Football to join North Coast Athletic Conference for 2026 season

| Junior Sports Editor

After losing CCIW associate membership, WashU football has a new home: the NCAC. (Yiwen Zha | Student Life)

The WashU football team will become an associate member of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) for the 2026 season. The news was first reported by Bob Quillman of IWUHoops.com on Saturday, October 12, and was confirmed by the NCAC on Friday, October 18. 

“The schools of the NCAC are pleased to partner with Washington University in St. Louis, an outstanding institution that shares our values around intercollegiate athletics and the student-athlete experience,” Michael Frandsen, president of the NCAC Executive Committee and Wittenberg University, wrote in a statement. “We look forward to meeting the Bears on the gridiron in 2026.”

The NCAC, based in Cleveland, consists of member colleges in central Ohio and Indiana. 

WashU will compete against John Carroll University, Oberlin College, the College of Wooster, Kenyon College, Denison University, Ohio Wesleyan University, Wittenberg University, DePauw University and Wabash College. The Bears are 29-45 all-time against their future NCAC opponents; they have played the most games against Wabash and DePauw. WashU has not competed against an NCAC school since 2012.

“We are excited about our acceptance into the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) in the sport of football. We look forward to competing for championships while prioritizing the student-athlete experience in the competitive arena and in the classroom,” Chancellor Andrew D. Martin wrote. “I am grateful to the NCAC member institutions and their leaders for their partnership and warm welcome. WashU looks forward to competing and making memories with this storied conference.”

WashU’s addition to the NCAC makes it one of the premier conferences in Division III football. Currently, the NCAC hosts just one top-25 team in D-III – No. 13 DePauw. However, John Carroll, who received votes in the latest D3Football.com Top 25 poll, will join the NCAC as a full-time member in the 2025 season. WashU also received votes in the D3Football.com poll this week. 

The conference is top-heavy like WashU’s current conference, the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW), where the best teams typically dominate the conference year-in, year-out. DePauw, John Carroll, Wabash, and Denison will be among the top conference games each year for WashU. Oberlin and Wooster are ranked among the worst teams in D-III, and are winless this season.  

While the quality of competition is high in the NCAC, joining the conference will significantly increase Bears football’s travel time to away games. The closest NCAC opponent to WashU is DePauw, located 3 hours and 30 minutes away in Greencastle, Indiana. John Carroll, located in the Cleveland suburb of University Heights, Ohio, is an 8.5 hour drive from WashU. In the CCIW, the closest opponent to WashU is Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, which is a two hour drive from campus, while the furthest opponent is Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin, a 5.5 hour drive away.

Joining the NCAC poses travel challenges for the Bears, with the farthest school more than an eight hour drive away from St. Louis. (Matt Eisner | Student Life).

According to WashU Athletic Director Anthony Azama, the change in conference is not a change in the mission of the program.

“What an exciting time for our football program, coaches, staff, and alumni as we begin the next chapter in the NCAC. While the opponents and locations are new, our mission and commitment remain the same – graduate student-athletes, compete for championships and prepare them for post-grad opportunities while simultaneously prioritizing the student-athlete experience,” he wrote.

How did WashU football get here? 

On Sept. 6, Student Life confirmed a report from D3Football.com that WashU football will lose its associate membership in the CCIW following the 2025 season. WashU football has played in the CCIW since 2018, when the University Athletic Association (UAA) stopped sponsoring football, and has finished no lower than fourth in the conference since joining. 

The CCIW was an ideal landing spot for WashU football for many reasons. The quality of football in the CCIW is considered to be among the best in D-III. While WashU often loses to opponents like No. 1 North Central College and No. 25 Wheaton College, playing conference games against those teams gives student-athletes the premier D-III experience. In addition, if WashU were to win the CCIW one year, they would automatically qualify for the NCAA football tournament, a 40-team tournament that functions similar to March Madness. The NCAC also has an automatic qualifier because of its size, making it more likely that WashU could appear in the NCAA tournament in the future. Most CCIW away games in the Chicago area or elsewhere in Illinois, so WashU is able to charter buses to away games instead of splurging for costlier plane tickets. In the NCAC, they’ll likely drive to most schools, but could opt to fly to Cleveland-area schools John Carroll, Oberlin, and Wooster. For UAA games, WashU’s other athletic teams fly to play at Cleveland’s Case Western Reserve University.  

In a written statement on Sept. 6, CCIW executive director Maureen Harty alluded to the nine-team conference’s desire to keep its flexibility to potentially add a 10th full-time member.

“It is in the best interest of our core members to be in a position to act quickly if the opportunity presents itself to add a core member that sponsors football,” she wrote to Student Life on Sept. 6.

When asked to provide additional clarification as to why WashU football was kicked out of the CCIW or the process by which it happened, Harty directed Student Life to her Sept. 6 statement and added that the CCIW “will not be discussing this any further.”

On Sept. 6, WashU Athletic Director Anthony Azama also declined to comment on the matter. However, in a Q&A with Student Life on Sept. 18 he said that “I really don’t want [it] to be a distraction from the work that these kids have put in. Right now, the mission remains the same … And the only other thing I’ll say is that we’re not surprised by the decision.”

Azama and the WashU Athletic Department declined to comment further for this story.

Student Life reached out to the presidents and sports information directors (SIDs) of all nine CCIW schools for comment. Six CCIW SIDs responded, all of whom did not comment on the matter. At the time of publication, three have not responded.

Student Life also received responses from Philip G. Ryken, president of Wheaton College and the chair of the CCIW Council of Presidents. Ryken pointed to the conference’s original statement and declined to provide additional information.

While the future of WashU football is more certain with the news, WashU has two more seasons in the CCIW. For their remaining two seasons in the CCIW, the conference’s decision to oust the Bears is not getting in their way — in fact, it is fueling the WashU squad.

“We definitely have something to prove to this conference,” sophomore lineman Henry Murr said after WashU defeated Rhodes on Sept. 10.

Managing Sports Editor Riley Herron and Junior Sports Editor Lewis Rand contributed reporting to the article.

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