The Northwest Conference (NWC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference which competes in the

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. ...

's Division III. Member teams are located in the states of

Oregon Oregon ( , ) is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is a part of the Western U.S., with the Columbia River delineating much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while t ...

and Washington. It was known as the Pacific Northwest Conference from 1926 to 1984.

History

The Northwest Conference was formed in 1925, making it one of the oldest continuously existing athletics conferences in the western United States. For 60 years, the NWC sponsored sports exclusively for men, but in 1984 it joined with the Women's Conference of Independent Colleges to become the Northwest Conference of Independent Colleges, shortening the name to its current moniker in 1996 when it joined the NCAA. The charter members included

Willamette University Willamette University is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college with locations in Salem, Oregon, Salem and Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest college in the Western United ...

, Pacific University, Whitman College, the College of Puget Sound (now the University of Puget Sound), Linfield College (now Linfield University), and the College of Idaho. In 1931, Albany College joined, left in 1938, and re-joined in 1949 using its present name of Lewis & Clark College. Pacific Lutheran University was added in 1965, and Whitworth University in 1970. In 1978, the College of Idaho dropped out of the conference. Whitworth also left in 1984, but then returned in 1988. In 1996, George Fox University joined when the conference moved to the NCAA and Puget Sound re-joined in that same year since 1948. From 2006 to 2010, Menlo College was also a part of the conference as an associate member in football. The College of Idaho reinstated its football program in 2014 after a 37-year hiatus and joined the Frontier Conference for football. College of Idaho is now a member of the NAIA's Cascade Collegiate Conference for other sports. Whitworth left the NWC in 1984 but returned in 1988. George Fox University and Seattle University joined the conference in 1997. Seattle dropped out again in 1999 to become members of NCAA Division II. Menlo College joined the conference in 2005 as a football-only member.

Chronological timeline

* 1925 – The NWC was founded as the Pacific Northwest Conference (PNWC). Charter members include the College of Idaho, Linfield College (now Linfield University), Pacific University, the College of Puget Sound (now the University of Puget Sound), Whitman College and

, beginning the 1926–27 academic year. * 1931 – Albany College (now Lewis & Clark College) joined the PNWC in the 1931–32 academic year. * 1938 – Lewis & Clark left the PNWC after the 1937–38 academic year. * 1948 – Puget Sound left the PNWC after the 1947–48 academic year. * 1949 – Lewis & Clark re-joined back to the PNWC in the 1949–50 academic year. * 1965 – Pacific Lutheran College (now Pacific Lutheran University) joined the PNWC in the 1965–66 academic year. * 1970 – Whitworth College (now Whitworth University) joined the PNWC in the 1970–71 academic year. * 1978 – The College of Idaho left the PNWC after the 1977–78 academic year. * 1984 – Whitworth left the PNWC after the 1983–84 academic year. * 1984 – The PNWC merged with the Women's Conference of Independent Colleges (WCIC) to become the Northwest Conference of Independent Colleges (NCIC), therefore adding women's sports in the conference, beginning the 1984–85 academic year. * 1988 – Whitworth re-joined back to the NCIC in the 1988–89 academic year. * 1995 – George Fox College (now George Fox University) joined the NCIC in the 1995–96 academic year. * 1996 – Puget Sound re-joined back to the NCIC in the 1996–97 academic year. * 1996 – The NCIC has rebranded its name to become the Northwest Conference (NWC), beginning the 1996–97 academic year. * 1996 – The NWC has joined full membership in the Division III ranks of the

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) after years spent in the

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

(NAIA), beginning the 1996–97 academic year. * 1997 – Seattle University joined the NWC in the 1997–98 academic year. * 1999 – Seattle left the NWC to join the

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is the 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 environment ...

ranks and the Pacific West Conference (PacWest) after the 1998–99 academic year. * 2006 – Menlo College joined the NWC as an associate member for football in the 2006 fall season (2006–07 academic year). * 2011 – Menlo left the NWC as an associate member for football after the 2010 fall season (2010–11 academic year). * 2018 –

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...

joined the NWC as an associate member for women's rowing for the 2018 spring season (2017-18 academic year) * 2022 - Mills left the NWC as an associate member for women's rowing as the school merged with

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...

and put their athletics programs on hold

Member schools

Current members

The NWC currently has nine full members, all are private schools: ;Notes

Former members

The NWC had two former full members, which both were private schools: ;Notes

Former associate members

The NWC had two former associate members, which were also a private school: ;Notes

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1926 till:2026 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:1926 till:1943 text: College of Idaho (1926–1978) bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:1943 till:1946 bar:1 color:Full from:1946 till:1978 bar:2 color:Full from:1926 till:1937 text: Linfield (1926–present) bar:2 color:FullxF from:1937 till:1938 bar:2 color:Full from:1938 till:1943 bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:1943 till:1946 bar:2 color:Full from:1946 till:1985 bar:2 color:FullxF from:1985 till:1997 bar:2 color:Full from:1997 till:end bar:3 color:Full from:1926 till:1943 text: Pacific (Ore.) (1926–present) bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:1943 till:1946 bar:3 color:Full from:1946 till:1985 bar:3 color:FullxF from:1985 till:2010 bar:3 color:Full from:2010 till:end bar:4 color:Full from:1926 till:1943 text:

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ; ) is a complex estuary, estuarine system of interconnected Marine habitat, marine waterways and basins located on the northwest coast of the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington. As a part of the Salish Sea, the sound ...

