List of defunct college football conferences

This is a list of defunct college football conferences in the United States. Not all of the conferences listed here are truly defunct. Some simply stopped sponsoring football and continue under their current names, where others changed their names after changes in membership.

Disbanded conferences

Conferences whose charter no longer functions:

• Alabama Collegiate Conference
• Alabama Intercollegiate Conference
• Alamo Conference
• American West Conference (1993–1996) – Two members joined the Big Sky Conference, one joined the Big West Conference while one became independent.
• Arkansas Association
• Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference
• Association of Mideast Colleges
• Atlantic Central Football Conference
• Atlantic Collegiate Football Conference
• Badger-Gopher Conference – Also known as the Badger-Illini Conference (1948–1956), Badger State Intercollegiate Conference (1940–1947), and Tri-State Conference (1932–1939).
• Big 4 Conference
• Big Eight Conference (also called Big Six and Big Seven) (1907–1996) – All eight members, along with four from the Southwest Conference, formed the Big 12 Conference under a separate charter.
• Big Four Conference of Wisconsin
• Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association (1931–1962) – Four members joined the new WAC, while three became independent.
• Buckeye Athletic Association
• California Coast Conference
• Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union
• Central Church College Conference
• Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
• Central States Intercollegiate Conference
• Chesapeake Conference
• Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Conference
• Colorado Football Association
• Columbia Football Association – Known as the Columbia Football Association Mount Ranier League from 1987 to 1995.
• Columbia Football Association Mount Hood League
• Columbia Football League
• Dakota Athletic Conference
• Dakota-Iowa Athletic Conference
• Dixie Conference (1930–1941) – An offshoot of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (see below).
• Dixie Conference (1948–1954) – The second conference to bear the name was an attempt at a "purely amateur" conference without scholarships. It disbanded after six years, due largely to a lack of top-to-bottom competitiveness.
• Eastern Collegiate Football Conference
• Eastern Football Conference – This was the name of two conferences: one in existence in the Connecticut area from 1965 to 1974, and the other in the Northeast region from 1997 to 2000.
• Eastern Intercollegiate Conference – A basketball-focused conference.
• Eastern Pennsylvania Conference
• Evergreen Conference – Also known as the Washington Intercollegiate Conference from 1938 to 1947.
• Freedom Football Conference (1992–2003) – Members split between the Empire Eight, New England Football Conference, New Jersey Athletic Conference, and the Liberty League.
• Frontier Conference – This was the name of a conference in New Mexico in existence from 1940 to 1962 and should not be confused with the modern Frontier Conference in the NAIA. This conference was also known as the New Mexico Intercollegiate Conference from 1940 to 1954.
• Gateway Conference (1962–1975) – A small-college conference made up of schools in Illinois and Wisconsin. Not to be confused with the Gateway Football Conference that is the direct predecessor of today's Missouri Valley Football Conference.
• Great Lakes Football Conference (2006–2012) – A Division II football-only conference that played its final season in 2011, the GLFC was effectively absorbed by the all-sports Great Lakes Valley Conference, which added football in 2012. All of the GLFC's final members became either full or football-only members of the GLVC.
• Great Plains College Association
• Great West Conference (2004–2013) – Founded as the Great West Football Conference in 2004, it changed its name in 2008 when it began sponsoring other sports. The 2010–13 realignment cycle first caused the conference to lose all of its football members, leading it to drop the sport after the 2011 season. Further realignment led to the league's demise after the 2012–13 school year.
• Green Mountain Conference
• Gulf Coast Conference
• Gulf Star Conference (1984-1987) - A Division I all-sports loop. All six teams eventually joined the Southland Conference, and five of them remain in the Southland in 2013.
• Gulf States Conference
• Hawkeye College Conference
• Heartland Collegiate Conference – Also known as the Indiana Collegiate Conference from 1951 to 1977.
• Hoosier-Buckeye Conference – Chartered and known as the Hoosier Conference from 1948 to 1970.
• Illini-Badger Football Conference – Also known as the Illini-Badger-Hawkeye Football Conference from 1989 to 1990.
• Illinois Intercollege Conference
• Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – Also known as the Interstate Intercollegiate Athletic Conference from 1950 to 1970.
• Illinois Intercollegiate Football League
• Independent College Athletic Conference
• Indiana College Athletic League
• Indiana Collegiate Conference
• Indiana Intercollegiate Athletic Association
• Indiana Intercollegiate Conference
• Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the Northwest (1892–1893) – Disbanded due to financial difficulties; its four schools became charter members of what is now the Big Ten Conference in 1896.
• Intercollegiate Football Association
• Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference – The conference existed from 1890 to 1927, and was also known as the Kansas College Athletic Conference and the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Association from 1890 to 1901.
• Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Association
• Liberty Football Conference
• Little Five Conference
• Louisiana Intercollegiate Athletic Association
• Louisiana Intercollegiate Conference
• Maine Intercollegiate Athletic Association
• Maryland Intercollegiate Football Association
• Mason-Dixon Conference
• Met-Intercollegiate Conference
• Metropolitan Collegiate Conference
• Metropolitan Conference
• Metropolitan Intercollegiate Conference
• Michigan Collegiate Conference
• Michigan-Ontario Collegiate Conference
• Mid-Continent Athletic Association (1978–1981) – A football-only conference, it competed in Division II from 1978 to 1980, and Division I-AA in its final season as a standalone conference in 1981. The following year, the MCAA would be absorbed by the newly founded Association of Mid-Continent Universities (see "Existing conferences that dropped football"), an all-sports conference.
• Mid-Ohio Conference
• Mid-South Athletic Conference
• Middle Atlantic Athletic Association
• Middle States Intercollegiate Football League
• Middle States League
• Middle Three Conference
• Midlands Conference
