Updated: 6/28/2011
Originating in 1951 to administer and promote men’s athletics, the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference has evolved into one of the NCAA’s most heralded intercollegiate conferences.
The first major step came in 1977, when based on a growing interest, the league reorganized to provide a structure for its women’s programs. Only three years later, lacking a standard competitive division, league voted to reclassify the entire conference to NCAA Division II.
Among its recent enhancements the PSAC has expanded its membership twice during a four-year span. The first occurred during the 2008-09 academic year with the addition of full-time members Gannon University and Mercyhurst College, and associate member Long Island University-C.W. Post. Over the past year, the PSAC’s Board of Directors agreed to welcome Seton Hill University as an associate member to begin play in field hockey during the 2011-12 campaign. The membership now consists of 16 full-time institutions and the two associate members.
All of the league’s full-time members are located within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which makes the PSAC the largest one-state conference in the NCAA. The league has also grown to share the distinctions as: The largest conference in Division II, the largest football-playing conference in the NCAA, and, with 23, the conference that sponsors the most championships at the Division II level.
Highly competitive on a regional and national level, PSAC schools annually combine to send nearly one-third of its teams into NCAA postseason play. Ultimately, the membership’s success has yielded 43 NCAA team and 246 individual title winners.
While proud of its athletic accomplishments, the league also has evolved into one of Division II’s finest from an academic standpoint. Today, nearly one-third of the PSAC’s estimated 6,300 participants are honored each year as “Scholar-Athletes” for maintaining a grade-point average of 3.25 or better - a total that has nearly doubled since PSAC Scholar-Athletes were first recognized in the mid-1990s.
Although all 16 current institutions are members of Division II, seven league schools also compete at the Division I level in select sports. PSAC schools enroll over 127,000 students and claim over 710,000 alumni, including 483,000 who reside in Pennsylvania.
The PSAC is governed by the presidents of the 16 member institutions. It employs a commissioner, an associate and assistant commissioner, and a director of media relations at its headquarters in Lock Haven, Pa.