Early Days The conference can trace its roots back to 1978, when the
Mid-Continent Athletic Association was founded as a football-only conference playing in
Division II at the time. Its inaugural members were the
University of Akron,
Eastern Illinois University,
University of Northern Iowa,
Northern Michigan University,
Western Illinois University, and
Youngstown State University;
Wayne State University had also expressed interest in joining, but ultimately never did. Akron left after the 1979 season, while Northern Michigan and Youngstown State left the following year; they were replaced by Southwest Missouri State (now known as
Missouri State University) in 1981. The 1981 season also saw the conference as a whole move from Division II to Division I-AA; this would be the conference's final season under the name of the Mid-Continent Athletic Association.
Foundation The new association was officially created on June 18, 1982, at the O'Hare Hilton Hotel in Chicago, Illinois as the
Association of Mid-Continent Universities (or
AMCU or
AMCU-8, pronounced Am-cue), which it was known as until 1989. Covering all men's sports now in addition to football, the new conference consisted of current MCAA members Eastern Illinois, Northern Iowa, Southwest Missouri State, and Western Illinois, along with non-football sponsoring
Cleveland State University,
University of Illinois Chicago,
Valparaiso University and
University of Wisconsin–Green Bay. The conference continued to sponsor
football at the Division I-AA level, now under the new AMCU name, from 1982 until 1984, when the football sponsoring members of the
Missouri Valley Conference joined with the football sponsoring members of the AMCU to form the beginnings of what is now the
Missouri Valley Football Conference; current members
University of North Dakota,
North Dakota State University,
University of South Dakota, and
South Dakota State University continue to house their FCS football programs there to this day.
Changes and the addition of women's sports The conference saw its first changes in the early 1990s.
Southwest Missouri State departed for membership in the
Missouri Valley Conference as the
University of Akron and
Northern Illinois University joined in 1990. Then
Wright State University joined in 1991 as Northern Iowa followed Southwest Missouri State to the MVC. Major changes came to the conference in 1992. First, Akron left for the
Mid-American Conference (MAC) and another Ohio school,
Youngstown State University, replaced it. More significantly, the Mid-Continent added women's sports by absorbing the
North Star Conference (NSC), a women's-only league whose final seven members were in the Mid-Continent. All of the final NSC members except for Akron moved their women's sports into the Mid-Continent. At the same time, Eastern Illinois and Western Illinois moved their women's sports into the Mid-Continent when their former women's sports home, the
Gateway Conference, merged into the Missouri Valley Conference. The
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee joined the Mid-Continent a year later.
Horizon and ECC transitions In 1994, charter members Cleveland State, UIC and UWGB, as well as newer members Northern Illinois, Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and Wright State left the conference to join the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, now known as the
Horizon League. The Mid-Continent absorbed
Central Connecticut State University,
Chicago State University,
Northeastern Illinois University, the
University at Buffalo, and Troy State University (now
Troy University) from the collapsed
East Coast Conference in response. None of these institutions remain in the league. The
University of Missouri–Kansas City, formerly an independent, also joined the Mid-Continent Conference in 1994.
Declining membership Eastern Illinois moved to the
Ohio Valley Conference in 1996, reducing membership to nine programs. Troy State departed for the
Trans America Athletic Conference while Central Connecticut State joined the
Northeast Conference in 1997. Buffalo joined the
Mid-American Conference in 1998 while Northeastern Illinois ceased intercollegiate athletics at that time.
Oral Roberts University and
Southern Utah University replaced the former pair while
Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI; its athletic program is now IU Indy) and
Oakland University moved into the latter duo's spots a year later. Youngstown State switched to the Horizon League in 2001, and
Centenary College replaced it in 2003. Chicago State University announced in the spring of 2006 that it would withdraw from the conference to compete as an
independent starting in the 2006–07 school year. Charter member Valparaiso then moved to the Horizon in 2007.
