference that could have been would have been the most dominant league in any sport ever. But, even as its members fell away to form their own regional conferences, the SoCon still maintained its place in collegiate sport history.
In 1922, UNC-Chapel Hill won the first Southern Conference Men’s Basketball Championship. The Tar Heels were honored as the first recognized league champion in any sport, and the championship stands as the oldest collegiate tournament.
While the NCAA was discussing the introduction of the 3-point shot, and, in turn, a 22-foot arc encircling the basket, they decided to test the waters by introducing the shot to just one conference. If they were to make a decision, if the shot could make collegiate basketball better, they had better see it happen in real time.
On Nov. 29, 1980, Western Carolina University guard Ronnie Carr made NCAA’s first 3-point shot in a 77-70 win over then in-conference opponent Middle Tennessee State University.
The 3-point shot would be immortalized in SoCon lore, with the likes of Davidson College presenting Stephen Curry to the world in a definitive 2008 NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament. Curry would later become the first player in NBA history to tally 400 3-pointers in a single season.
The basketball that Carr shot, along with parts of his uniform, are enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Ma.
For SoCon football, the story of notoriety is a bit different.
Most will recognize the SoCon for introducing Appalachian State University to Division I football. The Mountaineers, who are now part of the Sun Belt Conference, upset No. 5 Michigan on a blocked field goal as a Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) team in 2007.
The Mountaineers won three straight FCS championships from 2005-07 and 12 SoCon titles over their 41-year involvement.
More recently, Georgia Southern, who Auburn defeated in their home opener, upset the Florida Gators in Gainesville, Fla. for the Gators’ first-ever loss to a lower division team. The Eagles moved up to Division I the following season.
Now, 121 years after their first meeting, Auburn will play Mercer once again.
However surreal it might sound, writing in an upset at Jordan-Hare would be a typical addition to the history of the Southern Conference.
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