FOLEY — A sport that did not exist as a conference championship a year ago will crown its first champion here in the spring of 2027.
The Southern States Athletic Conference has reached an agreement with Foley Sports Tourism to host the inaugural SSAC Beach Volleyball Championship in Baldwin County, an event that will bring all seven of the league’s beach volleyball programs to the Foley Sand Volleyball Courts at 2912 Koniar Way on April 2-3, 2027.
It is one piece of a broader expansion. Beach volleyball has moved from an emerging sport to a full championship sport at the national level in the space of a few years, and the Alabama Gulf Coast has positioned itself as a primary venue for that growth.
How the SSAC Got Here
The conference announced in March that it would add women’s beach volleyball as a championship sport beginning with the 2026-27 school year. Five SSAC members sponsor the sport, with two more joining as affiliate members — producing a seven-team field.
“Adding women’s beach volleyball as an SSAC championship sport expands opportunities for our student-athletes and allows our institutions to compete within a tighter geographic footprint,” SSAC Commissioner Mike Hall said at the time. “We look forward to providing a memorable championship experience.”
The geographic point is not incidental. The SSAC is a Montgomery-based league founded in 1999 with 15 member institutions spread across Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, and it is regarded as one of the stronger conferences in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. A conference championship keeps travel and competition within that footprint rather than sending teams to distant events.
The Local Program
The University of Mobile has fielded a beach volleyball team since the 2020-21 season, meaning the school was competing in the sport for several years before the conference formalized it.
Its SSAC opponents in beach volleyball will include Brewton-Parker, Loyola New Orleans, William Carey, Wesleyan, Spartanburg Methodist and Truett McConnell.
For a program roughly 40 minutes from the championship site, the arrangement is close to ideal: a conference title event within driving distance, in a market where its own recruits and families can attend.
Why Foley
Foley has spent years building an inventory of purpose-built sports facilities, and the sand volleyball courts are part of that infrastructure. The city’s pitch to event organizers has been consistent — venue quality, hotel capacity within a short drive, and a track record of running multi-day tournaments.
“We are excited to bring the inaugural SSAC Beach Volleyball Championship to Foley,” Hall said. “The city has a strong reputation for hosting high-quality sporting events, and we believe Foley will provide a great setting for our student-athletes, coaches and fans. We appreciate the partnership and look forward to creating a memorable championship experience for the first year of beach volleyball in the SSAC.”
Foley Mayor Ralph Hellmich framed it as both a partnership and a showcase.
“We’re honored that the Southern States Athletic Conference has selected Foley to host its inaugural Beach Volleyball Championship,” Hellmich said. “This is an exciting opportunity to partner with the SSAC in launching a new championship while showcasing Foley as a premier destination for collegiate sporting events. Our community has a welcoming spirit and unmatched hospitality that we can’t wait to share with the student-athletes, coaches and fans.”
The SSAC event will not be the only college beach volleyball championship in Foley that spring. The Sun Belt Conference’s beach volleyball championship is scheduled for the same city April 29 to May 1, 2027.
The Format
All seven SSAC teams will qualify for the championship and compete in a double-elimination bracket over two days.
Double elimination is common in beach volleyball postseason play because it reduces the chance that a single bad match — in a sport played outdoors, where wind and sun can meaningfully affect a given court at a given hour — eliminates the best team. A team must lose twice to be knocked out.
A National Championship Follows Weeks Later
The SSAC’s move is downstream of a larger decision. On Aug. 13, the NAIA approved beach volleyball as the association’s 31st championship sport, effective with the 2026-27 season.
The first NAIA Women’s Beach Volleyball National Championship is scheduled for April 22-24, 2027, at Arizona Athletic Grounds in Mesa — roughly three weeks after the SSAC crowns its first champion in Foley.
The path to that point ran through several intermediate stages. The sport was first recognized as an emerging sport at the 2018 NAIA National Convention, then elevated to invitational status for the 2021-22 academic year. The NAIA held its first women’s beach volleyball invitational in 2022 and has staged a postseason event every year since; the 2026 invitational in Mesa was the fifth edition.
The participation numbers explain the promotion. For the 2027 season, 32 NAIA member institutions have declared women’s beach volleyball as a varsity sport — enough to sustain a national championship rather than an invitational.
