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Moments in Time Curating the History of SEC Women's Athletics

Fifty Years of Title IX: Creating Opportunities

Throughout this calendar year we will celebrate the past, present and future of women’s athletics in the SEC.

1970's • 1980's • 1990's • 2000's • 2010's • 2020's

1979-1980

Basketball, volleyball and tennis become the first Southeastern Conference women's sports to be recognized with a conference championship.

1979

The Kentucky "Lady Kats" win the first SEC volleyball league title with a 3-1 win over Tennessee in the tournament finals, finishing with a 35-18 overall record.

1980

The SEC hosts its inaugural women's basketball tournament. Held in Knoxville, the first-ever tournament game played was Florida defeating Mississippi State, 68-62. Four days later, Pat Head's Tennessee Lady Vols defeated Ole Miss, 85-71, in the championship game to capture its first conference title.

1980

Florida wins the first SEC Championship in women's tennis. In the beginning, the championship was determined by the accumulation of points in an individual flighted tournament.

1980-81

SEC adds championships for women's golf, gymnastics, swimming & diving, and outdoor track & field.

1981

The Florida Gators win the inaugural SEC swimming & diving title with 913 points.

1981

LSU captures the first SEC title in gymnastics with a score of 141.10.

1981

Georgia defeats Pittsburg, California, and Arizona State (in OT) to capture the NWIT Championship, the first-ever national championship of any kind for the SEC in women's basketball.

1981

Florida wins the first-ever women's golf SEC title in Opelika, Ala. with a team score of 875. The Gators' Lynn Connelly won the individual title with a score of 217.

1981

Tennessee scores 197 points at the first league outdoor track & field championships to take the title.

1982

Florida becomes the first SEC school to win an NCAA title in any sport. The Gators, under Coach Randy Reese, scored 505 points to take the swimming & diving national championship. Fast forward to today, the SEC has won 14 NCAA titles in women’s swimming & diving.

1982

The Tennessee Lady Vols become the first SEC team to reach the women's Final Four. After beating Jackson State, Memphis State and Southern Cal to reach the Final Four, the Volunteers lose to Louisiana Tech in the semifinals.

1982

Florida swimmer Tracy Caulkins is the first SEC female athlete to be chosen as the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year, an award now known as the Honda-Broderick Cup. Caulkins won it again in 1984. In addition, Chamique Holdsclaw (Tennessee), Candace Parker (Tennessee) and Courtney Kupets (Georgia) have won the prestigious award.

1983

Tennessee wins the first SEC Cross Country Championship held in Lexington, Ky.

1983

Georgia becomes the first school to have both its men's and women's teams reach the Final Four. Andy Landers' women defeated North Carolina, Indiana and Tennessee before losing to Southern California in the semifinals of the Final Four held in Norfolk, Va.

1984

Tennessee wins the first SEC Indoor track & field Championship with 148.5 points.

1984

Women's athletics comes under the auspices of the SEC.

1985

Florida wins the NCAA title in golf, the first national championship in the sport for the league. Five national titles have been won in women's golf. Florida won again in 1986, Georgia in 2001, Alabama won in 2012 and Ole Miss in 2021.

1987

Georgia wins the national title in gymnastics, scoring 187.90 points. Georgia has won ten NCAA titles in gymnastics, while Alabama has won six and Florida has won three to give the conference a total of 19.

1987

Pat Summitt's Lady Volunteers win their, and the SEC's, first ever NCAA title in women's basketball when Tennessee defeated Louisiana Tech, 67-44, in Austin, Texas. Tennessee has won eight SEC national titles, while South Carolina has won two in basketball.

1987

LSU wins the first NCAA titles in Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field for the SEC. A total of 18 national titles have been won by SEC women's indoor teams, while 20 national titles have been won by SEC women's outdoor teams.

1988

Auburn and Tennessee reach the Final Four of the Women's NCAA Basketball Tournament, marking the first time one conference had two teams in the final round. Louisiana Tech defeated the Lady Vols in the semifinals and nipped Joe Ciampi's Auburn Tigers, 56-54, in the championship game.

1988

The Kentucky Wildcats take home the SEC's first national title in cross country.

1989

The league has the top three teams (1. Auburn 2. Tennessee 3. Ole Miss) in the Associated Press Women's Basketball Poll. The SEC would go on to do it again in 2005 (1. Tennessee 2. LSU 3. Georgia).

1989

Tennessee's and Auburn's women's basketball teams again reach the Final Four and this time both make it to the championship game where Pat Summitt's Volunteers defeat Joe Ciampi's Tigers, 76-60 for the national crown. It is the first time that the same conference has two teams in the title tilt.

1992

Florida wins the NCAA Division I Women's Tennis Championship. It's the first of ten national titles in women's tennis for the conference. Vanderbilt has won one, Georgia has won two, while the Gators have won seven.

1993

SEC institutions adopt the Principles of Gender Equity recognizing that each school will provide at least two more women's intercollegiate programs than the number of men's teams.

