Midwest Conference

The Midwest Conference (MWC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the Midwestern United States in the states of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The Midwest Conference was created in 1994 with the merger of the Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference, which had been sponsoring men's sports since 1921, and the Midwest Athletic Conference for Women, which was formed in 1977.

History

The organization of the Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference (MCAC) was conceived at a meeting at Coe College on May 12, 1921. Charter members were Beloit College, Carleton College, Coe College, Cornell College, Knox College (Illinois) and Lawrence University. Hamline University and Millikin University joined the league in December 1921, but both of them later withdrew: Hamline after the 1929–30 academic year, and Millikin after the 1924–25 academic year.

Ripon College joined the conference in 1923, followed by Monmouth College in 1924, Grinnell College in 1940 and Lake Forest College in 1974. Illinois College and St. Norbert College joined in 1982 and Carroll University followed in 1992. Carleton withdrew following the 1982–83 academic year. St. Olaf College also competed in the conference from 1952 to 1974, as did the University of Chicago from 1976 to 1987. Coe and Cornell withdrew following the 1996–97 academic year with Cornell rejoining the league starting in the 2012–13 year. Macalester College joined as a football-only member starting in 2014. The University of Chicago returned as a football-only member in 2017, and added baseball to its conference membership in the 2019 season (2018–19 school year).

The MWC split into North and South divisions for football, men's and women's tennis, baseball, and softball from 2012 through 2016. Divisional play ended with the departure of Carroll after the 2015–16 school year,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and resumed for football only with the addition of the University of Chicago as an affiliate member for the 2017–18 season.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> St. Norbert left in 2021 for the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>

Chronological timeline

• 1921: The Midwest Conference (MWC) was founded as the Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference (MCAC). Charter members included Beloit College, Carleton College, Coe College, Cornell College, Knox College and Lawrence College (now Lawrence University), effective beginning the 1921–22 academic year.
• 1922: Hamline University and Millikin College (now Millikin University) joined the MCAC, effective in the 1922–23 academic year.
• 1923: Ripon College joined the MCAC, effective in the 1923–24 academic year.
• 1924: Monmouth College joined the MCAC, effective in the 1924–25 academic year.
• 1925: Millikin left the MCAC, effective after the 1924–25 academic year.
• 1930: Hamline left the MCAC, effective after the 1929–30 academic year.
• 1940: Grinnell College joined the MCAC, effective in the 1940–41 academic year.
• 1941: Carleton withdrew from the conference in June 1941.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• 1946: Carleton rejoined the conference, effective for the spring 1946 track season.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
• 1952: St. Olaf College joined the MCAC, effective in the 1952–53 academic year.
• 1974: St. Olaf left the MCAC, effective after the 1973–74 academic year.
• 1974: Lake Forest College joined the MCAC, effective in the 1974–75 academic year.
• 1976: The University of Chicago joined the MCAC, effective in the 1976–77 academic year.
• 1982: Illinois College and St. Norbert College joined the MCAC, effective in the 1982–83 academic year.
• 1983: Carleton left the MCAC, effective after the 1982–83 academic year.
• 1987: U. of Chicago left the MCAC to join the University Athletic Association (UAA), effective after the 1986–87 academic year.
• 1992: Carroll College joined the MCAC, effective in the 1992–93 academic year.
• 1994: The MCAC has been rebranded when the conference merged with the women's-only Midwest Athletic Conference for Women (MACW; founded since the 1977–78 school year) to become the Midwest Conference (MWC), effective in the 1994–95 academic year.
• 1997: Coe and Cornell left the MWC, effective after the 1996–97 academic year.
• 2012: Cornell re-joined back to the MWC, effective in the 2012–13 academic year.
• 2014: Macalester College joined the MWC as an affiliate member for football, effective in the 2014 fall season (2014–15 academic year).
• 2016: Carroll left the MWC to join the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW), effective after the 2015–16 academic year.
• 2017: The University of Chicago re-joined back to the MWC, but as an affiliate member for football, effective in the 2017 fall season (2017–18 academic year).
• 2018: The University of Chicago added baseball into its MWC affiliate membership, effective in the 2019 spring season (2018–19 academic year).
• 2021: St. Norbert left the MWC as a full member to join the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC), effective after the 2020–21 academic year. St. Norbert would remain as an affiliate member for swimming & diving.
• 2021: Macalester left the MWC as an affiliate member for football, effective after the 2020 fall season (2020–21 academic year).
• 2025: The Milwaukee School of Engineering joined the MWC as an affiliate member for swimming & diving, effective in the 2025-26 winter season.<ref>Template:Cite press release</ref>

Member schools

Every member in the history of the MWC and its predecessor conferences, whether full, affiliate, current, or former, has been a private school.

