North Coast Athletic Conference

It sponsors 23 sports, 11 for men and 12 for women.

North Coast Athletic Conference

Association	NCAA
Founded	1983
Commissioner	Keri Alexander Luchowski
Sports fielded	23 men's: 11 women's: 12
Division	Division III
No. of teams	9
Headquarters	Cleveland, Ohio
Region	Great Lakes
Official website	http://www.northcoast.org
Locations

North Coast Athletic Conference

100km
62miles

Wooster

Wittenberg

Wabash

Ohio Wesleyan

Oberlin

Kenyon

Hiram

DePauw

Denison

John Carroll

Location of NCAC members: full members, future full member, departing full member

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 (PAC). Allegheny and Earlham remain single-sport NCAC members in field hockey. Later in 2022, Transylvania University and Washington & Jefferson College were announced as single-sport NCAC members for field hockey, beginning with the 2023 season.

The most recent changes to the NCAC membership were announced in 2024. First, on January 18, John Carroll University announced it was leaving the Ohio Athletic Conference to join the NCAC. Then on April 23, Hiram announced it would leave the NCAC in 2025 to return to the PAC, which it had left in 1989.

Chronological timeline

• 1983 - In February 1983, the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) was founded. Charter members included Allegheny College, Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), Denison University, Kenyon College, Oberlin College, Ohio Wesleyan University and The College of Wooster, effective beginning the 1984–85 academic year.
• 1988 - Earlham College and Wittenberg College joined the NCAC, effective in the 1989–90 academic year.
• 1999 - Case Western Reserve left the NCAC to fully align all of its sports to the University Athletic Association (UAA), effective after the 1998–99 academic year.
• 1998 - Hiram College and Wabash College joined the NCAC, effective in the 1999–2000 academic year.
• 2010 - Earlham left the NCAC to join the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC), effective after the 2009–10 academic year.
• 2011 - DePauw University joined the NCAC, effective in the 2011–12 academic year.
• 2022 - Allegheny left the NCAC to rejoin the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) after a 38-year absence, effective in the 2022–23 academic year.
• 2024
  • Hiram announces it will leave the NCAC to rejoin the PAC effective in 2025–26.
  • John Carroll University announces it will depart the Ohio Athletic Conference to join the NCAC effective in 2025–26.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives

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. 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.

Current members

The NCAC currently has nine full members, all private schools. Departing member Hiram is indicated in pink.

Notes