(1926–1948) bar:4 color:OtherC1 from:1943 till:1946 bar:4 color:Full from:1946 till:1948 bar:4 color:FullxF from:1996 till:1997 text:(1996–present) bar:4 color:Full from:1997 till:end bar:5 color:Full from:1926 till:end text: Whitman (1926–present) bar:5 color:OtherC1 from:1943 till:1946 bar:5 color:Full from:1946 till:1977 bar:5 color:FullxF from:1977 till:end bar:6 color:Full from:1926 till:end text: Willamette (1926–present) bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:1943 till:1946 bar:6 color:Full from:1946 till:1985 bar:6 color:FullxF from:1985 till:1997 bar:6 color:Full from:1997 till:end bar:7 color:Full from:1931 till:1938 text: Lewis & Clark (1931–1938) bar:7 color:AssocF from:1946 till:1949 bar:7 color:Full from:1949 till:1985 text:(1949–present) bar:7 color:FullxF from:1985 till:1997 bar:7 color:Full from:1997 till:end bar:8 color:FullxF from:1965 till:1966 text: Pacific Lutheran (1965–present) bar:8 color:Full from:1966 till:1985 bar:8 color:FullxF from:1985 till:1997 bar:8 color:Full from:1997 till:end bar:9 color:FullxF from:1970 till:1972 text: Whitworth (1970–1984) bar:9 color:Full from:1972 till:1984 bar:9 color:FullxF from:1988 till:1997 text:(1988–present) bar:9 color:Full from:1997 till:end bar:10 color:FullxF from:1995 till:2014 text:

George Fox George Fox (July 1624 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. – 13 January 1691 Old Style and New Style dates, O.S.) was an English Dissenters, English Dissenter, who was a founder of the Quakers, Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as t ...

(1995–present) bar:10 color:Full from:2014 till:end bar:11 color:FullxF from:1997 till:1999 text:

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

(1997–1999) bar:12 color:AssocF from:2006 till:2011 text: Menlo (2006–2010) bar:13 color:AssocOS from:2017 till:2022 text: Mills (2017–2022) bar:N color:green from:1926 till:1984 text:Pacific Northwest Conference (PNWC) bar:N color:blue from:1984 till:1996 text:NCIC bar:N color:green from:1996 till:end text:Northwest Conference (NWC) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1926 TextData = fontsize:M textcolor:black pos:(0,25) tabs:(400-center) text:^"Northwest Conference membership history"

Sports

The Northwest Conference sponsors championship competition in nine men's and 11 women's NCAA sanctioned sports.

McIlroy-Lewis All-Sports Trophy

Each year the NWC awards one of its member institutions the NWC McIlroy-Lewis All-Sports Trophy, based on a points system. The award is named in honor of Jane McIlroy, former athletic director of Linfield (1950-82), and John Lewis of Willamette (1947-72). In each sport, the conference champion is awarded 18 points, second place is awarded 16 points, and so on. The school with the most points at the conclusion of the academic year wins the trophy. Football, women's volleyball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's golf, men's baseball, women's softball, and men's and women's track and field are the 18 sports in which points are awarded. Pacific Lutheran has won the award 15 times, more than any other school. Whitworth has won the trophy 14 times, Linfield has won the trophy three times while Puget Sound and George Fox have won it twice.

National championships

† - Whitworth was not a member of the NWC until 1970.

Football champions

*1926 – College of Idaho *1927 – College of Idaho *1928 – Whitman *1929 – Willamette *1930 – Whitman *1931 – Whitman *1932 –

*1933 – Puget Sound *1934 – Willamette *1935 – Linfield and Willamette *1936 – Willamette *1937 – Willamette *1938 – Pacific (OR) and Willamette *1939 – Pacific *1940 – Willamette *1941 – Willamette *1942 – Willamette *1943 – ''No champion'' *1944 – ''No champion'' *1945 – ''No champion'' *1946 – Willamette *1947 – Willamette *1948 – College of Idaho *1949 – College of Idaho, Lewis & Clark, and Pacific (OR) *1950 – Lewis & Clark *1951 – Lewis & Clark and Pacific (OR) *1952 – Lewis & Clark and Pacific (OR) *1953 – College of Idaho *1954 – College of Idaho, Lewis & Clark, and Willamette *1955 – College of Idaho and Lewis & Clark *1956 – Linfield *1957 – Linfield *1958 – Willamette *1959 – Willamette *1960 – Willamette *1961 – Linfield *1962 – Linfield *1963 – Lewis & Clark *1964 – Linfield *1965 – Linfield *1966 – Lewis & Clark *1967 – Lewis & Clark, Linfield, and Willamette *1968 – Willamette *1969 – Lewis & Clark, Linfield, Pacific Lutheran, and Whitman *1970 – Linfield *1971 – Linfield *1972 – Linfield *1973 – Pacific Lutheran *1974 – Linfield *1975 – Linfield, Pacific Lutheran, and Whitworth (WA) *1976 – Linfield *1977 – Linfield *1978 – Linfield *1979 – Pacific Lutheran *1980 – Linfield *1981 – Pacific Lutheran *1982 – Linfield *1983 – Pacific Lutheran *1984 – Linfield

References

External links

* {{NCAA Division III football conference navbox