Current members

The MWC currently has nine full members.

Institution	Location	Founded	Affiliation	Enrollment	Nickname	Joined	Colors
Beloit College	Beloit, Wisconsin	1846	Nonsectarian	1,358	Buccaneers	1921	Template:Color box Template:Color box College Blue & Vegas Gold
Cornell College	Mount Vernon, Iowa	1853	United Methodist	1,176	Rams	1921, 2012Template:Efn	Template:Color box Template:Color box Purple & White
Grinnell College	Grinnell, Iowa	1846	Nonsectarian	1,638	Pioneers	1940	Template:Color box Template:Color box Scarlet & Black
Illinois College	Jacksonville, Illinois	1829	UCC & PCUSA	1,029	Blueboys & Lady Blues	1982	Template:Color box Template:Color box Template:Color box Blue & Grey & White
Knox College	Galesburg, Illinois	1837	Nonsectarian	1,058	Prairie Fire	1921	Template:Color box Template:Color box Purple & Gold
Lake Forest College	Lake Forest, Illinois	1857	Nonsectarian	1,395	Foresters	1974	Template:Color box Template:Color box Red & Black
Lawrence University	Appleton, Wisconsin	1847	Nonsectarian	1,489	Vikings	1921	Template:Color box Template:Color box Template:Color box Blue & Grey & White
Monmouth College	Monmouth, Illinois	1853	Presbyterian Template:Small	767	Fighting Scots	1924	Template:Color box Template:Color box Red & White
Ripon College	Ripon, Wisconsin	1851	Nonsectarian	766	Red Hawks	1923	Template:Color box Template:Color box Red & White

Notes

Affiliate members

The MWC currently has three affiliate members.

Institution	Location	Founded	Affiliation	Enrollment	Nickname	Joined	MWC sport(s)	Primary conference
Template:SortTemplate:Efn	Chicago, Illinois	1890	Nonsectarian	13,400	Maroons	2017–18	Football	University (UAA)
						2018–19	Baseball
Milwaukee School of Engineering	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	1903	Nonsectarian	2,122	Raiders	2025-26	Swimming & Diving	Northern (NACC)
Template:SortTemplate:Efn	De Pere, Wisconsin	1898	Catholic Template:Small	2,095	Green Knights	2020-21	Swimming & Diving	Northern (NACC)

Notes

Former members

The MWC had eight former full members.

Institution	Location	Founded	Affiliation	Enrollment	Nickname	Joined	Left	Current conference
Carleton College	Northfield, Minnesota	1866	Nonsectarian	2,105	Knights	1921–22 1946	1941 1982–83	Minnesota (MIAC)
Carroll University	Waukesha, Wisconsin	1846	Presbyterian (PCUSA)	2,789	Pioneers	1992–93	2015–16	Illinois–Wisconsin (CCIW)
Template:SortTemplate:Efn	Chicago, Illinois	1890	Nonsectarian	7,559	Maroons	1976–77	1986–87	University (UAA)
Coe College	Cedar Rapids, Iowa	1851	Presbyterian (PCUSA)	1,355	Kohawks	1921–22	1996–97	American Rivers (ARC)
Hamline University	St. Paul, Minnesota	1854	United Methodist	1,944	Pipers	1922–23	1929–30	Minnesota (MIAC)
Millikin University	Decatur, Illinois	1901	Presbyterian (PCUSA)	2,200	Big Blue	1922–23	1924–25	Illinois–Wisconsin (CCIW)
Template:SortTemplate:Efn	De Pere, Wisconsin	1898	Catholic Template:Small	2,095	Green Knights	1982–83	2020–21	Northern (NACC)
Template:Sort	Northfield, Minnesota	1874	Lutheran ELCA	2,900	Oles	1952–53	1973–74	Minnesota (MIAC)

Notes

Former affiliate members

The MWC had one former affiliate member.

