After competing in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for 42 years, Hillsdale College has decided to leave the conference after the 2016-2017 academic year. Effective July 1st, 2017, Hillsdale, along with four other GLIAC schools, will join the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.
“As a college, we have always been committed to partnering with like-minded institutions,” Director of Athletics Don Brubacher said. “These schools have academic and athletic environments similar to our own, which will allow our students to prioritize their studies.”
University of Findlay, Lake Erie College, Ohio Dominican University, and Walsh College will also leave the GLIAC in favor of the G-MAC.
The GLIAC headquarters provided a prepared statement when asked to comment.
“The GLIAC appreciates the contributions made by these institutions throughout the years in making our league one of the top Division II conferences in the country. We look forward to the process of restructuring the GLIAC
and are excited about our future opportunities as a conference.”
The new members from the GLIAC will join Cedarville University, Kentucky Wesleyan College, Trevecca Nazarene University, Ursuline College, Alderson Broaddus University, Davis & Elkins College, Ohio Valley University and Salem International University to form the new G-MAC. Malone University is set to join the G-MAC in the 2016-2017 academic year.
The move will not change the school’s NCAA Division II status or the current athletic programs offered by the school.
While nearly everyone is excited about the change, there are some concerns as to the extra travel that could come with the shift, especially for sports which don’t make trips to the Upper Peninsula.
“Trevecca Nazarene is in Nashville. That’s a long drive for a conference game,” baseball head coach Eric Theisen said. “For us it might mean a few more missed classes and reworking the budget a bit, but those are just things you take care of as they come.”
When the change happens, however, the G-MAC may not look like what it looks like now. Conference administrators have said that they are committed to setting up the conference in such a way that will best harbor success both in the classroom and on the field.
“As it evolves, I really don’t think that as we sit here in 2015 that when we open the football season of 2017 the makeup of this league is going to be the same,” head football coach Keith Otterbein said.
Another common concern was the loss of long-standing rivalries from the GLIAC, but both coaches and administrators have assured that an effort will be made to keep these rivalries through non-conference scheduling.
Despite the excitement on the horizon, the athletic programs still have two more years of GLIAC play on which to focus.
“I’m excited about it moving forward,” Otterbein said, “but we’re not discounting or disregarding the 2015 and 2016 season as members of the Great Lakes Conference.”
The players feel that the change has given them an opportunity to do something unique.
“Obviously we would love to win a GLIAC title before we leave,” said sophomore baseball player Ryan O’Hearn, “but it would be awesome to do that and then win a title our very first year in the G-MAC. Not many people can say they’ve won a title in two different conferences.”
Hillsdale administrators stressed that the level of athletic competition played no part in the decision, but some players are still happy to distance themselves from some of the bigger schools.
“We love playing Grand Valley, but they are 15 times our size,” O’Hearn said. “It can be tough to compete with that on a consistent basis.”
Tom Daeger, league commissioner of the G-MAC, believes that this move will benefit all of the schools involved in a variety of ways.
“Findlay, Hillsdale, Lake Erie, Ohio Dominican, and Walsh embrace similar ideologies to those of current G-MAC members and are a tremendous fit,” Daeger said. “They also share the desire of seeking excellence in academics, athletics and in the personal development of student-athletes.