Established 1981 Division Division III Region Mid-Atlantic | Association NCAA Members 11 | |
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Sports fielded 24 (men's: 12; women's: 12) | ||
The Centennial Conference is an athletic conference which competes in the NCAA's Division III. Member teams are located in Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Contents
Eleven highly selective private colleges compose the Centennial Conference. The institutions are renowned nationally for their traditions in higher education excellence, each with impressive academic histories. Ten of the eleven members of the Centennial Conference rank among the top 100 national liberal arts colleges (with Johns Hopkins University being the only research intensive university in the conference), and six of the members are within the top 50.
On the average, Centennial members boast of 19 varsity teams per campus which is well above the national norm. Conference members have won eleven NCAA team titles: Johns Hopkins women's cross country (2012, 2013, 2014), Gettysburg women's lacrosse (2011), Haverford men's cross country (2010), Franklin & Marshall women's lacrosse (2007, 2009), Ursinus field hockey (2006), Washington men's lacrosse (1998), and Washington men's tennis (1994, 1997).
History
According to the Centennial Conference's web site: "On June 4, 1981, Keith Spalding, then-president of Franklin & Marshall College, made the announcement that "eight private colleges found it timely and appropriate to form a round-robin football schedule among institutions with similar attitudes and practices in intercollegiate football competition." With that statement, the Centennial Conference was born. Those private colleges were Dickinson College, Franklin & Marshall College, Gettysburg College, Johns Hopkins University, Muhlenberg College, Swarthmore College, Ursinus College, and Western Maryland College (later renamed and now known as McDaniel College).
The conference moved from a football-only conference to an all-sports conference after a 1991 feasibility study. The study also recommended to expand from eight schools to eleven. The other schools recommended were Bryn Mawr College, Haverford College, and Washington College. Those three schools accepted and became charter members in 1992 as the conference expanded its sports offerings.
All of the charter members defected from the Middle Atlantic Conference, MAC. Johns Hopkins and McDaniel College both played in the Mason-Dixon Conference prior to entering the MAC in 1975.
Current members
- - Bryn Mawr is a women's college; therefore, it doesn't sponsor men's sports.
- - Johns Hopkins was on multiple all-sports conference affiliation membership for some sports in the University Athletic Association until the end of the 2000-01 season.
Sports
Teams compete in men's and women's cross country, field hockey, football, men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's track and field, wrestling, baseball, men's and women's golf, men's and women's lacrosse, softball and men's and women's tennis.