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Great West Conference
Established: 2004
NCAA	Division I FCS
Members	7 full-time, 8 affiliate
Sports fielded	16 (men's: 7; women's: 9)
Region	Midwest and West
Former names	Great West Football Conference
Headquarters	Elmhurst, Illinois
Commissioner	Ed Grom
Website	http://www.greatwestconference.org
Locations

The Great West Conference is a NCAA college athletic conference. Formerly a football-only conference, in 2008 it became an all-sports conference. It is a member of the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA).

History, Background and Reorganization

Cal Poly-SLO, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, South Dakota State, Southern Utah, and UC Davis began conference play in the Great West Football Conference in 2004. St. Mary's (CA) was slated to join the conference, but dropped football prior to the 2004 season. In 2005 Cal Poly-SLO was the conference's first participant in the NCAA Div. I-AA (now FCS) playoffs.

Northern Colorado left the GWFC to join the Big Sky Conference for all sports for the 2006 season. On March 7, 2007, North Dakota State and South Dakota State announced that they would leave the conference after the 2007 season and join the Gateway Football Conference in 2008;^[1] by the time the two schools joined, the Gateway Conference renamed itself the Missouri Valley Football Conference. On August 2, 2007 the University of North Dakota and the University of South Dakota announced that they would be joining the Great West Conference in 2008.

On July 10, 2008 it was made official in press conferences that the conference would change from a football only conference into an all sports conference. The charter members of the all-sports conference include North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah Valley University, Houston Baptist, Texas-Pan American, and NJIT.^[2] Chicago State joined the conference October 22, and these new schools will begin all-sports conference play in 2009–2010. Seattle University is considering membership.^[3]

The all-sports version of the Great West officially began conference play in a limited number of sports during the fall sports season of 2008. During the 2008-09 academic year, the Great West will award championships in Cross Country, Indoor Track & Field, Outdoor Track Field, Golf, and Tennis. Full conference play among all sponsored team and individual sports will begin with the 2009-10 academic year. Despite not playing a conference schedule in team sports, the league began to award "Player of the Week" honors to student-athletes in all sports in the 2008-09 year.

The conference currently does not have an automatic bid the NCAA Tournament, but the Great West Conference men's basketball tournament champion has an automatic bid to CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament (CIT).

Members

Current

South Dakota will join the Summit League in 2011 ^[4]

Affiliates

Former members

• North Dakota State University (Missouri Valley Football Conference), 2004–2007
• University of Northern Colorado (Big Sky Conference), 2004–2005
• South Dakota State University (Missouri Valley Football Conference), 2004–2007

Locations of current Great West Conference full member institutions.

Football Champions

Conference facilities

Notes

External links

• Official Great West Conference website
• North Dakota and South Dakota joining