• Midwest Intercollegiate Football Conference – Also known as the Midwest Intercollegiate Conference in 1990.
• Midwestern Conference – A black college conference, also known as the Midwest Conference (1962–1963) and the Midwest Athletic Association (1926–1961). Not to be confused with the early 1970s conference of the same name.
• Mississippi Valley Conference
• Missouri College Athletic Union
• Mountain States Conference (1938–1963) – Though officially named the Mountain States Conference for its entire existence, the conference was better known to the public as the Skyline Conference (not to be confused with the modern Skyline Conference, a group of schools in the New York City area). Four of its members formed the WAC and would later become charter members of the Mountain West Conference, while the remaining three became independent.
• Mountain West Athletic Conference (1982–1988) – Women's sports only, merged into Big Sky Conference in 1988.
• Nebraska College Athletic Conference – Also known as the Nebraska Intercollegiate Conference from 1916 to 1926.
• Nebraska Intercollegiate Athletic Association
• New York State Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (1925-1934)
• North Atlantic Conference – A black college conference.
• North Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – Also known as the North Central Intercollegiate Conference from 1922 to 1929.
• North Dakota College Athletic Conference – Also known as the North Dakota Intercollegiate Conference.
• Northern California Athletic Conference – Also known as the Far Western Conference from 1925 to 1981.
• Northwestern Ohio Intercollegiate Athletic Association – Also known as the Little Ohio Conference.
• Oklahoma Collegiate Athletic Conference
• Oklahoma Intercollegiate Conference – This was the name of two conferences, one in existence from 1914 to 1928, and the other in existence from 1974 to 1996.
• Oregon Collegiate Conference
• Oregon Intercollegiate Conference
• Pacific Coast Conference (1915–1959) – Claimed by today's Pac-12 as part of its history, but the PCC had a separate charter. All PCC members at the time of its demise except Idaho are now Pac-12 members.
• Pacific Northwest Conference (1908–1925) - Originally University of Idaho, University of Oregon, Whitman College, Oregon Agricultural College (Oregon State University), University of Washington, Washington State College (University). Later members included University of Montana, Willamette University, Pacific University, Gonzaga University. Pacific Coast Conference member schools maintained dual membership in PCC and PNC. Circa 1925, the six PCC schools left and the remaining active PNC schools formed the Northwest Conference.
• Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Football Association
• Pioneer Conference
• Prairie College Conference – This was the name of two conferences, one in existence from 1953 to 1967, and the other in existence for the 1988 season.
• Smoky Mountain Conference
• South Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association
• South Carolina Little Three – Also known as the South Carolina Little Four from 1946 to 1951.
• South Central Athletic Conference – A black college conference.
• South Dakota College Conference
• South Dakota Intercollegiate Conference – Also known as the South Dakota-Iowa Athletic Conference from 1995 to 1999.
• Southeastern Athletic Conference – A black college conference, also known as the South Atlantic Intercollegiate Athletic Association (1929–1942), but distinct from the conference of the same name that disbanded in 1921.
• Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association
• Southwest Conference (1914–1996) – Due to fallout from numerous recruiting scandals throughout the 1980s, most notoriously at SMU, the conference went into terminal decline.
  • Arkansas started the process, announcing it would leave the SWC for the Southeastern Conference effective in 1991, leaving the conference with eight teams in Texas.
  • Four members—Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech—joined with the Big 8 in 1994, forming the Big 12 under a new charter. Texas A&M has since moved to the Southeastern Conference.
  • Houston became a charter member of Conference USA (C-USA) in 1995. It moved to the American Athletic Conference in 2013.
  • Rice, SMU, and TCU joined the WAC. TCU left the WAC in 2001 to join C-USA, and moved again to the Mountain West Conference in 2005. At the same time TCU departed for the MWC, Rice and SMU rejoined Houston in C-USA. During the 2010–13 realignment cycle, TCU initially accepted an invitation to the Big East effective in July 2012, but never joined that conference, instead accepting an offer from the Big 12. SMU joined the AAC (the football-sponsoring portion and legal successor of the former Big East) in 2013.
• Texas Collegiate Athletic Conference
• Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association
• Tri-Normal League
• Tri-State Athletic Conference
• Tri-State Conference – This was the name of two conferences, one in Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota in existence from 1960 to 1978, and another located in Pennsylvania and West Virginia in existence from 1932 to 1934. It was also the name of the Badger-Gopher Conference during a period of its existence.
• Triangular Football League – Also known as the Northeast Intercollegiate League from 1891 to 1892, the Eastern Intercollegiate Football Association from 1887 to 1890, and the Northern Intercollegiate Football Association from 1885 to 1886.
• Twin River Collegiate Conference
• Upper Peninsula Conference
• Upstate Collegiate Athletic Conference
• Vermont State Conference
• Virginia / North Carolina Athletic Conference
• Virginia Collegiate Athletic Association
• Virginia Conference
• Virginia Little Eight Conference – Also known as the Virginia Little Seven Conference from 1954 to 1955 and the Virginia Little Six Conference from 1949 to 1953.
• Volunteer State Athletic Conference
• West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – Disbanded in 2013 after its nine football-playing schools announced they would break away to form a new conference. Ultimately, eight of these schools became charter members of the Mountain East Conference, along with three other football-playing schools and one non-football WVIAC member.
• Western Football Conference – Also known as the Western Football League from 1987 to 1990.
• Western Interstate Conference
• Western Interstate University Football Association
• Western New York Little Three Conference
• Western Pennsylvania Conference
• Wisconsin State University Conference (1913–1997) – This was a men's-only conference that merged with a parallel women's-only conference, with identical membership, to become today's Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Conferences undergoing name changes