Renewed expansion and Dakota schools introduction Conference expansion was discussed at length at the Mid-Continent Conference annual Presidents Council meeting in 2006, and
Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW, now Purdue Fort Wayne),
North Dakota State, and
South Dakota State were approved for site visits. On August 30, 2006, IPFW accepted an invitation to join the Mid-Continent Conference as a full member starting July 1, 2007. Both North Dakota State and South Dakota State also accepted invitations to join the conference the next day. The Summit League continued its renewed expansion push with the admission of the
University of South Dakota. The Coyotes began conference play in the 2011–12 academic year and become eligible for all championships the following season. Centenary College subsequently announced that it would leave the Summit League following the 2010–2011 campaign. The
University of North Dakota had also been openly rumored to have been courted by the Summit League, but
controversy over the Fighting Sioux nickname in all likelihood prevented UND's admission at that time. Expectations that UND would join the Summit League came to an end on November 1, 2010, when North Dakota instead accepted an invitation to join the Big Sky Conference. The University of South Dakota entered into very brief negotiations to join the Big Sky as well, rather than continuing their plans to join the Summit. However, South Dakota chose instead to remain with the more compact Summit League (along with other Dakota schools, NDSU and SDSU). As the
University of Nebraska Omaha began the transition to Division I athletics in all sports, it joined the Summit League on July 1, 2012. With the departures of Centenary to Division III at the end of the 2010–11 athletic year, and Oral Roberts (
Southland Conference) and Southern Utah (
Big Sky Conference) for other Division I conferences at the end of the 2011–12 athletic year, the Summit League continued with nine institutions, all within the Midwest geographical region. The conference unveiled the
University of Denver (DU) as its tenth member on November 27, 2012, and the
Pioneers joined in July 2013. While Denver is slightly outside The Summit's current Midwestern base, the city's status as a major air hub seemingly minimized travel issues for the other members. dropping The Summit League back to nine member schools. Membership fell to eight schools on May 7, 2013, when Oakland announced that it was joining the Horizon League. The next changes to the conference's core membership were announced in 2017. First, on January 26, North Dakota, which had resolved
its controversy by selecting the new nickname Fighting Hawks, unveiled as a new member beginning in 2018. Then, on June 28, IUPUI announced it would leave the conference to join the Horizon League effective July 1, 2017.
Rare transition and rumored expansion For much of 2018, speculation involving further league expansion focused on
Augustana University, a Division II school located in the Summit's headquarters city of Sioux Falls. Many of the school's
boosters have ties to
Sanford Health, a hospital company that has long been a major league sponsor and also owns the office complex that houses the league headquarters. The university announced on December 14 that it would start a transition to Division I, though stating at the time that no such move would take place until at least 2021. However, on May 22, 2020, the Summit League commissioner, Tom Douple, informed Augustana president
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin that the conference would not be adding more new teams "at this time." The conference expanded anyway, announcing in June 2019 that UMKC would return in 2020 after a seven-year absence. St. Thomas eventually received a waiver of an NCAA rule mandating that Division III schools can only transition to Division II, allowing the school to move directly to D-I on the originally announced schedule. Shortly before St. Thomas' future conference membership was confirmed, the
University of Northern Colorado was announced as a baseball-only member effective in 2021–22. In late March 2023, the OVC announced that it would begin sponsoring men's soccer that fall, leading to
Eastern Illinois, Lindenwood, and Southern Indiana moving that sport to their full-time home. Eastern Illinois and Southern Indiana remain swimming & diving affiliates, while Lindenwood dropped both of its swimming & diving programs after the 2023–24 season.
Associate membership growth and declining full-time membership In early May 2023, it was announced that founding member
Western Illinois would be leaving the Summit League in all sports and would join the
Ohio Valley Conference beginning in fall 2023. In mid-June, Western Illinois announced that its men's soccer team would remain in the Summit League for the fall 2023 season, and depart for the OVC after that. On April 4, 2024, both entities announced that
Delaware would be joining the conference as an associate member in men's soccer starting in 2025. On May 7, 2024, the league announced that
Northern Colorado, who is also an affiliate in baseball, and
Weber State would be joining the league for men's golf starting in the fall of 2024. In May 2025, the
Missouri Valley Football Conference, a football-only league that competes in the
NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, adopted a new governing structure that created a formal relationship between it and the Summit League, and also formalized the MVFC's decades-long ties with the
Missouri Valley Conference. At the time, four of the five Summit members that sponsored football housed those teams in the MVFC. On October 31, 2025, it was announced that
Denver would be leaving the Summit League for the
West Coast Conference in all the sports it plays in the former league, beginning on July 1, 2026. On February 9, 2026,
North Dakota State University accepted an invitation to move its football program to the
Mountain West Conference after 18 years in the
Missouri Valley Football Conference. This does not affect NDSU's membership in the Summit, and they will remain a full member. On April 28, 2026,
Illinois State University announced it would be discontinuing their men's tennis program after the conclusion of the spring 2026 semester. ==Member schools==