The West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) was a collegiate athletic conference which historically operated exclusively in the state of West Virginia, but briefly had one Kentucky member in its early years, and expanded into Pennsylvania in its final years. It participated in the Division II ranks of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), originally affiliated in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) until 1995, but held its final athletic competitions in spring 2013, and officially disbanded on September 1 of that year. Its football-playing members announced in June 2012 that they planned to withdraw to form a new Division II conference at the end of the 2012–13 season; this led to a chain of conference moves that saw all but one of the WVIAC's members find new conference homes.
History
The conference was one of the oldest in intercollegiate athletics, dating back to its founding in 1924 by the West Virginia Department of Education.
In its final school year of 2012–13, the WVIAC offered championships in 16 sports and was headquartered in Princeton, West Virginia. Men's championships were offered in football, basketball, baseball, track, cross country, soccer, tennis, and golf. Women's titles were contested in volleyball, softball, basketball, cross country, soccer, track, tennis, and golf.
The WVIAC moved into the NCAA Division II in 1995 after its long affiliation with the NAIA.
Its post-season basketball tournament, which was first conducted in 1936, was at the time of the conference's demise one of the oldest college post-season tournaments in continuous existence—only the Southern Conference men's basketball tournament, established in 1922, was older.
1932 - Alderson–Broaddus College (now Alderson–Broaddus University) joined the WVIAC due to the merger of both Alderson and Broaddus Colleges in the 1932-33 academic year.
1933 - Two institutions left the WVIAC to join their respective new home primary conferences: Marshall to the Buckeye Conference and Morehead State to fully align with the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (KIAC) (a second conference they had joined since the 1931-32 academic year), both after the 1932-33 academic year.
1939 - Marshall re-joined the WVIAC as a non-competing member in the 1939-40 academic year.
1962 - Bethany left the WVIAC to fully align with the Presidents' Athletic Conference (a second conference they had joined since the 1958-59 academic year) after the 1961-62 academic year.
1963 - Potomac State left the WVIAC after the 1962-63 academic year.
1977 - Mountain State left the WVIAC after the 1976-77 academic year.
1986 - West Virginia Wesleyan left the WVIAC after the 1985-86 academic year.
1988 - West Virginia Wesleyan re-joined the WVIAC in the 1988-89 academic year.
1993 - The WVIAC joined the NCAA in the 1993-94 academic year.
2006 - West Virginia Tech left the WVIAC to return to the NAIA and join the Mid-South Conference after the 2005-06 academic year.
2006 - The University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown (Pittsburgh–Johnstown) and Seton Hill University joined the WVIAC as provisional members, becoming the first two institutions to join the conference from outside the state of West Virginia since the departure of Morehead in 1933 in the 2006-07 academic year.
2010 - Salem left the WVIAC to become an NCAA D-II Independent after the 2009-10 academic year.
2013 - The WVIAC ceased operations as an athletic conference after the 2012-13 academic year; as many schools left to join their respective new home primary conferences beginning the 2013-14 academic year: Alderson–Broaddus, Davis & Elkins and Ohio Valley joined the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC); Concord, Charleston, Fairmont State, Glenville State, Shepherd, West Liberty, West Virginia State, West Virginia Wesleyan and Wheeling Jesuit joined alongside Notre Dame College of Ohio (former D-II Independent school), Urbana University (from the G-MAC), and the University of Virginia's College at Wise (from the Mid-South Conference of the NAIA) to form the Mountain East Conference; and Pittsburgh–Johnstown and Seton Hill joined the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC). The only school since the conference's breakup who hadn't still found a new conference home was Bluefield State, which ultimately ended up as a D-II Independent (until it re-joined the CIAA beginning the 2023-24 academic year) alongside former member Salem (who would later join the G-MAC from 2013-14 to 2015-16, before returning as an independent).
WVIAC breakup
On June 18, 2012, nine football-playing members of the WVIAC announced they would withdraw from the league to form a new regional all-sports conference.[1]
The WVIAC officially ceased to exist on September 1, 2013.[2] Eight of the nine football-playing members (Concord, Charleston, Fairmont State, Glenville State, Shepherd, West Liberty, West Virginia State, and West Virginia Wesleyan) and one non-football playing member (Wheeling Jesuit) of the conference joined a provisional D-II member from Virginia (UVA-Wise) and two associate Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference members from Ohio (Notre Dame and Urbana) to form a new all-sports conference, the Mountain East Conference.[3] Seton Hill and Pitt-Johnstown joined the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. Three of the remaining non-football members (Alderson–Broaddus, Davis & Elkins, and Ohio Valley) accepted invitations to join the Great Midwest Athletic Conference.[4] The final remaining member, Bluefield State, competed as a D-II independent for 9 years before being invited to rejoin its former conference in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 2023.[5]
^Currently known as Bluefield State University since 2022.
^Currently known as Glenville State University since 2022.
^Ohio Valley's final conference affiliation was the River States Conference (RSC) during the 2021–22 school year. However, the school announced that it had close at the end of the fall 2021 semester without completing the rest of the 2021–22 school year.
^West Virginia Wesleyan left the WVIAC after the 1985–86 school year; before rejoining in the 1988–89 school year.
^Wheeling added football in the 2019 fall season (2019–20 school year).
^All colleges are listed by their most recent names—the final names of defunct institutions, and names in use by existing institutions as of 2020. Most have had name changes over the years; see articles on individual schools for details.
^Mountain State's main campus in Beckley became the University of Charleston–Beckley on January 1, 2013. UC later established a new Beckley campus in 2015, leaving the former Mountain State campus, which was sold to West Virginia University and to where West Virginia University Institute of Technology (WVU Tech) moved in 2017.
^Marshall stopped competition in the conference when it joined the Buckeye Conference from 1932–33 to 1938–39, but was required by state regulations to remain a member on a technical basis until 1949. Marshall was a non-competing member of the WVIAC from 1939–40 to 1947–48, when the Herd joined the Ohio Valley Conference (1948–49 to 1951–52), but Marshall had players picked for All-WVIAC during the decade as a non-competing member.