1993

Vanderbilt defeats Arkansas 3-2 in double overtime to take the first SEC crown in soccer. Soccer became a sponsored sport by the SEC with four teams playing (Arkansas, Auburn, Kentucky and Vanderbilt). All 12 members began play in 1996 with all 14 currently sponsoring.

1995

FOX Sports South broadcasts the SEC Tournament Championship match between Alabama and Kentucky on a tape-delayed basis, signifying the first appearance of an SEC women's soccer match on television. The Wildcats captured their first SEC Championship, defeating the Crimson Tide, 2-1.

1995

Lea Slatter of Vanderbilt becomes the first SEC soccer player named an All-American. The NSCAA named her to the third team.

1997

South Carolina's Trinity Johnson pitches the first perfect game in SEC softball history. The Gamecocks defeated North Carolina, 1-0.

1997

South Carolina defeats Florida, 6-0 to win the first SEC Softball Championship.

1997

Tennessee's Dena Head becomes the first SEC player to be drafted by the WNBA. Head was drafted first overall in the first round of the Elite Draft. Since the inaugural WNBA draft in 1997, the SEC has had 172 former players drafted for the professional league, including six No. 1 picks.

1998

Florida wins the NCAA Division I Women's Soccer College Cup with a 1-0 victory over North Carolina. It's the only national title in soccer for the league.

1998

The SEC enters the record book as the only conference to sweep the top three spots at the NCAA gymnastics meet (Georgia, Florida, Alabama).

1999

The SEC is the first league to ever have eight teams invited to the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament. The league has achieved this feat five times, in 1999, 2002, 2012, 2014 and 2017.

2004

LSU's Kristin Schmidt becomes the SEC's first Women's College World Series MVP.

2011

A league-record eight teams receive invitations to compete in the NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Championship: South Carolina, Auburn, Kentucky, LSU, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia.

2011

Kentucky wins the national title in Rifle, a co-ed sport. They also won the title in 2018 and 2021.

2012

Alabama becomes the first Southeastern Conference team to win an NCAA softball championship with their 5-4 win over Oklahoma.

2012

The SEC announces it will determine a league champion in equestrian beginning in the 2012-2013 season. It becomes the 21st sports sponsored by the league. Currently Auburn, Georgia, South Carolina and Texas A&M compete in collegiate equestrian.

2014

With two SEC teams in the championship series of the 2014 Women's College World Series, Florida defeated Alabama, 6-3, winning the best-of-three series to claim its first national championship.

2015

Florida becomes just the third program in NCAA softball history to win back-to-back national titles as the Gators defeated Michigan in Game 1 and Game 3 in the championship series of the Women's College World Series.

2016

The SEC sends nine teams to the NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship. It's the most SEC teams to receive bids to the NCAA's in conference history and the second time in NCAA history that one conference has sent nine teams to the tournament.

2016

Four SEC teams advance to the Women's College World Series (Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and LSU), marking the first time that one conference made up half the field of teams participating in Oklahoma City.

2017

The SEC again has two teams in the NCAA Women's Final Four as South Carolina defeats Mississippi State, 67-55 for the Gamecocks first and the SEC's ninth national title.

2017

The conference sets the all-time attendance high for any conference with 1,108,511 fans in women's basketball.

2017

The conference sets an NCAA Tournament record as all 13 programs earn a spot in the 2017 NCAA Division I Softball Championship. The SEC earn eight national seeds.

2017

An SEC record nine women's soccer teams advance to the NCAA Tournament with South Carolina advancing to the national semifinals.

2017

Florida advances to its second title match in the 2017 NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball Tournament. The Gators finish as the National Runner-Up to Nebraska.

2018

For the second consecutive year, the Southeastern Conference sends 13 programs to represent the league in the NCAA Division I Softball Tournament. The SEC also sets the NCAA record with nine national seeds.

2018

An SEC record-tying nine women's soccer teams advance to the NCAA Tournament with seven moving on to at least the second round.

2019

Auburn's second straight national championship in Equestrian marks the 8th consecutive national title in equestrian for the SEC. It also marks the third year in row the national championship final featured two teams from the SEC.

2019

For the third consecutive year, the Southeastern Conference has all 13 programs represent the league in the NCAA Division I Softball Tournament.

2019

Arkansas wins the program's first NCAA Women's Cross Country title and the league's only national title for the athletic year, as collegiate sports were canceled due to the global Covid-19 pandemic. With the win, Arkansas is only the second NCAA women's team to accomplish the three-season triple crown.

2021

Kentucky wins its first NCAA title in women’s volleyball with a 3-1 victory over Texas in the National Championship match of the 2020 NCAA Division I Women’s Volleyball Tournament in Omaha, Neb. The Wildcats becomes the first SEC program to win a National Title in volleyball.

2022

Alabama and Florida battle in the first regular season college gymnastics meet ever televised on broadcast television as ABC carries the meet to a nationwide audience.

2022

Vanderbilt announced that they will reestablish a volleyball program, debuting in the fall of 2025 after being discontinued back in 1979.

Moments in Southeastern Conference women's athletics history will be added periodically as we progress through the 50 Year Celebration in 2022.
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