Elon Phoenix

The Elon Phoenix compete in FCS football as members of the Coastal Athletic Association, representing a small North Carolina university with an outsized football tradition. Known for disciplined, well-coached teams under longtime stability at the top of the program, Elon has been a frequent conference title contender since moving up through the college football ranks. The Phoenix name reflects the university's own history of rebuilding after a devastating 1923 campus fire, a fitting parallel for a program that has repeatedly reinvented itself at higher levels of competition.

Elon first fielded a football team in 1909 and won back-to-back NAIA Division II national championships in 1980 and 1981 before eventually climbing to NCAA Division I. As a member of the Southern Conference, the Phoenix won conference titles in 2009 and shared titles in 2017-2018, before joining the Coastal Athletic Association for all sports, including football, in 2014. Elon has not won an FCS national championship at the current level of competition but has remained a consistent conference contender.