Consisted of primarilty 8 universities over its lifetime, from 1914 to 1996. They included:

University of Texas
Texas Tech University
Texas A&M
Baylor
Rice University
University of Arkansas
Texas Christian University
Southern Methodist University
and the University of Houston

Over its 82 year history, SWC schools won 55 national championships. By the 1990's, however, most schools were struggling to fund their multi-million dollar athletic programs as TV ratings dropped. Arkansas withdrew in 1992 as scandals and NCAA probations were dropped on several schools leading to the eventual break-up of the conference in 1996.

The University of Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, and Texas Tech joined up with the more prosperoce Big 8 conference to create the Big 12 Conference. SMU, TCU, and Rice moved to the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), while Houston the new Conference USA. Arkansas is now a member of the Southeastern Conference (SEC).