The Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC), formerly the Northern Athletics Conference (NAC), is an intercollegiate athletic conference. It participates in the NCAA's Division III and began its first season in the fall of 2006.
The NACC sponsors 21 sports. Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, lacrosse, soccer, tennis, indoor track & field, outdoor track & field, and volleyball. Women's squads are fielded in basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis, indoor track & field, outdoor track & field and volleyball. The newest NACC sports are men's volleyball, added in the 2017–18 school year,[1] and men's and women's lacrosse, added in the 2020-21 school year.[2]
The NACC became eligible for automatic NCAA postseason berths in 2008–09.
History
Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference
50km 31miles
Alverno
Maranatha
St. Norbert
Illinois Tech
MSOE
Rockford
Dominican
Concordia Chicago
Benedictine
Aurora
Wisconsin Lutheran
Marian
Lakeland
Edgewood
Concordia Wisconsin
Location of NACC members: current, former, departing
The Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference began its first season of competition in the fall of 2006 as the Northern Athletics Conference. The name change took place at the beginning of the 2013–14 academic year. The NACC consists of 13 colleges and universities from the shared-border states of Illinois and Wisconsin. Many have shared traditional rivalries dating back to the NACC's predecessor conferences: the Lake Michigan Conference and the Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference.[citation needed]
Just three changes to the league's core membership have occurred, as the Milwaukee School of Engineering joined the NAC in the fall of 2007, and Maranatha withdrew from the league in the summer of 2013.[3] In 2017, the Illinois Institute of Technology announced that they would be joining the NACC for the 2018 athletic season, coinciding with their acceptance as a full NCAA Division III member.[4]
Also in 2017, Benedictine, which had been contemplating a move to NCAA Division II, was formally invited to join the D-II Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC), pending NCAA approval of its entry into the D-II transition process. Benedictine formally applied to begin this transition in advance of a February 1, 2018 deadline, and was officially approved to enter the transition process in July of that year. In October 2018, Benedictine reversed course and rescinded its request to withdraw from the NACC.[5]
The most recent membership change was announced on April 3, 2019, when St. Norbert College, already slated to become an affiliate member in men's volleyball (and, subsequently, men's and women's golf) in 2019–20, was upgraded to full NACC membership effective in 2021–22.[6]
The NAC was rebranded as the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC), beginning the 2013–14 school year.[citation needed]
Northland College joined the NACC as an affiliate member for women's golf in the 2014 spring season (2013–14 academic year).[citation needed]
2015:
Bethany Lutheran, Minnesota–Morris, Northwestern (Minn.) and Northland left the NACC as affiliate members for women's golf after the 2015 spring season (2014–15 academic year).[citation needed]
Mount Mary University joined the NACC as an affiliate member for women's cross country in the 2015 fall season (2015–16 academic year).[citation needed]
Eureka College joined the NACC as an affiliate member for football in the 2018 fall season (2018–19 academic year).[citation needed]
2019 – St. Norbert College joined the NACC as an affiliate member for men's volleyball, men's golf and women's golf in the 2019–20 academic year.[citation needed]
2021:
St. Norbert had upgraded to join the NACC for all sports in the 2021–22 academic year.[citation needed]
Beloit College joined the NACC as an affiliate member for men's and women's lacrosse in the 2022 spring season (2021–22 academic year).[citation needed]
2024 – Four institutions joined the NACC as affiliate members, all effective in the 2025 spring season (2024–25 academic year):
↑ Represents the calendar year when fall sports competition begins.
↑ Alverno is a women's college, therefore it does not compete in men's sports.
↑ St. Norbert was an affiliate member of the NACC for men's volleyball, men's golf and women's golf during its final two years as a full core member of the Midwest Conference (MWC) from 2019–20 to 2020–21.[6]
Affiliate members
The NACC currently has six affiliate members, all are private schools:
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
