North Coast Athletic Conference

North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC)
Established	1983
Association	NCAA
Division	Division III
Members	10
Sports fielded	23 (men's: 11; women's: 12)
Region	Great Lakes
Headquarters	Westlake, Ohio
Commissioner	Keri Alexander Luchowski
Website	http://www.northcoast.org
Locations

The North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) is an NCAA Division III athletic conference composed of colleges located in Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania. When founded in 1984, the league was a pioneer in gender equality, offering competition in a then-unprecedented 10 women's sports. Today it remains true to that legacy, sponsoring 23 sports, 11 for men and 12 for women.

The NCAC is respected for the academic strength of its member institutions — all of which have Phi Beta Kappa chapters. In its most recent college rankings, U.S. News & World Report recognized all 10 members as top-tier liberal arts colleges, and ranked five NCAC institutions among the nation's top 70 such colleges.

History

The formation of the NCAC is announced at joint news conferences in Cleveland, Columbus and Pittsburgh on February 1983. Allegheny College, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Denison University, Kenyon College, Oberlin College, Ohio Wesleyan University, and The College of Wooster were charter members in 1984, the same year that NCAC athletic conference play began.

In 1988, Earlham College and Wittenberg College accepted invitations to join the NCAC, pushing conference membership to nine schools in three states. The two schools would begin play in the fall of 1989. In 1998, Hiram College, and Wabash College accepted invitations to join the NCAC, pushing conference membership to 10 schools in three states, which both schools began play in the fall of 1999. Case Western Reserve, a charter member of the NCAC, announced that it would leave the NCAC following the 1998-99 academic year. The Spartans would compete on a full-time basis in the University Athletic Association (UAA) after more than a decade of joint conference membership affiliation.

Most recently, Earlham announced that it would depart the NCAC for the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC), beginning with the 2010-11 season. DePauw University would become the 10th member of the NCAC, beginning in the 2011-12 season.

Member schools

Current members

The league currently has 10 full members:

Institution	Location	Nickname	Colors	Founded	Type	Enrollment	US News ranking	Forbes Top Colleges	Joined
Allegheny College	Meadville, Pennsylvania	Gators		1815	Private/Methodist	2,100	#72	#285	1984
Denison University	Granville, Ohio	Big Red		1831	Private/Non-sectarian	2,100	#55	#98	1984
DePauw University	Greencastle, Indiana	Tigers		1837	Private/Methodist	2,350	#51	#91	2011
Hiram College	Hiram, Ohio	Terriers		1850	Private/Disciples of Christ	1,395	#154	#508	1999
Kenyon College	Gambier, Ohio	Lords (men's) Ladies (women's)		1824	Private/Episcopal	1,640	#25	#48	1984
Oberlin College	Oberlin, Ohio	Yeomen (men's) Yeowomen (women's)		1833	Private/Non-sectarian	2,850	#23	#43	1984
Ohio Wesleyan University	Delaware, Ohio	Battling Bishops		1842	Private/Methodist	1,850	#108	#303	1984
Wabash College*	Crawfordsville, Indiana	Little Giants		1832	Private/Non-sectarian	850	#61	#152	1999
Wittenberg University	Springfield, Ohio	Tigers		1845	Private/Lutheran	2,050	#148	#246	1988
The College of Wooster	Wooster, Ohio	Fighting Scots		1866	Private/Presbyterian	1,827	#61	#133	1984

* Wabash is an all-male institution, therefore does not sponsor women's teams.

Former members

Institution	Location	Nickname	Founded	Type	Enrollment	Joined	Left	Current Conference
Case Western Reserve University	Cleveland, Ohio	Spartans	1826	Private	10,325	1984	1999	UAA
Earlham College	Richmond, Indiana	Quakers	1847	Private	1,181	1988	2010	HCAC

Membership timeline

See also

• Five Colleges of Ohio

External links

• Official website