Conferences which today exist under the same charter but different names:

• College Athletic Conference (1962–1991) – Adopted its current name of Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference in 1991, presumably to reflect its traditional geographic focus in the South.
• Dixie Conference (1963–2003) – Now known as the USA South Athletic Conference.
• Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference (1985–1992), Gateway Football Conference (1992–2008) – Before 1985, the Gateway Collegiate Athletic Conference was a women's athletic conference whose membership featured several schools now in the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC). When the MVC stopped sponsoring its hybrid Division I-A (now FBS) and Division I-AA (now FCS) football league in 1985, the Gateway Conference took on football as its only men's sport. The initial football membership included the two I-AA football programs then in the MVC, plus the four final members of the AMCU football league (see "Existing conferences that dropped football" below). When the women's portion of the Gateway Conference merged with the MVC in 1992, the football conference maintained the Gateway charter, with a name change to Gateway Football Conference. In 2008, the Gateway Conference, by now featuring five current MVC members, changed its name to the Missouri Valley Football Conference to better align itself with the MVC. The two conferences, however, remain legally separate, although they operate out of the same offices in St. Louis.
• Indiana Collegiate Athletic Conference (1987–1999) – Changed name to the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference after it began to admit schools outside Indiana. Still exists as of 2013.
• Missouri Intercollegiate Athletic Association (1912–1992) – Changed name to the current Mid–America Intercollegiate Athletics Association in 1992, three years after it admitted its first schools outside Missouri.
• Nebraska Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (1969–1992), Nebraska-Iowa Athletic Conference (1992–2000) – Names changed as a result of geographic expansion. Known as the Great Plains Athletic Conference since 2000.
• North State Conference – Also known as the North Carolina State Intercollegiate Conference from 1931 to 1957. Changed its name to the Carolinas Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 1961 and the Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference in 1995 before adopting its current identity as Conference Carolinas in 2007. No longer sponsors football.
• Before its most recent expansion, the organization now known as the Pacific-12 Conference officially used three different names and unofficially used two others since the establishment of its current charter in 1959:
  • Athletic Association of Western Universities (AAWU) — Official name from 1959 through June 1968.
  • Big Five — Unofficial name used from 1959 to June 1962, when the conference consisted of charter members California, Stanford, UCLA, USC, and Washington.
  • Big Six — Unofficially adopted when Washington State joined in July 1962, and used through June 1964.
  • Pacific-8 Conference — Unofficially adopted when Oregon and Oregon State joined in July 1964; officially adopted in July 1968.
  • Pacific-10 Conference — Adopted in July 1978 with the arrival of Arizona and Arizona State, and used until Colorado and Utah joined in July 2011.
• The Big Ten Conference is actually that league's second official name. The conference has also unofficially used two other names.
  • Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives — Official name from formation in 1896 until the "Big Ten" name was officially adopted in 1987.
  • Western Conference — Unofficial name used in the conference's early years.
  • Big Nine — Unofficial name first used in 1899, matching the number of members at that time. The name briefly fell out of use when Michigan was expelled from the conference in 1907, but returned when Ohio State joined in 1912. The name was again used from 1946, after Chicago left the conference, until 1949, when Michigan State joined.
  • Big Ten — Although not officially adopted until 1987, it was unofficially used for two long periods:
    • 1917–1946 (return of Michigan until departure of Chicago)
    • 1949–1987 (arrival of Michigan State until "Big Ten" officially adopted)
• Big East Conference (1979–2013) – After major turnover in the conference membership led to the Big East splitting into FBS and non-football conferences, the FBS schools sold the Big East name to the non-FBS schools. The remaining schools began operating as the American Athletic Conference in July 2013.

