Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference - History

History

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 reorganized to offer women's sports as well. Then in 1980, in order to promote increased competition, the entire conference was reclassified as Division II within the NCAA.

The conference announced on June 18, 2007, that it had invited three private universities—Gannon University and Mercyhurst College of Erie, Pennsylvania and C. W. Post of Brookville, New York—to join the conference. On June 27, Gannon and Mercyhurst held a joint press conference to announce their acceptance into the PSAC, effective July 1, 2008. The following day it was announced that C. W. Post would also join the conference as an associate member in football and field hockey.

The expansion increased membership to 16 full-time and one associate members. With all of the conference's full-time members located in Pennsylvania, the PSAC became the largest one-state conference in the NCAA. The conference also shares the distinctions as the largest Division II conference, the NCAA's largest football conference, and the Division II conference offering the most championships, with 23. All but two of Pennsylvania's Division II football programs compete in the PSAC: Lincoln competes in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association while Seton Hill University competes in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Five other universities compete at the Division II level in other sports, four of them in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference and the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in the WVIAC.

In 2010, Seton Hill was accepted to join the conference as an associate member for field hockey. With the additional transition of West Chester's program 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 Pitt–Johnstown and Seton Hill would become full members effective in 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 will bring the PSAC to 18 full members; barring any further changes, it will become the largest NCAA conference in terms of membership. Pitt–Johnstown, a branch campus of the University of Pittsburgh, will become the PSAC's first member from the Commonwealth System of Higher Education.

As a conference, the PSAC has had success at the national level. Member schools combined send nearly one-third of their teams to NCAA postseason competitions. Conference members have won 43 NCAA team and 238 individual championships as of the 2009–10 seasons.