Choccolocco Park plays host to the 2023 Gulf South Conference Championship, where one team will emerge with a league crown and automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.

As the regular season winds down on college hoops, one of the deepest basketball leagues in Division II will put its automatic bid for the NCAA Tournament up for grabs starting when the Gulf South Conference Tournament tips off Feb. 28.

The opening round of the Div. II Playoffs featured little drama, with just three of the 12 games in the opening round decided by single-digit-point margins – and the three competitive contests were all in the same Regional.

The 2022 football season might be considered a down year by the lofty standards of the Gulf South Conference.

It was a wild final week of conference games last week in the Gulf South - one that saw the league leaders sit less than 10 minutes from an outright conference title, before a furious rally that may have kept another team's playoff hopes alive.

It’s not the last week of games in the Gulf South Conference, but Week 10 marks the final Saturday of conference competition for the GSC.

With two weeks left in the Gulf South’s league slate, there are still a number of scenarios that could see as many as four different teams end up with a share of the league title.

With three league games in the books for each team in the Gulf South, the league continues to surprise Three of the top four teams in the standings were predicted to finish in the bottom half before the season began.

We’re two weeks into the Gulf South portion of the schedule, and just like we all predicted, Delta State is the lone undefeated team left in the league with wins over each of the preseason poll favorites.

Picked to finish in the bottom half of the Gulf South, and with them opening the season with four straight road games, it would have been easy to write off the Delta State Statesmen before the season even began.

Delta State helped flip the Gulf South on its head early into the conference season last week, outlasting one of the preseason favorites – West Florida – in a double-overtime classic.

The Gulf South's league slate kicked off last week with North Greenville bouncing back from an 0-2 start to earn a road win over Mississippi College by a 41-19 score and temporarily move to the top of the league standings.

In the same way offensive line performance dictates success with the ball, the play of the fellas up front does the same for a defense.

With a variety of the top offenses in the country, including two of the very best in Valdosta State and West Florida, it’s safe to say that the Gulf South Conference is an offensive league. But with so many standouts on offense, that does create opportunities for defensive players to make a name for themselves. Here’s a look at some of the top returning talent returning to the Gulf South Conference ahead of the 2022 season — on both sides of the ball.

The past three seasons of Gulf South football have been ruled by Valdosta State, with the Blazers going 22-1 in the league over that time.