Editing North Coast Athletic Conference (section)

==History==
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.<ref>{{cite press release|url=https://alleghenygators.com/news/2021/8/23/general-allegheny-college-announces-return-to-the-presidents-athletic-conference-beginning-july-1-2022.aspx |title=Allegheny College Announces Return to the Presidents' Athletic Conference Beginning July 1, 2022 |publisher=Allegheny Gators |date=August 23, 2021 |accessdate=September 1, 2021}}</ref> 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.<ref name=JohnCarroll>{{cite press release|url=https://jcusports.com/news/2024/1/18/john-carroll-university-joins-north-coast-athletic-conference-ncac.aspx|title=John Carroll University Joins North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC)|date=January 18, 2024|access-date=January 18, 2024}}</ref> Then on April 23, Hiram announced it would leave the NCAC in 2025 to return to the PAC, which it had left in 1989.<ref name=HiramPAC>{{cite press release |url=https://pacathletics.org/news/2024/4/23/general-hiram-college-to-return-to-pac.aspx |title=Hiram College to Return to PAC |publisher=Presidents' Athletic Conference |date=April 23, 2024 |access-date=April 23, 2024}}</ref>

===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]], beginning the 1984–85 academic year.
* 1988 – [[Earlham College]] and [[Wittenberg College]] joined the NCAC 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) after the 1998–99 academic year.
* 1999 – [[Hiram College]] and [[Wabash College]] joined the NCAC in the 1999–2000 academic year.
* 2010 – Earlham left the NCAC to join the [[Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference]] (HCAC) after the 2009–10 academic year.
* 2011 – [[DePauw University]] joined the NCAC in the 2011–12 academic year.
* 2022 – Allegheny left the NCAC to rejoin the [[Presidents' Athletic Conference]] (PAC) after a 38-year absence in the 2022–23 academic year.
* 2025
** Hiram will leave the NCAC to rejoin the PAC beginning the 2025–26 academic year.
** [[John Carroll University]] will join the NCAC beginning the 2025–26 academic year.
* 2026 – [[Washington University in St. Louis]] will join the NCAC as an associate member for football, beginning in the 2026 fall season (2026–27 academic year).

===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.<ref>{{cite news |last=Smola |first=Jennifer |date=2019-11-19 |title=Denison, Kenyon training other colleges to better support LGBTQ athletes as part of NCAA program
 |url=https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/education/2019/11/11/denison-kenyon-training-other-colleges/2314422007/ |work=The Columbus Dispatch |location= |access-date=2023-07-13}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite tweet |user=NCAC |number=1349519050238550018 |title=NCAA LGBTQ Award 2021}}</ref>