HCAC Accepts Earlham College as Tenth Conference Member

Earlham Athletics Website

GREENWOOD, IN - The Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference has announced that Earlham College will join the membership beginning in the 2010-11 academic year.  Earlham, located in Richmond, Ind., will join the conference after spending the past twenty years affiliated with the North Coast Athletic Conference. 

"We are very pleased to have Earlham College join the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference as our tenth member beginning in the fall of 2010, as they have a rich tradition of strong academic and intercollegiate athletic programs," said Christopher Ragsdale, commissioner of the HCAC. "Many of our conference members have already been competing in non-league contests with Earlham College.  They (Earlham College) are centrally located to our other conference schools which make them a natural fit." 

Earlham College is one of the nation's strongest academic liberal arts colleges and is an independent, four year, coeducational, residential institution of higher learning founded in 1847 by the Religious Society of Friends.  The Quakers provide 16 varsity athletic programs for their enrollment of just under 1,200 students. 

The addition of Earlham marks the first change in membership for the HCAC since Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology joined the league in 2006.  Earlham will be centrally located in the conference that also includes Anderson University, Bluffton University, Defiance College, Franklin College, Hanover College, Manchester College, the College of Mount St. Joseph, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and Transylvania University. 

"I am extremely excited that Earlham has been invited to join the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference," says Douglas C. Bennett, Earlham's president. "In joining Heartland, we are rejoining a number of colleges and universities that have been institutions with which Earlham has competed for many decades.  We are delighted to now be in a conference with them." 

The HCAC currently sponsors 16 championships in men's and women's athletics.  Beginning in the 2010-11 academic year, Earlham will be competing in 13 of 16 sports in the HCAC, excluding men's and women's golf and softball.  

"Games against HCAC members permeate throughout Earlham's athletic history, with rivalries that began years before formal conference affiliations," stated Frank Carr, Earlham's Athletic Director.  "We believe that renewing this relationship will be a winning situation for all involved." 

"When it comes to intercollegiate athletics, Earlham College shares a similar vision with current HCAC members who value the intercollegiate experience as an integral part of the overall educational experience for their student-athletes," added Ragsdale.