Beginning with the 2026-27 academic year, Jarvis Christian University in Hawkins will begin competing in the Historically Black Colleges & Universities Athletic Conference (HBCUAC). The move was announced at a news conference last week at the university. 

In 2024 the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference was reshaped into the HBCUAC with 15 member schools. Jarvis Christian University has become the sixteenth member of the new conference. 

HBCUAC schools compete in men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s soccer, men’s and women’s track and field, women’s volleyball, softball and baseball.

Membership of the conference is composed of the Dillard University Bleu Devils of New Orleans, La.; the Fisk University Bulldogs of Nashville, Tenn.; the Huston-Tillotson University Rams of Austin; the Jarvis Christian University Bulldogs of Hawkins; the Oakwood University Ambassadors of Huntsville, Ala.; the Paul Quinn College Tigers of Dallas; the Philander Smith University Black Panthers of Little Rock, Ark.; the Rust College Bearcats of Holly Springs, Miss.; the Southern University Jaguars of Baton Rouge, La.; the Stillman College Tigers of Tuscaloosa, Ala.; the Talladega College Tornadoes of Talladega, Ala.; the Tougaloo College Bulldogs of Jackson, Miss.; the University of the Virgin Islands Buccaneers of Charlotte Amalie, V.I.; the Vorhees University Tigers of Denmark, S.C.; the Wilberforce University Bulldogs of Wilberforce, Ohio; and the Wiley University Wildcats of Marshall.