The Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) is a

college athletic conference In college athletics in the United States, institutions typically join in conferences for regular play under different governing bodies. Varsity sports There are several national and regional associations governing the varsity teams of colleges ...

affiliated with the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

(NCAA) at the Division II level. It has historically operated in the

northwestern United States The Northwestern United States, also known as the American Northwest or simply the Northwest, is an informal geographic region of the United States. The region consistently includes the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. ...

, but also includes schools in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columb ...

, and

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. The GNAC is the only NCAA conference in any division with a Canadian university as a member.

History

The conference formed in 2001 when its original ten members split from the

Pacific West Conference The Pacific West Conference (also known as the PacWest) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in California and Hawaii. T ...

Chronological timeline

* 2001 - The Great Northwest Athletic Conference (GNAC) was founded. Charter members included the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, the University of Alaska at Anchorage,

Central Washington University Central Washington University (CWU) is a public university in Ellensburg, Washington. Founded in 1891, the university consists of four divisions: the President's Division, Business and Financial Affairs, Operations, and Academic and Student Lif ...

Humboldt State University California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt also known as Cal Poly Humboldt, Humboldt or Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California or California State Polytechnic Universi ...

(now California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt),

Northwest Nazarene University Northwest Nazarene University (NNU) is a private Nazarene university in Nampa, Idaho. History Eugene Emerson organized a combination grade school and Bible school in 1913 as Idaho Holiness School. It was renamed twice in 1916, first to North ...

, Saint Martin's, Seattle University,

Seattle Pacific University Seattle Pacific University (SPU) is a private Christian university in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1891 in conjunction with the Oregon and Washington Conference of the Free Methodist Church as the Seattle Seminary. It became the Seat ...

, Western Oregon University and

Western Washington Western Washington is a region of the United States defined as the area of Washington state west of the Cascade Mountains. This region is home to the state's largest city, Seattle, the state capital, Olympia, and most of the state's residents. T ...

, effective beginning the 2001-02 academic year. * 2006 - Humboldt State left the GNAC to join the

California Collegiate Athletic Association The California Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. All of its current members are public universities, and upon U ...

(CCAA), effective after the 2005-06 academic year. * 2007 - Montana State University at Billings joined the GNAC, effective in the 2007-08 academic year. * 2008 - Seattle left the GNAC to join the Division I ranks of the

(NCAA) as an NCAA D-I Independent (who would later join the

Western Athletic Conference The Western Athletic Conference (WAC) is an NCAA Division I conference. The WAC covers a broad expanse of the western United States with member institutions located in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, and Texas. Due to mos ...

(WAC), effective beginning the 2012-13 academic year), effective after the 2007-08 academic year. * 2008 -

Dixie State University Utah Tech University (UT), formerly known as Dixie State University (DSU) and similar names, is a public university in St. George, Utah. The university offers about 240 programs (4 master's degrees, 53 bachelor's degrees, 18 associate degrees, 4 ...

joined the GNAC as an affiliate member for football (with Humboldt State returning for that sport), effective with the 2008 fall season (2008-09 academic year). * 2010 -

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located ...

joined the GNAC, effective in the 2010-11 academic year. * 2012 - Three institutions joined the GNAC as affiliate members: Azusa Pacific University for football, and the University of Mary and the

University of Sioux Falls The University of Sioux Falls (USF) is a private BaptistChristian university in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. In fall 2014, the university enrolled a total of 1,142 undergraduate students and ...

for men's soccer, all effective with the 2012-13 academic year. * 2013 - South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (South Dakota Mines) joined the GNAC as an affiliate member for men's soccer, effective in the 2013 fall season (2013-14 academic year). * 2014 - South Dakota Mines added football to its GNAC affiliate membership, effective in the 2014 fall season (2014-15 academic year). * 2015 - South Dakota Mines left the GNAC as an affiliate member for men's soccer, effective after the 2014 fall season (2014-15 academic year). * 2015 - Concordia University–Portland joined the GNAC, effective in the 2015-16 academic year. * 2016 - Dixie State and South Dakota Mines left the GNAC as affiliate members for football, effective after the 2015 fall season (2015-16 academic year). * 2019 - Humboldt State left the GNAC as an affiliate member for football as the school announced it was dropping the sport after the 2018 fall season (2018-19 academic year). * 2019 - The

University of California San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is th ...

(UC San Diego) and the

University of Central Oklahoma The University of Central Oklahoma (UCO or Central State) is a public university in Edmond, Oklahoma. It is the third largest university in Oklahoma, with more than 17,000 students and approximately 434 full-time and 400 adjunct faculty. Founde ...

