DePauw's move from the SCAC to the NCAC significantly affects the balance of power in both conferences, especially in women's basketball. DePauw athletics photo

DePauw is leaving the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference to join the North Coast Athletic Conference, effective July 1, 2011, president Brian Casey announced today. 

DePauw will join Allegheny, Denison, Hiram, Kenyon, Oberlin, Ohio Wesleyan, Wabash, Wittenberg and Wooster as members of the NCAC. "After careful consideration of the advantages of membership in this conference, and of the adjustments that would be required in leaving our current conference, we have decided to accept this invitation," president Brian Casey stated.

Twenty of DePauw's 21 intercollegiate athletic programs will move to the NCAC effective July 1, 2011. Football will play an NCAC schedule starting in 2012. DePauw won the national championship in women's basketball in 2007 and has won 23 or more games six times in the past seven seasons. The men's basketball team has averaged just under 20 wins per season the past four years.

The NCAC has not had two teams reach the NCAA Tournament in women's basketball in the same season since 1995.

Casey said: "Many factors played a part in this decision. Chief among them was a desire for a less strenuous and more environmentally friendly travel regimen for our teams," noting that the NCAC membership stretches across Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, while SCAC includes institutions in Texas, Mississippi and Colorado." The move to the NCAC, the president adds, aligns DePauw with "strong institutions with a similar focus on academic excellence and the overall development of the student with fewer strains on both schedules and budgets."

"Like the SCAC, the NCAC is committed to broad-based athletic programs, gender equity, and the campus integration of student-athletes," says athletic director Page Cotton. "We are very excited about this new partnership, which is a great fit for DePauw."