The North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) is an NCAA

National Collegiate Athletic Association

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...

 Division III athletic conference

Athletic conference

An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other at the professional, collegiate, or high school level. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller and smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels...

 composed of schools located in the Midwestern United States

Midwestern United States

The Midwestern United States is one of the four U.S. geographic regions defined by the United States Census Bureau, providing an official definition of the American Midwest....

. When founded in 1984, the NCAC was a pioneer in gender equality, offering competition in a then-unprecedented ten women's sports. Today, the conference remains true to that legacy, sponsoring 22 sports, 11 each for men and women.

The NCAC is respected for the academic strength of its member institutions—all member institutions have Phi Beta Kappa chapters. In its most recent college rankings, U.S. News & World Report

U.S. News & World Report

U.S. News & World Report is an American news magazine published from Washington, D.C. Along with Time and Newsweek it was for many years a leading news weekly, focusing more than its counterparts on political, economic, health and education stories...

recognized all ten members as top-tier liberal arts colleges, and ranked five NCAC institutions among the nation's top 70 such colleges. Additionally, six of the colleges in the conference (Allegheny, Denison, Hiram, Ohio Wesleyan, Wabash, and Wooster) are profiled in "Colleges That Change Lives

Colleges That Change Lives

Colleges That Change Lives is a college educational guide by Loren Pope. It was originally published in 1996, with a second edition in 2000, and a third edition in 2006...

", a collection of 40 small colleges in the United States that author Loren Pope argues have better academic and personal outcomes and are far more student-centric then traditional top colleges and universities.

Former members include Earlham College

Earlham College

Earlham College is a liberal arts college in Richmond, Indiana. It was founded in 1847 by Quakers and has approximately 1,200 students.The president is John David Dawson...

, which left the conference in 2010 for the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference

Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference

The Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio...

.

Member schools

The league currently has ten full members:

Institution	Location	Team Name	Colors	Founded	Affiliation	Enrollment	US News ranking	Forbes Top Colleges
Allegheny College Allegheny College Allegheny College is a private liberal arts college located in northwestern Pennsylvania in the town of Meadville. Founded in 1815, the college has about 2,100 undergraduate students.-Early history:...	Meadville, Pennsylvania Meadville, Pennsylvania Meadville is a city in and the county seat of Crawford County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city is generally considered part of the Pittsburgh Tri-State and is within 40 miles of Erie, Pennsylvania. It was the first permanent settlement in northwest Pennsylvania...	Gators		1815	Private/Methodist	2,100	#93	#153
Denison University Denison University Denison University is private, coeducational, and residential college of liberal arts and sciences founded in 1831. It is located in Granville, Ohio, United States, approximately 30 miles east of Columbus, the state capital...	Granville, Ohio Granville, Ohio As of the census of 2000, there were 3,167 people, 1,309 households, and 888 families residing in the village. The population density was 790.4 people per square mile . There were 1,384 housing units at an average density of 345.4 per square mile...	Big Red		1831	Private/Non-sectarian	2,100	#29	#109
DePauw University DePauw University DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, USA, is a private, national liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,400 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the Great Lakes Colleges Association...	Greencastle, Indiana Greencastle, Indiana Greencastle is a city in Greencastle Township, Putnam County, Indiana, United States, and the county seat of Putnam County. It was founded in 1821 by Scots-Irish American Ephraim Dukes on a land grant. He named the settlement for his hometown of Greencastle, Pennsylvania...	Tigers DePauw Tigers The DePauw Tigers are the athletic teams that represent DePauw University, a small liberal arts school in Greencastle, Indiana. The university's teams play in the NCAA's Division III and currently belong to the North Coast Athletic Conference....		1837	Private/Methodist	2,350	#53	#50
Hiram College Hiram College Hiram College is a private liberal arts college located in Hiram, Ohio. Founded by Amos Sutton Hayden of the Disciples of Christ Church in 1850, the institution has, since its first days, been nonsectarian and coeducational, and throughout its existence Hiram College has sustained this egalitarian...	Hiram, Ohio Hiram, Ohio Hiram is a village in Portage County, Ohio, United States. It was formed from portions of Hiram Township in the Connecticut Western Reserve. The population was 1,242 at the 2000 census...	Terriers		1850	Private/Disciples of Christ	1,395	#152	#168
Kenyon College Kenyon College Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio, founded in 1824 by Bishop Philander Chase of The Episcopal Church, in parallel with the Bexley Hall seminary. It is the oldest private college in Ohio...	Gambier, Ohio Gambier, Ohio Gambier is a village in Knox County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,871 at the 2000 census.Gambier is the home of Kenyon College and was named after one of Kenyon College's early benefactors, Lord Gambier....	Lords, Ladies		1824	Private/Episcopal	1,640	#33	#43
Oberlin College Oberlin College Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...	Oberlin, Ohio Oberlin, Ohio Oberlin is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States, to the south and west of Cleveland. Oberlin is perhaps best known for being the home of Oberlin College, a liberal arts college and music conservatory with approximately 3,000 students...	Yeomen, Yeowomen		1833	Private/Non-sectarian	2,850	#24	#72
Ohio Wesleyan University Ohio Wesleyan University Ohio Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five — a consortium of Ohio liberal arts colleges...	Delaware, Ohio Delaware, Ohio The City of Delaware is a city in and the county seat of Delaware County in the United States state of Ohio. Delaware was founded in 1808 and was incorporated in 1816. It is located near the center of Ohio, is about north of Columbus, and is part of the Columbus, Ohio Metropolitan Area...	Battling Bishops Wesleyan Battling Bishops The Battling Bishops is the name of the sports and other competitive teams at Ohio Wesleyan University. The men's and women's Bishops teams are NCAA Division III teams that compete in the North Coast Athletic Conference...		1842	Private/Methodist	1,850	#105	#226
Wabash College Wabash College Wabash College is a small, private, liberal arts college for men, located in Crawfordsville, Indiana. Along with Hampden-Sydney College and Morehouse College, Wabash is one of only three remaining traditional all-men's liberal arts colleges in the United States.-History:Wabash College was founded... *	Crawfordsville, Indiana Crawfordsville, Indiana Crawfordsville is a city in Union Township, Montgomery County, Indiana, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 15,915. The city is the county seat of Montgomery County...	Little Giants Wabash Little Giants The Wabash Little Giants are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent Wabash College, a small private school for men in Crawfordsville, Indiana. The university belongs to the National Collegiate Athletic Association and participates in Division III sports. The Little Giants compete as...		1832	Private/Non-sectarian	850	#53	#86
Wittenberg University Wittenberg University Wittenberg University is a private four-year liberal arts college in Springfield, Ohio serving 2,000 full-time students representing 37 states and approximately 30 foreign countries...	Springfield, Ohio Springfield, Ohio Springfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Clark County. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Mad River, Buck Creek and Beaver Creek, approximately west of Columbus and northeast of Dayton. Springfield is home to Wittenberg...	Tigers		1845	Private/Lutheran	2,050	#114	#189
The College of Wooster	Wooster, Ohio Wooster, Ohio Wooster is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Wayne County. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio approximately SSW of Cleveland and SW of Akron. Wooster is noted as the location of The College of Wooster...	Fighting Scots		1866	Private/Presbyterian	1,827	#71	#99

* Wabash is an all-male institution, so the NCAC has at most nine teams competing in women's sports.

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