GREENVILLE, S.C. – Conference Carolinas is excited to announce the dates of six developmental championships to be held during the 2025-26 academic year.

Conference Carolinas has conducted developmental championships since 2021 with at least four championships held each year. For 2025-26 a developmental championship is scheduled to be held in men’s soccer, women’s volleyball men’s wrestling, men’s and women’s basketball and baseball. The developmental teams will be composed of student-athletes that have either not competed at the varsity level in 2025-26 or have competed sparingly at the varsity level by the time of the championship.

“This is a unique concept in the NCAA that provides an opportunity for our developmental teams to compete at the conference level,” Commissioner Chris Colvin said. “These one-of-a-kind events allow us to provide more of our student-athletes with a championship experience and enhance the overall competitive experience for this group of student-athletes. We are thrilled to be able to sponsor these championships and are excited to about the slate for this year.”

Men’s soccer will feature eight institutions competing at two sites in a preliminary round on Monday, October 20 hosted by the University of Mount Olive and Young Harris College with the championship final being contested between the two preliminary round winners on Monday, October 27 at North Greenville University. The Mount Olive bracket will include the host Trojans, Barton College, Francis Marion University and Belmont Abbey College while Young Harris will host Converse University, King University, and North Greenville. The men’s preliminary rounds will be 60 minutes in length with the championship final being a regulation 90 minutes. The bracket is available here.

The women’s volleyball developmental championship will be played at Belmont Abbey on Monday, November 3. The crown will be contested between the host Crusaders, Chowan University, Erskine College, King and Shorter University. All for matches will be best 2-of-3 sets. The bracket will be updated two weeks before the championship.

The men’s wrestling developmental championship is slated for Monday, January 26 at Mount Olive and will feature the host Trojans, Belmont Abbey, Coker University, Emmanuel University, Lander University, Newberry College and UNC Pembroke. The event will feature an eight-man bracket for each weight class. The brackets will be available one week prior to the tournament.

The men’s basketball tournament features 17 teams, 14 institutions, and will be composed of four preliminary round sites and a four-team final site. Erskine will host Belmont Abbey where they will each have two teams. Mount Olive will have two teams and host Barton, Chowan, and Francis Marion. King will host Converse, Ferrum College and Lees-McRae College while Shorter will host Emmanuel, Southern Wesleyan University and Young Harris. The preliminary rounds are scheduled for Monday, February 2. The games will be full-length (40 minutes) and each team will compete in a minimum of two games in the preliminary round. The winners from each preliminary round will square off at Belmont Abbey on Monday, February 9. The tournament brackets are available here.
 
Women’s basketball will compete in will compete in a single-day tournament hosted by Belmont Abbey on Monday, February 2. The Crusaders will host Barton, Ferrum, Mount Olive and Young Harris. The games will be full-length (40 minutes) and each team will compete in a minimum of two games in the preliminary round. The bracket will be updated two weeks before the championship.

The baseball developmental dhampionship features three preliminary sites hosting games on Monday, March 30 with the championship game taking place on Monday, April 13. Francis Marion will host Barton, Chowan and Ferrum while Southern Wesleyan will host Belmont Abbey, King and Young Harris. Erskine is the third host, welcoming Emmanuel and Shorter. The Erskine bracket will be a seven-inning round-robin format while Francis Marion and Southern Wesleyan will be in a bracketed format with each game being seven innings. The winner of each preliminary round along with the top second-place team will travel to Francis Marion for the final rounds on Monday, April 13. The complete brackets are available here.

Conference Carolinas originally added the concept of developmental championships to its bylaws in 2020, but delayed the implementation of the concept until 2021-22. A minimum of four member institutions must declare interest in order for the championship to be considered. All full and associate members are eligible to enter a team in each championship. Complete tournament information for each championship can be found at ConferenceCarolinas.com/Championships.