Association | NCAA |
---|---|
Founded | 1983 |
Commissioner | Keri Alexander Luchowski |
Sports fielded |
|
Division | Division III |
No. of teams | 9 (10 in 2025) |
Headquarters | Cleveland, Ohio |
Region | Great Lakes |
Official 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 and Indiana. It sponsors 23 sports, 11 for men and 12 for women.
The formation of the NCAC was announced at joint news conferences in Cleveland, Columbus and Pittsburgh in 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. The conference offered 10 women's sports, the most offered by a conference at that time.
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.
Earlham announced it would depart the NCAC for the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC), beginning with the 2010–11 season. DePauw University became the 10th member of the NCAC beginning in the 2011–12 season.
Allegheny left the NCAC after the 2021–22 school year to return to its former home of the Presidents' Athletic Conference. Allegheny and Earlham remain single-sport NCAC members in field hockey. [1]
The most recent change to the NCAC membership was announced on January 18, 2024, when John Carroll University announced it was leaving the Ohio Athletic Conference to join the NCAC. Previously, on November 15, 2022, Transylvania University and Washington & Jefferson College joined the NCAC as single-sport members in the sport of field hockey, beginning with the 2023 season.
In 2019, the NCAC was one of the first NCAA conferences to participate in the organization's LGBTQ OneTeam Program, which launched in fall 2019. Two facilitators from the NCAC – Seth Hayes of Denison University and Rhea Debussy of Kenyon College – were among the first 30 facilitators for this NCAA Division III program. [3] In 2021, the NCAA announced that two NCAC staff members – Kate Costanzo of Allegheny College and Rhea Debussy of Kenyon College – were finalists for the NCAA Division III LGBTQ Administrator/Coach/Staff of the Year Award. [4]
The NCAC currently has nine full members, all private schools.
Institution | Location | Founded | Affiliation | Enrollment | 2022 US News ranking [5] | 2021 Forbes Top Colleges [6] | Nickname | Joined | Colors |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Denison University | Granville, Ohio | 1831 | Nonsectarian | 2,100 | 42 | 288 | Big Red | 1984 | |
DePauw University | Greencastle, Indiana | 1837 | Methodist | 2,350 | 46 | 130 | Tigers | 2011 | |
Hiram College | Hiram, Ohio | 1850 | Disciples of Christ | 1,395 | — | — | Terriers | 1999 | |
Kenyon College | Gambier, Ohio | 1824 | Episcopal/Anglican | 1,640 | 30 | 287 | Owls [7] | 1984 | |
Oberlin College | Oberlin, Ohio | 1833 | Nonsectarian | 2,850 | 37 | 290 | Yeomen (men's) Yeowomen (women's) | 1984 | |
Ohio Wesleyan University | Delaware, Ohio | 1842 | Nonsectarian [lower-alpha 1] | 1,850 | 98 | 446 | Battling Bishops | 1984 | |
Wabash College [lower-alpha 2] | Crawfordsville, Indiana | 1832 | Nonsectarian | 850 | 57 | 327 | Little Giants | 1999 | |
Wittenberg University | Springfield, Ohio | 1845 | Lutheran ELCA | 2,050 | 155 | 435 | Tigers | 1989 | |
The College of Wooster | Wooster, Ohio | 1866 | Nonsectarian | 1,827 | 71 | 428 | Fighting Scots | 1984 |
The NCAC will have one future full member, which is also a private school.
Institution | Location | Founded | Affiliation | Enrollment | Nickname | Colors | Year Joining | Current conference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
John Carroll University | University Heights, Ohio | 1886 | Catholic (Jesuit) | 2,615 | Blue Streaks | 2025 [8] | Ohio (OAC) |
Institution | Location | Founded | Affiliation | Enrollment | Nickname | Joined | NCAC sport(s) | Primary conference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Allegheny College | Meadville, Pennsylvania | 1815 | United Methodist | 1,442 | Gators | 2022 | field hockey | Presidents' (PAC) |
Earlham College | Richmond, Indiana | 1847 | Quaker | 900 | Quakers | 2021 | Heartland (HCAC) | |
Transylvania University | Lexington, Kentucky | 1780 | Disciples of Christ | 963 | Pioneers | 2023 | Heartland (HCAC) | |
Washington & Jefferson College | Washington, Pennsylvania | 1781 | Nonsectarian | 1,168 | Presidents | 2023 [9] | Presidents' (PAC) |
The NCAC has three former full members, all private schools. Allegheny and Earlham still remain in the NCAC as affiliate members in field hockey.
Institution | Location | Founded | Affiliation | Enrollment | Nickname | Joined | Left | Current conference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Allegheny College | Meadville, Pennsylvania | 1815 | United Methodist | 2,100 | Gators | 1984 | 2022 | Presidents' (PAC) |
Case Western Reserve University [lower-alpha 1] | Cleveland, Ohio | 1826 | Nonsectarian | 11,824 | Spartans | 1984 | 1999 | University (UAA) |
Earlham College | Richmond, Indiana | 1847 | Quakers | 1,181 | Quakers | 1989 | 2010 | Heartland (HCAC) |
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