Georgia State University competes with 19 teams in an athletics program at the highest level of NCAA competition (Division I). Football played its first game in 2010. Sand Volleyball was added as a 19th sport and begins in 2012.

Georgia State moved into the 12-member Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) on July 1, 2005. The CAA receives automatic bids to all NCAA Championship Tournaments. Georgia State has earned five NCAA bids in the past two years.

GSU will begin playing in the Sun Belt Conference on July 1, 2013 in all sports as football transititions from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). 

Georgia State’s men’s teams were part of the TAAC (Trans America Athletic Conference) for 21 years before joining the CAA. The TAAC changed its named to Atlantic Sun (A-Sun) in July 2001. Prior to that, Georgia State competed five years as a member of the Sun Belt Conference.

Georgia State’s women’s teams were part of the TAAC/A-Sun since 1991. Before that, they were members of the New South Women’s Athletic Conference (NSWAC), beginning in 1984-85.

In 1963-64, Georgia State became a fully accredited NCAA Division I athletics program, giving scholarships for the first time to students to compete at the highest collegiate level possible.

Women's sports blossomed into the program during the 1974-75 school year as basketball, soccer, volleyball and tennis competed at the NCAA Division I level. Women's cross country began the next year. The teams competed against programs throughout the southeast, but were not affiliated with a conference. In 1976-77, the athletics program became a member of the Sun Belt Conference. After five seasons in that organization, Georgia State chose to break their affiliation with that conference. In 1984-85, Georgia State joined the Trans America Athletic Conference (TAAC) and competed with that group for 21 years. In 2001-02, the conference changed its named to the Atlantic Sun (A-Sun).

Through automatic conference bids, 17 of the teams have reached the highest goals by competing in NCAA postseason in men's basketball, women's basketball, men's soccer, volleyball, men's cross country, women's cross country, softball, men's golf, women's golf, men's tennis, women's indoor track and women's outdoor track.