MOUNT BERRY - Berry College is returning to the Georgia Alabama Carolina Conference eight years after leaving to become a charter member of the TransSouth Athletic Conference, college officials said Thursday.<br>
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Lee University in Tennessee, another current TransSouth member, also will become a member of the GACC in the 2004-05 academic year, Berry officials said.<br>
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The GACC also features northeast Georgia team North Georgia College in Dahlonega.<br>
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``Moving to the GACC allows us to to return to a conference in which we can have storng natural rivalries,'' Berry athletics director Todd Brooks said. Four of the 13 schools are less than 100 miles from Berry, including Shorter College, which is just 2.5 miles away in Rome.<br>
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The average distance from Mount Berry to the TransSouth schools is 285 miles.<br>
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The GACC also includes Auburn-Montgomery, Brenau, Brewton-Parker, Emmanuel, Faulkner, Georgia Southwestern, North Georgia, Reinhardt, Southern Polytechnic and Southern Wesleyan.
