Get to Know the (Former) FCS: Gulf Star Conference (1984-1986)
Years in Existence: 1984-1986 (1987 as a conference at all)
Former Headquarters: Lake Charles, Louisiana
Former Commissioner(s): Dave Waples (1984-1987)
History
In 1984, the Gulf Star Conference was chartered to serve as a regional I-AA conference for its six founding members. These members included three Texas schools—Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin, and Southwest Texas State (now just Texas State)—and three Louisiana schools—Nicholls, Northwestern State, and Southeastern Louisiana (who’s subsequently dropped “Louisiana” from their preferred name). The three Louisiana schools had all been playing as I-AA independents since at least 1980 (and in Northwestern State’s case, since the start of the subdivison in 1978), while the three Texas schools were all transfers from the DII Lone Star Conference that they had been charter members of since 1931.
The conference would exist for only three academic years (1984-85 through 1986-87), with the 1986 season being their last in football. In the end, it was changes outside the league that would prevent the Gulf Star Conference from maturing. Because five and a half hours north-west of the Gulf Star’s office in Lake Charles, the main office of the Southland Conference was dealing with an existential crisis.
Following the 1985 season, one of the Southland’s founding members, UT Arlington, decided to drop football. This in itself was not a major issue, as they remained in the conference for other sports and their football had been bleeding roughly a million dollars per year. But then at the end of the 1986, Arkansas State, Lamar, and Louisiana Tech all decided to leave the conference to charter the American South Conference with the likes of University of New Orleans, Southwestern Louisiana (now just Louisiana), and the University of Texas–Pan American (now merged into the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley).
This left the Southland at just three football members, which obviously is not enough to properly function as a I-AA football conference (see present day Big South). But the Southland had and ace up its sleeve: a basketball autobid. So rather than collapse, it went looking to shore itself, offering membership to four schools in the fledgling Gulf Star Conference (which did not have a basketball autobid). And thus, Texas State, Northwestern State, Sam Houston, and Stephen F. Austin would all depart in 1987.
This left just two schools, and seeing as two is less than three, and we’ve already established that even three teams wasn’t enough to sustain a football conference, this spelled the end of the Gulf Star. Nicholls and Southeastern, the remaining two schools, would go back to playing as I-AA independents starting in the 1987 season. However, both would go on to join the Southland Conference eventually (Nicholls in 1991 and Southeastern Louisiana in 1997), where all former members but Texas State (who’d end up joining the FBS in 2012) and Sam Houston (who departed for the WAC in 2021, then subsequently initiate their own FBS jump the following year) still remain. This essentially makes the Gulf Star Conference’s history a tributary to the Southland’s.
Looking back at its short existence, the Gulf Star Conference did have minor success in the subdivision by the end of their run, placing two teams (Nicholls and Sam Houston State) into the 16 team playoffs in 1986. But all in all, the conference was just a small blip on the radar of the subdivision, serving as much as the stepping stone as anything.
Membership
The Gulf Star Conference had a total of six members during its three years in existence.
Conference Success and Strength
Conference Championships
FCS National Championships
No member school ever won a national championship while a member of the Gulf Star in the conference’s three years of existence. However, in the conference’s final season of football, both Sam Houston and Nicholls made the I-AA playoffs. Nicholls would win its first game, making it to the quarterfinals before losing to eventual champ Georgia Southern.
Posted Aug 5, 2023, 1:23 PM UTC