(along with Humboldt State returning for that sport), joined the GNAC as affiliate members for women's rowing, effective in the 2020 spring season (2019-20 academic year). * 2020 - Concordia–Portland left the GNAC as the school announced that it would close, effective after the 2019-20 academic year. * 2020 - UC San Diego left the GNAC as an affiliate member for women's rowing, effective after the 2020 spring season (2019-20 academic year), coinciding with the start of its transition to NCAA Division I. * 2022 - Central Washington, Western Oregon and Simon Fraser, the only 3 football-sponsoring schools remaining in the GNAC, announce that they will be joining the

Lone Star Conference The Lone Star Conference (LSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level. Member institutions are located in the southwestern United States, with schools in T ...

as football affiliates, bringing an end to the GNAC as a football conference, effective after the 2021-22 academic year.

Member schools

Current members

The GNAC currently has ten full members, all but three are

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

schools: ;Notes:

Affiliate members

The GNAC currently has two affiliate members, both are

schools: ;Notes:

Former members

The GNAC had three former full members, all but one were private schools: ;Notes:

Former affiliate members

The GNAC had seven former affiliate members, all but three were

schools: ;Notes:

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:2001 till:2025 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:5 left:5 bottom:20 top:5 Colors = id:line value:black id:Full value:rgb(0.63,0.88,0.755) # all sports id:FullxF value:rgb(0.88,0.755,0.63) # non-football id:AssocF value:rgb(0.88,0.63,0.63) # football-only id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.755,0.755,0.63) # associate PlotData = width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:FullxF from:2001 till:end text:

(2001–present) bar:2 color:FullxF from:2001 till:end text: Alaska–Anchorage (2001–present) bar:3 color:Full from:2001 till:2006 text:

Central Washington Central Washington is a region of the U.S. state of Washington between the western and eastern parts of the state extending from the border with the Canadian province of British Columbia in the north to the border with the U.S. state of Oregon i ...

(2001–present) bar:3 color:FullxF from:2006 till:2008 bar:3 color:Full from:2008 till:2022 bar:3 color:FullxF from:2022 till:end bar:4 color:Full from:2001 till:2006 text: Humboldt State/Cal Poly Humboldt (2001–2006) bar:4 color:AssocF from:2008 till:2019 text:(2008–2019) bar:4 color:AssocOS from:2019 till:end text:(2019–present) bar:5 color:FullxF from:2001 till:end text: Northwest Nazarene (2001–present) bar:6 color:FullxF from:2001 till:end text: Saint Martin's (2001–present) bar:7 color:FullxF from:2001 till:2008 text:

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

(2001–2008) bar:8 color:FullxF from:2001 till:end text: Seattle Pacific (2001–present) bar:9 color:Full from:2001 till:2006 text:

Western Oregon Western Oregon is a geographical term that is generally taken to mean the part of the U.S. state of Oregon within of the Oregon Coast, on the west side of the crest of the Cascade Range. The term is applied somewhat loosely, however, and is somet ...

(2001–present) bar:9 color:FullxF from:2006 till:2008 bar:9 color:Full from:2008 till:2022 bar:9 color:FullxF from:2022 till:end bar:10 color:Full from:2001 till:2006 text:

(2001–present) bar:10 color:FullxF from:2006 till:2008 bar:10 color:Full from:2008 till:2009 bar:10 color:FullxF from:2009 till:end bar:11 color:FullxF from:2007 till:end text: Montana State–Billings (2007–present) bar:12 color:AssocF from:2008 till:2016 text: Dixie State (2008–2016) bar:13 color:Full from:2010 till:2022 text: Simon Fraser (2010–present) bar:13 color:FullxF from:2022 till:end bar:14 color:AssocF from:2012 till:2020 text: Azusa Pacific (2012–2020) bar:15 color:AssocOS from:2012 till:2016 text:

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

(2012–2016) bar:16 color:AssocOS from:2012 till:2013 text: Sioux Falls (2012–2013) bar:17 color:AssocOS from:2013 till:2015 text: South Dakota Mines (2013–2016) bar:17 color:AssocF from:2015 till:2016 bar:18 color:FullxF from:2015 till:2020 text: Concordia–Portland (2015–2020) bar:19 color:AssocOS from:2019 till:end text:

Central Oklahoma Central Oklahoma is the geographical name for the central region of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. It is also known by the Oklahoma Department of Tourism designation, Frontier Country, defined as the twelve-county region including Canadian, Grady, ...

(2019–present) bar:20 color:AssocOS from:2019 till:2020 text:

UC San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD) is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is t ...

History

Chronological timeline

Member schools

Current members

Affiliate members

Former members

Former affiliate members

Membership timeline

Sports sponsored

Men's sponsored sports by school

Women's sponsored sports by school

Other sponsored sports by school

Football champions

Basketball champions

Conference Facilities

References

External links