MURFREESBORO – Conference affiliation is still a time away, but Chowan College is already making inroads.

Chowan College President Dr. Chris White said there were two conferences the Braves were considering as they make the move to become a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s Division II.

Those two leagues are the South Atlantic Conference and the Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference.

The SAC is comprised of Carson-Newman College, Catawba College, Lenoir-Rhyne College, Mars Hill College, Newberry College, Presbyterian College, Tusculum College and Wingate University.

The C-VAC is made up of Anderson College, Barton College, Belmont-Abbey College, Coker College, Erskine College, Lees-McRae College, Limestone College, Mount Olive College, Pfeiffer University, Queens University of Charlotte and St. Andrews Presbyterian College.

&uot;They are the two obvious choices and the two we have had contact with,&uot; White said. &uot;The South Atlantic has football and would be a good conference for football, but may not be a fit for the rest of our programs because of travel.&uot;

White said Chowan had provided preliminary reports to both leagues, but had not made any formal application to join a conference.

As for the C-VAC, White said Chowan was already beginning to play some of the schools in that league and said the Braves were &uot;courting&uot; the schools of the Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference.

&uot;I think the probability is pretty good that we could become members of that conference in all sports except football,&uot; White said.

Football would be left out in the C-VAC because the other schools in the league don’t have that sport. White said Chowan could join the SAC for football only or, as a last resort, could look to form a conference from the Division II independents.

The president said the issues the school had to face in conference affiliation is showing Chowan is stable, successful and the program is going forward.