What Happens to the AVCA Event
For years, the largest collegiate beach volleyball event in the country has been run by the American Volleyball Coaches Association, drawing teams from the NAIA, the National Christian College Athletic Association and two-year colleges. Last season’s tournament was held in Gulf Shores, where Wayland Baptist won the NAIA division. That event is scheduled to return to Baldwin County on April 16-18, 2027.
The obvious question is whether an NAIA national championship makes the AVCA’s NAIA division redundant. Jason Jones, chief operations officer for the AVCA, said it does not.
“I don’t anticipate a change to AVCA offering an NAIA championship at Small College Beach in 2027,” Jones said. “The goal of the AVCA Small College Beach Championships is to offer a postseason playing opportunity to as many teams and kids as possible. The hope is that by providing postseason opportunities, schools will be more likely to invest in beach volleyball and, in turn, grow the sport, which is part of AVCA’s mission.”
He drew a clear line between the two events.
“The NAIA division of Small College Beach is not a national championship. The division winner is the AVCA Small College Beach NAIA Champion,” Jones said. “The intent is not to compete with the NAIA National Championship, but to provide more kids the opportunity to have postseason play. AVCA expects the best NAIA teams to play in the NAIA championship.”
The practical effect for Baldwin County is that April 2027 will contain three separate collegiate beach volleyball postseason events within a few weeks: the AVCA Small College Beach Championships on April 16-18, the SSAC championship on April 2-3 in Foley, and the Sun Belt championship in Foley at the end of the month.
The Economics Behind the Bidding
Baldwin and Mobile counties rank among the region’s top destinations for sporting events, and the reason local governments actively compete for them is measurable. Multi-day tournaments bring athletes, coaches and families who occupy hotel rooms, eat in restaurants and shop, generating lodging and sales tax receipts in what is otherwise a shoulder season for coastal tourism.
A spring collegiate championship is particularly valuable in that respect: it falls before the summer beach season, when hotel occupancy would otherwise be lower.
What Else Is on the Calendar
Beyond beach volleyball, Foley Sports Tourism has a dense fall schedule. It includes the Labor Day Classic volleyball tournament hosted by Xtreme Volleyball and Foley High School on Sept. 4-5 at the Foley Event Center and the Alabama Gulf Coast Sports Center; the Bounders Beach Bash gymnastics meet Sept. 11-13 at the Foley Event Center; and back-to-back Publix SuperCopa soccer events at the Foley Sports Tourism Complex, girls-only on Sept. 12-13 and boys-only on Sept. 19-20.
Alabama’s Beaches Sports & Events has its own slate. Upcoming events include a National Junior College Prep Football League game between the Alabama Rays and Miami Legends on Sept. 5 at the Gulf Shores Sportsplex; the Tacky Jack’s Bloody Mary 5K and one-mile fun run on Sept. 5 in Waterway Village; the Bulls on the Beach bull-riding event Sept. 10-12 at the Flora-Bama Lounge; the Alabama State Tri-Level tennis championships Sept. 10-13 at the George C. Mayer Tennis Center; the Battle at the Beach volleyball tournament Sept. 11-12 at Orange Beach High School; the NPC Beach Bash bodybuilding competition Sept. 12-13 at the Orange Beach Event Center; the Brett/Robinson Alabama Coastal Triathlon on Sept. 12 at Gulf Shores Public Beach; Bike MS: Tour de Beach on Sept. 26 at Lake Shelby in Gulf State Park; and the Dolphin Run cross-country meet for high school and middle school runners on Sept. 26 at Graham Creek Nature Preserve.
Across the bay, the Mobile Sports Authority has the Port City Classic football game between Fort Valley State and Tuskegee on Sept. 5 at Ladd-Peebles Stadium; the Southern Super Series’ Battle on the Bayou 100-lap Super Late Model race on Sept. 5 at Mobile International Speedway in Irvington; and the AHSAA South Super Regional cheer competition on Sept. 30 at the Mobile Convention Center.
Taken together, the calendar illustrates the model both counties have adopted: a steady stream of events, most of them multi-day, spread across purpose-built facilities and existing public spaces. The SSAC championship is a new entry on that list, and its significance is less about its size than about its timing — the first year of a sport that is still deciding where its center of gravity will be.