Member institutions are located in the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas as well as the U.S. territory of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

[citation needed] Louisiana College left the GCAC to join the American Southwest Conference of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III in 2000.

In 2010, Belhaven, Loyola–New Orleans, Spring Hill, Mobile, and William Carey left the GCAC to join the Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC).

[9] On July 19, it was reported that Edward Waters would leave the GCAC to join NCAA Division II for the first time in its history and re-join the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference the 2021–22 season.

[12] On November 3, the GCAC invited the University of the Virgin Islands to become its member in 2023–24, becoming the first four-year institution in a U.S. territory to join an athletic conference affiliated with the NAIA or NCAA in more than a century.