The Midwest Lacrosse Conference (MLC) is a men's

National Collegiate Athletic Association 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. ...

(NCAA) Division III lacrosse-only college

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams which play competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller Division (sport), divisions, with the best teams competing at successively ...

composed of schools located in the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

. All schools are members of conferences that do not sponsor lacrosse.

History

Founding members Adrian College, Albion College, Carthage College, Fontbonne University, Milwaukee School of Engineering, College of Mount St. Joseph and Trine University ratified bylaws on June 2, 2009. The NCAA recognition of the new conference went into effect September 1, 2009 and conference play began on February 13, 2010. Many of the MLC members also field women's lacrosse as part of the Midwest Women's Lacrosse Conference, which began in 2011. Because the

Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association The Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) is an List of NCAA conferences, intercollegiate athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's Division III (NCAA), Division III. There are nine ...

added lacrosse beginning with the 2013 season, their members played their last season in the MLC during 2012. Likewise, the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin added lacrosse beginning with the 2015 season, so their teams played their last season in the MLC during 2014. The three schools in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference starting playing in the new lacrosse-only Ohio River Lacrosse Conference in 2015 as well. Beloit College and Cornell College joined the MLC in the spring of 2015. Concordia University Chicago joined in 2016 and

Monmouth College Monmouth College is a Private college, private Presbyterian Church (USA), Presbyterian Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Monmouth, Illinois. It enrolls 727 students in Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science de ...

joined in 2017. Marian University continued to expand the conference in 2018. In 2019, the conference added North Central University and

University of Northwestern – St. Paul The University of Northwestern – St. Paul (UNWSP) is a Private university, private Evangelical Christianity, evangelical Christian university in Roseville, Minnesota, United States. History The predecessor to the current university was fir ...

. Both universities are members of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference for other sports and had been

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

programs for men's lacrosse. Further change came before the 2020 season when the conference added Illinois Tech and Fontbonne announced that the men's lacrosse program would be suspended indefinitely due to low participation numbers for the program. In 2021, the

Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference The Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC), formerly the Northern Athletics Conference (NAC), is an intercollegiate athletic conference. It participates in the NCAA's Division III and began its first season in the fall of 2006. The N ...

brought its lacrosse-sponsoring institutions - Aurora, Benedictine, Concordia Chicago, Concordia Wisconsin, Illinois Tech, Marian, Milwaukee School of Engineering and affiliate member Beloit - directly under the NACC umbrella. This continues the pattern of the Midwest Lacrosse Conference providing league opportunities for schools until such time that their conference sponsors the sport.

Member schools

Current members

Former Members

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
College lacrosse leagues in the United States College sports in Illinois College sports in Indiana College sports in Iowa College sports in Michigan College sports in Missouri College sports in Ohio College sports in Wisconsin NCAA Division III conferences Sports leagues established in 2009 2009 establishments in the United States Sports in the Midwestern United States