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RIPON, Wis. – The Midwest Conference (MWC) has announced that Macalester will join the 11-member NCAA Division III athletic association as an Affiliate Football Member beginning in July of 2014.
“We are delighted to welcome Macalester and their Football program to the Midwest Conference,” said Mauri Ditzler, Chair of MWC Presidents Council and Monmouth College President. “Our institutions and our students will benefit by association with the student-athletes at this exemplary college. This move advances the Conference’s intent to model excellent academics, competitive athletics, and exemplary sportsmanship.”
A traditional multi-sport conference over its 93-year history, The Midwest Conference recently adopted legislation to permit affiliate membership in single sports. The storied league sponsors 20 sports – 10 for men and 10 for women – for over 3,500 student-athletes annually.
With the addition of Macalester, MWC Football will now consist of 12 institutions that will compete in a divisional format. Beloit, Carroll, Lawrence, Macalester, Ripon, and St. Norbert will participate in the North Division while Cornell, Grinnell, Illinois Col., Knox, Lake Forest, and Monmouth will play in the South Division. The MWC has not played divisional football since 1997, following the departure of Coe College and Cornell College. Currently the conference plays a modified round robin schedule with its 11 institutions since the return of Cornell for the 2012 season.
“With the addition of a 12th member for Football we are able to develop scheduling models that are flexible while providing the excitement of a final league-wide championship week,” noted MWC Commissioner Chris Graham. “The timing of our partnership with a like-minded institution such as Macalester is mutually beneficial.”
Schedules will consist of two non-conference games, two cross-divisional games, followed by five divisional games. The North and South Division winners will meet in the final championship week of the season to decide who will earn the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament while all other teams will play their divisional counterpart within the standings.
Macalester College has played as a Division III Independent in the sport of Football for the past 11 years since leaving the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) in 2002. Macalester will remain an MIAC conference member in all other sports that the conference sponsors.
The Scots are coming off a 2012 season where they finished 6-4 overall, winning three of its last four contests under head coach Tony Jennison. Jennison enters his sixth season in 2013 and has compiled a 22-26 record. The Scots play at the 4,000 seat Macalester Stadium that was built in 1965 and now has a FieldTurf playing surface.
Macalester, founded in 1874, is a national liberal arts college with a full-time enrollment of 2,035 students. Macalester is nationally recognized for its long-standing commitment to academic excellence, internationalism, multiculturalism, and civic engagement.
The Midwest Conference is currently comprised of 11 private, liberal arts colleges and universities in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin: Beloit College, Carroll University, Cornell College, Grinnell College, Illinois College, Knox College, Lake Forest College, Lawrence University, Monmouth College, Ripon College and St. Norbert College.
For more information on the Midwest Conference, please visit http://www.midwestconference.org.