Institution	Location	Founded	Affiliation	Enrollment	Nickname	Joined	Left	MWC sport	Primary conference
Macalester College	Saint Paul, Minnesota	1874	Presbyterian (USA)	2,221	Scots	2014–15	2020–21	football	Minnesota (MIAC)

Membership timeline

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Colors =

id:barcolor  value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7)
id:line      value:black
id:bg        value:white
id:Full      value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) legend:Full_member
id:FullxF    value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) legend:Non-football_member
id:AssocF    value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) legend:Football-only_member
id:AssocOS   value:rgb(0.5,0.691,0.824) legend:Selective_member

PlotData=

 width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s

 bar:1  color:FullxF from:1921 till:1922  text:Beloit (1921–present)
 bar:1  color:Full from:1922 till:1951 
 bar:1  color:FullxF from:1951 till:1959 
 bar:1  color:Full from:1959 till:end

 bar:2  color:FullxF from:1921 till:1922  text:Carleton (1921–1983)
 bar:2  color:Full from:1922 till:1983

 bar:3  color:FullxF from:1921 till:1922  text:Coe (1921–1997)
 bar:3  color:Full from:1922 till:1997

 bar:4  color:FullxF from:1921 till:1922  text:Cornell (Ia.) (1921–1997)
 bar:4  color:Full from:1922 till:1997 
 bar:4  color:Full from:2012 till:end  text:(2012–present)

 bar:5  color:FullxF from:1921 till:1922  text:Knox (Ill.) (1921–present)
 bar:5  color:Full from:1922 till:end

 bar:6  color:FullxF from:1921 till:1922  text:Lawrence (1921–present)
 bar:6  color:Full from:1922 till:end

 bar:7  color:Full from:1922 till:1930  text:Hamline (1922–1930)

 bar:8  color:Full from:1922 till:1925  text:Millikin (1922–1925)

 bar:9  color:Full from:1923 till:end  text:Ripon (Wisc.) (1923–present)

 bar:10  color:Full from:1924 till:1974  text:Monmouth (Ill.) (1924–present)
 bar:10  color:FullxF from:1974 till:1976 
 bar:10  color:Full from:1976 till:end

 bar:11  color:Full from:1940 till:end  text:Grinnell (1940–present)

 bar:12  color:Full from:1952 till:1974  text:St. Olaf (1952–1974)

 bar:13  color:Full from:1974 till:end  text:Lake Forest (1974–present)

 bar:14 color:Full from:1976 till:1987  text:Chicago (1976–1987)
 bar:14 color:AssocF from:2017 till:2018 text:(2017–present)
 bar:14 color:AssocOS from:2018 till:end

 bar:15  color:FullxF from:1982 till:1983  text:Illinois College (1982–present)
 bar:15  color:Full from:1983 till:end

 bar:16  color:FullxF from:1982 till:1983  text:St. Norbert (1982–present)
 bar:16  color:Full from:1983 till:1998 
 bar:16  color:FullxF from:1998 till:1999 
 bar:16  color:Full from:1999 till:2021
 bar:16  color:AssocOS from:2021 till:end

 bar:17 color:Full from:1992 till:2016 text:Carroll (Wisc.) (1992–2016)

 bar:18 color:AssocF from:2014 till:2021 text:Macalester (2014–2021)

 bar:19  color:AssocOS from:2025 till:end  text:MSOE (2025-present)

 bar:N color:powderblue from:1921 till:1994  text:Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference (MCAC)
 bar:N color:blue from:1994 till:end  text:Midwest Conference

ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1921

</timeline>

Sports

Template:As of, the MWC sponsors the following sports:

Conference sports

Sport	Men's	Women's
Baseball	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}
Basketball	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}
Cross country	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}
Football	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}
Golf	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}
Indoor track	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}
Outdoor track	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}
Soccer	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}
Softball		Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}
Swimming & Diving	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}
Tennis	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}	Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}
Volleyball		Template:Y {{safesubst:#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=|preview=Page using Template:Center with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y| 1 | style }}

Conference facilities

School	Football field	Capacity	Basketball arena	Capacity	Baseball field
Beloit	Strong Stadium	3,000	Flood Arena	2,500	Ballpark at Strong Stadium
Chicago	Stagg Field	1,650	Member only in football and baseball		J. Kyle Anderson Field
Cornell	Ash Park Stadium	2,500	Multi-Sport Center	2,000	Ash Park Field
Grinnell	Rosenbloom Field	5,000	Darby Gym	1,250	Grinnell Baseball Diamond
Illinois College	England Stadium	3,000	Sherman Gymnasium	1,600	Joe Brooks Field
Knox	Knosher Bowl	4,000	Memorial Gym	3,000	Blodgett Field
Lake Forest	Farwell Field	1,000	Lake Forest Sports Center	1,200	No Baseball Team
Lawrence	Banta Bowl	5,255	Alexander Gym	1,280	Whiting Field
Monmouth	Bobby Woll Memorial Field	2,000	Glennie Gymnasium	1,600	Glasgow Field
Ripon	Hopp Stadium	2,000	Willmore Center	1,200	Francis Field

See also

• Midwest Conference men's basketball tournament

External links

• Template:Oweb