The American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) is an

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their ...

athletic conference. From 1927 until August 9, 2018, it was known officially as the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) and commonly as the Iowa Conference.

History

The A-R-C dates back to December 8, 1922, when representatives from 12 colleges formed the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Association. Charter members were Buena Vista College, Central University of Iowa, Ellsworth College,

Iowa Wesleyan College Iowa Wesleyan University is a private university in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. It is Iowa's first co-educational institution of higher learning and the oldest of its type west of the Mississippi River. The institution is affiliated with the United Met ...

, Luther College,

Morningside College Morningside University is a private university affiliated with the United Methodist Church and located in Sioux City, Iowa. Founded in 1894 by the Methodist Episcopal Church, Morningside University has 21 buildings on a campus in Sioux City (ar ...

, Parsons College,

St. Ambrose College St Ambrose College is a Christian Brothers' Roman Catholic boys' grammar school in Hale Barns, Altrincham, Greater Manchester, England. It was founded in 1946 by Dr Joseph Robertson. In 2012 the school became an academy, and was completely re- ...

, Simpson College,

Upper Iowa University Upper Iowa University (UIU) is a private university in Fayette, Iowa. It enrolls around 6000 students and offers distance education programs that include 15 centers in the U.S., an online program, an independent study program, and centers in ...

, Western Union College and Penn College. Des Moines University was voted into the conference at that meeting as well. The first Conference constitution was published in January 1923. Also that year, Judge Hubert Utterback of Des Moines, Iowa was named the first conference commissioner and Iowa Teachers (now known as the

University of Northern Iowa The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) is a public university in Cedar Falls, Iowa. UNI offers more than 90 majors across the colleges of Business administration, Business Administration, Education, Humanities, Arts, and Sciences, Social science ...

) was accepted as a member. Columbia College (now known as

Loras College Loras College is a private Catholic college in Dubuque, Iowa. It has an enrollment of approximately 1,600 students and is the oldest post-secondary institution in the state of Iowa. The school offers both undergraduate and graduate degree ...

) was admitted in 1926. Ellsworth left the Conference in 1927. That spring, the Conference's name was changed to the "Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference." After a three-year ban, athletics were reinstated at the

University of Dubuque The University of Dubuque (UD) is a private Presbyterian university in Dubuque, Iowa. About 2,200 students attend the university. History The University of Dubuque has had a long history in Dubuque since its founding in 1852. Early years T ...

in 1928–29, and it joined the conference in 1929.

Wartburg College Wartburg College is a private Lutheran liberal arts college in Waverly, Iowa. It has an additional campus, Wartburg West, in Denver, Colorado. History Wartburg College was founded in 1852 in Saginaw, Michigan, by Georg M. Grossmann, a nativ ...

was admitted to the conference in 1936, beginning competition the following year. Morningside dropped out in 1936 because of inactivity. William Penn was suspended from the Conference in 1949 for using ineligible players. The school was back in the Conference in 1951, though it did not compete in football until later. In 1951, St. Ambrose and Loras dropped from football competition. The Iowa Conference reorganized in 1953, effective with the 1954–55 school year. Nine schools remained in the Conference: Buena Vista, Central, Dubuque, Iowa Wesleyan, Luther, Parsons, Simpson, Upper Iowa and Wartburg. William Penn was re-admitted to the Conference in 1960, effective in the spring of 1962. Parsons left the Conference around 1963, while Iowa Wesleyan left effective June 1, 1965. Loras re-joined the Conference in 1986, increasing the Conference membership to nine schools, which continued until 1997 when Coe and Cornell left the Midwest Conference to join the IIAC. The Conference was at 11 schools until its 80th Anniversary year (2001–02) when William Penn decided to leave and switch its affiliation from the NCAA to the NAIA. The IIAC became a nine- school conference when Upper Iowa reclassified to

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

prior to the start of the 2003–04 academic year and fell back to eight schools with Cornell's return to the Midwest Conference following the 2011–12 academic year. The conference expanded beyond the borders of Iowa in 2016 with the addition of

Nebraska Wesleyan University Nebraska Wesleyan University (NWU) is a private Methodist-affiliated university in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was founded in 1887 by Nebraska Methodists. As of 2017, it has approximately 2,100 students including 1,500 full-time students and 300 ...