Existing conferences that dropped football

Conferences which still exist, but which have dropped football as a conference sport

• Association of Mid-Continent Universities – Founded in 1982, it absorbed the former Mid-Continent Athletic Association and sponsored Division I-AA football through the 1984 season. Of the four schools that participated in AMCU football in the 1982–84 period, three now compete at the Division I FCS level in the football-only Missouri Valley Football Conference, and the other is an all-sports member of the FCS Ohio Valley Conference. After dropping football, the AMCU (informally known as the "Mid-Continent") became the Mid-Continent Conference in 1989, and adopted its current name of The Summit League in 2007. Currently, four Summit League members sponsor football; all are MVFC members.
• Big West Conference (1969–present) – Pacific Coast Athletic Association (1969–1988) changed name to the Big West Conference in 1988 as it admitted more schools located in the interior West. Dropped football as a conference sport after the 2000 season.
• California Collegiate Athletic Association
• Conference Carolinas
• Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
• Missouri Valley Conference (1907–present) – Dropped football as a conference sport after the 1985 season. As noted above, the Missouri Valley Football Conference is a separate entity from the MVC, although the football conference has a licensing agreement with the MVC allowing it to use an adapted version of the MVC logo.
• Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (1980–present) – Initially formed as a non-football conference, began sponsoring football in 1993. Dropped football after the 2007 season, after most of its member schools discontinued their football programs.
• Western Athletic Conference (1962–present) – Dropped football as a conference sport after the 2012 season, following a near-complete membership turnover from 2011 to 2013. All but two of the WAC's football schools left the conference in that period. Both remaining football schools, Idaho and New Mexico State, will play as independents in the 2013 season before returning to football-only membership in the Sun Belt Conference in 2014 (Idaho will place its non-football sports in its former home of the Big Sky Conference at that time).

The case of the Colonial Athletic Association football conference

In 2007, the Colonial Athletic Association began sponsorship of football. However, the football conference that operates as part of the CAA has been in existence since 1938, under different charters.

The New England Conference was established in 1938 by five land-grant universities (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island) and one private school - Northeastern - in New England. After Northeastern left in 1945, the remaining members associated with another New England land-grant school (Vermont) and formed the Yankee Conference in 1946 under a new charter. The new conference did not begin competition until 1947.

The conference dropped sponsorship of all sports aside from football in 1975. Over the next two decades, the conference expanded to include schools far removed from New England, but retained its name. After Vermont dropped football in 1973, the school left the Yankee Conference when it became a football-only conference. Boston University was added the same year, keeping conference membership at 6 when it became football-only.

In the 1980s, the first non-New England schools joined the Yankee Conference, with Delaware, Richmond, and Villanova becoming members in this time. James Madison and William and Mary joined the for first time in 1993, while Northeastern rejoined that same year.

In 1997, the Atlantic 10 Conference, initially formed as a non-football conference, absorbed the Yankee Conference football programs and began football sponsorship in 1997. Boston U. (dropped football) and Connecticut (joined FBS, later becoming a football member of the Big East) left soon after, to be replaced by Hofstra and Towson.

After several membership changes in the CAA in the early 2000s, the CAA had six schools with FCS football teams, and eventually, it was agreed that the CAA would take over management of the A-10 football conference. The changeover occurred in 2007.

Further illustrating the continuity between conferences, the Yankee's automatic berth in the FCS playoffs passed in succession to the A-10 and CAA.

See also

• List of defunct college football teams

References

• Previous Conferences, A–F, College Football Data Warehouse, accessed February 20, 2009.
• Previous Conferences, G–M, College Football Data Warehouse, accessed February 20, 2009.
• Previous Conferences, N–Z, College Football Data Warehouse, accessed February 20, 2009.