The Great Midwest Conference was an

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division I athletics conference that existed from 1991 to 1995.

History

It was formed in 1990 with six members:

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

and Memphis State (now Memphis) from the

Metro Conference The Metropolitan Collegiate Athletic Conference, popularly known as the Metro Conference, was an NCAA Division I athletics conference, so named because its six charter members were all in urban metropolitan areas, though its later members di ...

, UAB from the

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that has been affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football confe ...

, Marquette and Saint Louis from the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now the

Horizon League The Horizon League is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. Headquartered in Indianapolis, the league's eleven member schools are located in ...

), and independent DePaul.

Dayton Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

joined in 1993. Cleveland State and Detroit-Mercy had some interest from coaches, while Louisville and Tulane were heavily favored by athletic directors. In 1995, six of the schools in the Great Midwest (except for Dayton, who joined the

Atlantic 10 Conference The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I. The A-10's member schools are located most ...

) joined with

UNC Charlotte The University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte, or simply Charlotte) is a public research university in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. UNC Charlotte offers 24 doctoral, 66 master's, and 79 bachelor's degree programs thr ...

Louisville Louisville is the most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeast, and the 27th-most-populous city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 24th-largest city; however, by populatio ...

, Southern Mississippi, Tulane, and

South Florida South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...

of the Metro and

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

of the dissolving

Southwest Conference The Southwest Conference (SWC) was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference in the United States that existed from 1914 to 1996. Composed primarily of schools from Texas, at various times the conference also included schools from Oklaho ...

and formed

Conference USA Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. CUSA's offices are located in Dallas, Texas. Mem ...

Chronological timeline

* 1990 – The Great Midwest Conference was founded. Charter members included the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...

and

Memphis State University The University of Memphis (Memphis) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 20,000 students. The university maintains the Herff Col ...

(now the University of Memphis) from the Metro Conference, the

University of Alabama at Birmingham The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) is a public research university in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. Founded in 1969 and part of the University of Alabama System, UAB has grown to be the state's largest employer, with more than ...

(UAB) from the

Marquette University Marquette University () is a Private university, private Jesuit research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It was established as Marquette College on August 28, 1881, by John Henni, the first Archbishop of the Roman Catholic Ar ...

and

Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Missi ...

from the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now the Horizon League), and D-I Independent

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from ...

, effective beginning the 1990–91 academic year. * 1993 –

University of Dayton The University of Dayton (UD) is a Private university, private, Catholic research university in Dayton, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1850 by the Society of Mary (Marianists), Society of Mary, it is one of three Marianist universities in the U ...

joined the Great Midwest, effective in the 1993–94 academic year. * 1995 – The Great Midwest ceased operations as an athletic conference, effective after the 1994–95 academic year; as many schools left to join their respective new home primary conferences, effective beginning the 1995–96 academic year: Cincinnati, DePaul, Marquette, Memphis, Saint Louis and UAB joined with the

schools to form Conference USA, while Dayton joined the

(A-10).

Member schools

Final members

;Notes: * Dayton and Saint Louis are in the

* Following the July 2013 split of the original Big East Conference into two leagues, DePaul and Marquette moved to the new, non-football conference that retained the Big East name, while Cincinnati remained in the football-sponsoring former conference, now named the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...

. * At the time of the Big East split, Memphis moved from CUSA to The American.

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1991 till:2025 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:FullxF from:1991 till:1995 text:

(1991–1995) bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2005 text:

C-USA Conference USA (CUSA) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of member institutions in the Southern United States, Southern and Western United States. The conference participates in the National Collegiate Athletic Associ ...

bar:1 color:OtherC2 from:2005 till:2013 text: Big East (1st) bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:2023 text: American bar:1 color:OtherC2 from:2023 till:end text:

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. It consists of 16 full-member universities (3 private universities and 13 public universities) in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, Okla ...

bar:2 color:FullxF from:1991 till:1995 text: DePaul (1991-1995) bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2005 text:

bar:2 color:OtherC2 from:2005 till:2013 text: Big East (1st) bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:end text:

Big East The Big East Conference (stylized as BIG EAST) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference that competes in National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA NCAA Division I, Division I in 10 men's sports and 12 women's sports. H ...

bar:3 color:FullxF from:1991 till:1995 text: Marquette (1991-1995) bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:end text:

bar:3 color:OtherC2 from:2005 till:2013 text: Big East (1st) bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:end text:

bar:4 color:FullxF from:1991 till:1995 text: Memphis (1991-1995) bar:4 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2013 text:

bar:4 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:end text: American bar:5 color:FullxF from:1991 till:1995 text: Saint Louis (1991-1995) bar:5 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2005 text:

bar:5 color:OtherC2 from:2005 till:end text: Atlantic 10 bar:6 color:FullxF from:1991 till:1995 text: UAB (1991-1995) bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2023 text:

bar:6 color:OtherC2 from:2023 till:end text: American bar:7 shift:(-40) color:FullxF from:1993 till:1995 text:

(1993-1995) bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:end text: Atlantic 10 ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:1991 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(300,30) # tabs:(0-center) text:"Great Midwest Conference Membership History"

Championships

The following were the locations of the GMC men's basketball tournament. *

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

Chicago Stadium Chicago Stadium was an indoor arena in Chicago from 1929 to 1995. When it was built, it was the largest indoor arena in the world with a maximum seating capacity of 26,000. It was the home of the National Hockey League's Chicago Blackhawks and ...

;

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

*1993: The Pyramid;

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

*1994: Shoemaker Center;

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

*1995: Bradley Center;

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

References

{{Conference USA navbox Sports organizations established in 1991 Organizations disestablished in 1995 1991 establishments in the United States 1995 disestablishments in the United States