. On August 9, 2018, the league changed its name to the American Rivers Conference to reflect its current makeup.

Chronological timeline

* 1922 - On December 8, 1922, the American Rivers Conference was founded as the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Association (IIAA). Charter members included Buena Vista College (now Buena Vista University), Central University of Iowa (now Central College), Des Moines University, Ellsworth College (now Ellsworth Community College),

(now Iowa Wesleyan University), Luther College,

, Parsons College,

(now St. Ambrose University), Simpson College, Upper Iowa College (now Upper Iowa University), Western Union College (later Westmar University) and Penn College (now William Penn University), effective beginning the 1922-23 academic year. * 1923 -

Iowa State Teachers College The University of Northern Iowa (UNI) is a public university in Cedar Falls, Iowa. UNI offers more than 90 majors across the colleges of Business Administration, Education, Humanities, Arts, and Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences and ...

(now the University of Northern Iowa) joined the IIAA, effective in the 1923-24 academic year. * 1926 - Columbia College of Iowa joined the IIAA, effective in the 1926-27 academic year. * 1927 - Ellsworth left the IIAA, effective after the 1926-27 academic year. * 1927 - The IIAA was renamed as the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) during the spring season, effective beginning the 1927-28 academic year. * 1929 - Des Moines U. left the IIAC as the school announced to close, effective after the 1928-29 academic year. * 1929 - The

joined the IIAC, effective in the 1929-30 academic year. * 1935 - Northern Iowa left the IIAC fully align with the North Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (NCIAC), effective after the 1934-35 academic year. * 1936 - Morningside left the IIAC to fully align with the NCIAC, effective after the 1935-36 academic year. * 1936 -

joined the IIAC, effective beginning the 1937-38 academic year. * 1949 - William Penn was suspended for two seasons by the IIAC, effective after the 1948-49 academic year. * 1951 - William Penn was re-instated back to the IIAC, effective in the 1951-52 academic year. * 1953 - Westmar left the IIAC, effective after the 1952-53 academic year. * 1954 - Loras, St. Ambrose and William Penn left the IIAC, effective after the 1953-54 academic year. * 1960 - William Penn re-joined back to the IIAC, effective beginning the 1962-63 academic year. * 1965 - Iowa Wesleyan left the IIAC, effective after the 1964-65 academic year. * 1986 - Loras re-joined back to the IIAC, effective in the 1986-87 academic year. * 1997 -

Coe College Coe College is a private liberal arts college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was founded in 1851 and is historically affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA). The college is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and the Associatio ...

and

Cornell College Cornell College is a private college in Mount Vernon, Iowa. Originally the Iowa Conference Seminary, the school was founded in 1853 by George Bryant Bowman. Four years later, in 1857, the name was changed to Cornell College, in honor of iron tyc ...

joined the IIAC, effective in the 1997-98 academic year. * 2001 - William Penn left the IIAC for a second time to join the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...

(NAIA) and the

Midwest Collegiate Conference The Midwest Collegiate Conference (MCC) was a college athletic conference, consisting of colleges and universities located in Iowa and Wisconsin. Founded in 1988, the conference's member schools competed on the NAIA level in 15 different sports. ...

(MCC), effective after the 2000-01 academic year. * 2003 - Upper Iowa left the IIAC to join the Division II ranks of 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) as an NCAA D-II Independent (which would later join the

Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, which operates in the western Midwestern United States. Nine of its ...

(NSIC), effective beginning the 2006-07 academic year), effective after the 2002-03 academic year. * 2012 - Cornell left the IIAC to re-join back to the Midwest Conference (MWC), effective after the 2011-12 academic year. * 2016 -

joined the IIAC, effective in the 2016-17 academic year. * 2018 - On August 9, 2018, the IIAC was rebranded as the American Rivers Conference (A-R-C), effective in the 2018-19 academic year.

