Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference

The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education organized the conference in 1951 to promote competition in men's sports amongst the system's 14 universities. In 1977, following growing interest, the conference was expanded to offer competition in women's sports. From its inception, each conference member selected its own competitive division within the NCAA (I, II, or III). In 1980, however, the presidents voted to reclassify the entire conference to Division II within the NCAA. Membership remained unchanged until the conference announced on June 18, 2007, that it had invited three private universities—Gannon University and Mercyhurst College in Erie, Pennsylvania and C.W. Post of Brookville, New York—to join the conference. Gannon and Mercyhurst left the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference to join the PSAC, effective July 1, 2008. C.W. Post became an associate member for football and field hockey. In 2010, Seton Hill University was accepted to join the conference as an associate member for field hockey. With the transition of West Chester from Division I to Division II, the number of teams competing in field hockey increased from 10 to 12 for the 2011 season. On August 19, 2012, the PSAC announced that Seton Hill and the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, formerly members of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC), would become full members beginning with the 2013–14 school year. This announcement was fallout from a split in the WVIAC that ultimately led to the formation of the Mountain East Conference (MEC). Although Seton Hill was one of the schools that initially broke away from the WVIAC, it chose not to join the MEC. The arrival of these two schools brought the PSAC to 18 full members, making it the largest NCAA all-sports conference in terms of membership at that time. While two other conferences briefly expanded to more members, the D-II Lone Star Conference to 19 in 2019–20 and the D-III USA South Athletic Conference to the same number in 2021–22, both have since reduced their memberships to less than 18, once again giving the PSAC the largest membership of any NCAA all-sports conference. In March 2018, charter member Cheyney University, facing crises in enrollment, graduation rates, and finances, announced that it would leave NCAA Division II and the PSAC at the end of the 2017–18 school year. The school had dropped football in December 2017. Later that year, the conference announced that it would expand into West Virginia, bringing in Shepherd University from the MEC as a full member effective with the 2019–20 school year. Shepherd is the first full PSAC member outside. As of April 4, 2024, Mercyhurst announced that it will leave the PSAC to transition to NCAA Division I and join the Northeast Conference, beginning the 2024–25 academic year. The PSAC responded on June 26, 2025 by extending an invitation to Lackawanna College to join as a full member, becoming the third-ever institution (and first football-sponsoring institution) to transition from the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) directly into Division II. Role in Division I conference realignment The PSAC played a little-known but nonetheless significant role in the history of NCAA Division I conference realignment. In 1986, the conference was seeking a way out of a football scheduling conundrum. The PSAC had 14 members at the time, and had been split into divisions for decades. One of the methods it historically used to determine a football champion involved a championship game between the winners of its two divisions. However, due to NCAA limits on regular-season games, every PSAC team had to leave a schedule spot open, with only the two division winners getting to play all of their allowed regular-season games. Then-conference commissioner Tod Eberle asked Dick Yoder, then athletic director at West Chester and member of the Division II council, to draft NCAA legislation that would allow the PSAC to play a conference title game that would be exempt from regular-season limits. The initial draft required that a qualifying league have 14 members and play a round-robin schedule within each division; only the PSAC then qualified. Before Yoder formally introduced the proposal, he was approached by the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, which was interested in co-sponsoring the legislation because it was also split into football divisions and wanted the option of a championship game. Since the CIAA then had 12 members, Yoder changed the legislation to require 12 members instead of 14. Although at the time all NCAA legislation had to be approved by the entire membership, regardless of divisional alignment, the proposal passed with little notice. It was generally seen as a non-issue by Division I-A (now FBS) schools since no conference in that group then had more than 10 members. While the PSAC planned to stage its first exempt title game in 1988, it decided against doing so at that time because the D-II playoffs expanded from 8 to 16 teams that season, and it feared that the result of a title game could cost the league a playoff berth. The new NCAA rule would not see its first use until the Southeastern Conference took advantage of it by expanding to 12 members in 1991 and launching a title game the following year. Chronological timeline • 1951 – The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) was founded as the State Teachers Conference (STCP). Charter members included Bloomsburg State Teachers College (now Commonwealth University-Bloomsburg), California State Teachers College (now PennWest California), Cheyney State Teachers College (now Cheyney University), Clarion State Teachers College (now PennWest Clarion), East Stroudsburg State Teachers College (now East Stroudsburg University), Edinboro State Teachers College (now PennWest Edinboro), Indiana State Teachers College (now Indiana University of Pennsylvania), Kutztown State Teachers College (now Kutztown University), Lock Haven State Teachers College (now Commonwealth University-Lock Haven), Mansfield State Teachers College (now Commonwealth University-Mansfield), Millersville State Teachers College (now Millersville University), Shippensburg State Teachers College (now Shippensburg University), Slippery Rock State Teachers College (now Slippery Rock University), and West Chester State Teachers College (now West Chester University), beginning the 1951–52 academic year. • 1956 – The STCP was rebranded as the Pennsylvania State Teachers College Conference (PSTCC) in the 1956–57 academic year. • 1964 – The PSTCC was rebranded as the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) in the 1964–65 academic year. • 1980 – The PSAC had joined the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II ranks, transitioning from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), beginning the 1980–81 academic year. • 2008: • Gannon University and Mercyhurst University joined the PSAC in the 2008–09 academic year. • Long Island University–Post (LIU Post) joined the PSAC as an affiliate member for field hockey and football in the 2008 fall season (2008–09 academic year). • 2011 – Seton Hill University joined the PSAC as an affiliate member for field hockey in the 2011 fall season (2011–12 academic year). • 2013: • LIU Post left the PSAC as an affiliate member for field hockey and football after the 2012 fall season (2012–13 academic year). • The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown joined the PSAC (along with Seton Hill for all sports) in the 2013–14 academic year. • 2018 – Cheyney left the PSAC to become an independent school without an affiliation with any athletic conference or any college sports organization after the 2017–18 academic year. • 2019 – Shepherd University joined the PSAC in the 2019–20 academic year. • 2024: • Mercyhurst left the PSAC to transition and join to the NCAA Division I ranks and the Northeast Conference (NEC) after the 2023–24 academic year. • Frostburg State University joined the PSAC as an affiliate member for field hockey in the 2024 fall season (2024–25 academic year). ;Notes ==Member schools==