Location of WHAC members: full member and future member.
The WHAC announced on January 27, 2012, added bowling and lacrosse for both men and women as conference sports effective the fall of 2012, becoming the first NAIA conference to offer championships in these sports.[1]
On October 13, 2016, the Council of Presidents unanimously voted to accept Rochester College (now Rochester Christian University) into the conference beginning with the 2017–18 academic year.[2]
Men's ice hockey was added as a conference sport effective the fall of 2017, making the WHAC the first conference in the NAIA to offer ice hockey as a conference championship sport.[3] Initially, the five conference members that sponsor ice hockey will participate in a conference championship.[3][4] In July 2017, Concordia University Ann Arbor announced that the university will begin an ice hockey program and begin competition in the NAIA Division and WHAC Hockey Conference in the 2018–19 season.[5]
2004 - Spring Arbor left the WHAC to join the
Mid-Central College Conference (MCCC; now the Crossroads League), effective after the 2003-04 academic year.
2016 - Two institutions joined the WHAC as affiliate members:
Rochester College (now Rochester Christian University) for baseball, and Spring Arbor re-joining for bowling, both effective in the 2016-17 academic year.
2017 - Rochester had uprgraded to join the WHAC for all sports, effective in the 2017-18 academic year.
2017 - Marygrove left the WHAC as the school announced that it would close at the end of the fall 2017 semester, effective during the 2017-18 academic year.
2018 -
Cleary University joined the WHAC, effective in the 2018-19 academic year.
2019 -
Mount Vernon Nazarene University joined the WHAC as an affiliate member for bowling; while Taylor added women's lacrosse to its WHAC affiliate membership, both effective in the 2019-20 academic year.
2020 - Taylor left the WHAC as an affiliate member for women's lacrosse, effective after the 2020 spring season (2019-20 academic year).
2020 - Four institutions joined the WHAC as affiliate members: Bethel (Ind.) adding bowling to its WHAC affiliate membership,
Brescia University and
Point Park University for competitive cheerleading,
Marian University adding men's wrestling to its WHAC affiliate membership, and Mount Vernon Nazarene for men's volleyball, all effective in the 2020-21 academic year.
2024 -
Defiance College has been granted the approval from the Board of Trustees to return to the NAIA for the first time since 1991. Ever since that year, the Defiance Yellow Jackets have been a Division III school and have competed in the
Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC). They will officially join the conference on July 1, 2024, effective in the 2024–2025 academic year.
Member schools
Current members
The WHAC currently has 12 full members, all but one are
private schools:
^Marygrove announced that all athletics would cease after the 2017 fall season (with men's & women's soccer and volleyball remaining) of the 2017-18 academic year; with their August 2017 announcement of the closing of school's undergraduate programs.[6]
^Spring Arbor rejoined to the WHAC as an affiliate member for bowling in the 2016–17 school year.