Member schools

Current members

The ARC currently has nine full members, all are

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

schools: ;Notes:

Former members

The ARC had 11 former full members, all but one were

schools: ;Notes:

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1922 till:2027 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<# 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) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football id:AssocF value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.5,0.691,0.824) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote) id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:Full from:1922 till:end text:

Buena Vista Buena Vista, meaning "good view" in Spanish, may refer to: Places Canada *Bonavista, Newfoundland and Labrador, with the name being originally derived from “Buena Vista” *Buena Vista, Saskatchewan * Buena Vista, Saskatoon, a neighborhood in ...

(1922–present) bar:2 color:Full from:1922 till:end text: Central (IA) (1922–present) bar:3 color:Full from:1922 till:1927 text:

Ellsworth Community College Ellsworth Community College is a public community college in Iowa Falls, Iowa. It was founded as Ellsworth College in 1890 by Eugene S. Ellsworth. Originally a private business academy, it later became a four-year college, a music conservato ...

(1922–1927) bar:4 color:Full from:1922 till:1965 text: Iowa Wesleyan (1922–1965) bar:5 color:Full from:1922 till:end text: Luther (IA) (1922–present) bar:6 color:Full from:1922 till:1936 text: Morningside (1922–1936) bar:7 color:Full from:1922 till:1963 text:

Parsons Parsons may refer to: Places In the United States: * Parsons, Kansas, a city * Parsons, Missouri, an unincorporated community * Parsons, Tennessee, a city * Parsons, West Virginia, a town * Camp Parsons, a Boy Scout camp in the state of Washingt ...

(1922–1963) bar:8 color:Full from:1922 till:1952 text:

St. Ambrose Ambrose of Milan ( la, Aurelius Ambrosius; ), venerated as Saint Ambrose, ; lmo, Sant Ambroeus . was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promot ...

(1922–1954) bar:8 color:FullxF from:1952 till:1954 bar:9 color:Full from:1922 till:end text: Simpson (1922–present) bar:10 color:Full from:1922 till:2003 text: Upper Iowa (1922–2003) bar:11 color:Full from:1922 till:1953 text: Westmar (1922–1953) bar:12 color:Full from:1922 till:1949 text:

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

(1922–1949) bar:12 color:FullxF from:1951 till:1952 text:(1951–1954) bar:12 color:Full from:1952 till:1954 bar:12 color:Full from:1962 till:2001 text:(1962–2001) bar:13 color:Full from:1922 till:1929 text:

Des Moines Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines ...

(1922–1929) bar:14 color:Full from:1923 till:1935 text:

Northern Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

(1923–1935) bar:15 color:Full from:1926 till:1952 text: Loras (1926–1954) bar:15 color:FullxF from:1952 till:1954 bar:15 color:Full from:1986 till:end text:(1986–present) bar:16 color:Full from:1929 till:end text:

Dubuque Dubuque (, ) is the county seat of Dubuque County, Iowa, United States, located along the Mississippi River. At the time of the 2020 census, the population of Dubuque was 59,667. The city lies at the junction of Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, a ...

(1929–present) bar:17 color:Full from:1936 till:end text:

Wartburg The Wartburg () is a castle originally built in the Middle Ages. It is situated on a precipice of to the southwest of and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It was the home of St. Elisabeth of Hungary, the ...

(1936–present) bar:18 color:Full from:1997 till:end text: Coe (1997–present) bar:19 color:Full from:1997 till:2012 text: Cornell (IA) (1997–2012) bar:20 shift:(-90) color:Full from:2016 till:end text:

Nebraska Wesleyan Nebraska Wesleyan University (NWU) is a private Methodist-affiliated university in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was founded in 1887 by Nebraska Methodists. As of 2017, it has approximately 2,100 students including 1,500 full-time students and 300 ...

(2016–present) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1925

Sports

Member teams field men's and women's teams in cross country,

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

. Men's teams are field for

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

and

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat s ...

. Women's teams are field for

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

. The men's and women's

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

and diving championships is an annual invitation held by the conference in which all of the teams that sponsor the sport attend.

Men's sponsored sports by school

* Dubuque also sponsors a men's lacrosse team. * Loras also sponsors a men's volleyball team in the

College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin The College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) is a college athletic conference which competes in the Division III level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). CCIW schools have accounted for 50 national championships ...

Women's sponsored sports by school

References

External links

* {{NCAA Division III football conference navbox College sports in Iowa College sports in Nebraska