Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks

The Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks have been one of the Southland Conference's most consistent winners, built on deep East Texas basketball roots in Nacogdoches. Known for stout, physical defense and a habit of peaking in March, SFA has produced some of the mid-major ranks' most memorable NCAA Tournament runs, including a 2016 upset of West Virginia. The Lumberjacks' program has bounced between the Southland and Western Athletic Conference in recent realignment shuffles but remains one of the region's proudest small-school traditions.

Basketball at Stephen F. Austin traces to the university's 1923 founding, with the program reaching Division I in 1984 and joining the Southland Conference in 1987-88. The Lumberjacks won 11 regular-season and multiple tournament conference titles over the decades and reached five NCAA Tournaments, highlighted by a 32-3 campaign in 2013-14 that included a 29-game win streak. An NCAA administrative-eligibility case later forced SFA to vacate wins and three tournament titles from the mid-2010s. After a stint in the WAC (2021-2024), the Lumberjacks returned to the Southland in 2024-25.