Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference

The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division II level. The conference was originally formed in 1951 as the State Teachers Conference, and was temporarily named the Pennsylvania State Teachers College Conference in 1956 before assuming its current name in 1964.
The conference's 17 full-time members include 16 based in Pennsylvania and one in West Virginia. The conference's headquarters are in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, and staffed by a commissioner, two assistant commissioners, and a director of media relations.

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 expanded to offer competition in women's sports. From its inception, each conference member selected its own competitive division within the NCAA.
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, 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. 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 of Pennsylvania, 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 of Pennsylvania.
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 to transition from the National Junior College Athletic Association 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 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 was founded as the State Teachers Conference of Pennsylvania. Charter members included Bloomsburg State Teachers College, California State Teachers College, Cheyney State Teachers College, Clarion State Teachers College, East Stroudsburg State Teachers College, Edinboro State Teachers College, Indiana State Teachers College, Kutztown State Teachers College, Lock Haven State Teachers College, Mansfield State Teachers College, Millersville State Teachers College, Shippensburg State Teachers College, Slippery Rock State Teachers College, and West Chester State Teachers College, beginning the 1951–52 academic year.
1956 – The STCP was rebranded as the Pennsylvania State Teachers College Conference in the 1956–57 academic year.
1964 – The PSTCC was rebranded as the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference in the 1964–65 academic year.
1980 – The PSAC had joined the National Collegiate Athletic Association at the Division II ranks, transitioning from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, 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 joined the PSAC as an affiliate member for field hockey and football in the 2008 fall season.
2011 – Seton Hill University joined the PSAC as an affiliate member for field hockey in the 2011 fall season.
2013:
* LIU Post left the PSAC as an affiliate member for field hockey and football after the 2012 fall season.
* The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown joined the PSAC 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 after the 2023–24 academic year.
* Frostburg State University joined the PSAC as an affiliate member for field hockey in the 2024 fall season.

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Member schools

Current members

The PSAC currently has 17 full members, all but two being public schools. Also, only three of the 15 public members are outside of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

Institution	Location	Founded	Affiliation	Enrollment	Nickname	Joined	Colors
'	Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania	1839	Public	7,206	Huskies	1951
'	Lock Haven, Pennsylvania	1870	Public	2,702	Bald Eagles	1951
'	Mansfield, Pennsylvania	1857	Public	1,195	Mountaineers	1951
East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania	East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania	1893	Public	5,636	Warriors	1951
Gannon University	Erie, Pennsylvania	1925	Catholic	4,665	Golden Knights	2008
Indiana University of Pennsylvania	Indiana, Pennsylvania	1875	Public	9,081	Crimson Hawks	1951
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania	Kutztown, Pennsylvania	1866	Public	7,468	Golden Bears	1951
Millersville University of Pennsylvania	Millersville, Pennsylvania	1855	Public	7,009	Marauders	1951
'	California, Pennsylvania	1852	Public	2,717	Vulcans	1951
'	Clarion, Pennsylvania	1867	Public	1,743	Golden Eagles	1951
'	Edinboro, Pennsylvania	1857	Public	2,259	Fighting Scots	1951
	Johnstown, Pennsylvania	1927	Public	1,809	Mountain Cats	2013
Seton Hill University	Greensburg, Pennsylvania	1883	Catholic	1,989	Griffins	2013
Shepherd University	Shepherdstown, West Virginia	1871	Public	3,339	Rams	2019
Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania	Shippensburg, Pennsylvania	1871	Public	5,165	Raiders	1951
Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania	Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania	1889	Public	8,394	The Rock	1951
West Chester University of Pennsylvania	West Chester, Pennsylvania	1871	Public	17,202	Golden Rams	1951

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