Aug 23, 2021 3 min read

The Presidents’ Athletic Conference will be getting a little larger next school year as it will welcome back a former member.

Allegheny College, located in Meadville, will return to the Presidents’ Athletic Conference effective July 1, 2022, it was announced Monday. Allegheny will become the PAC’s 11th full-time member.

“Allegheny College is excited to re-enter the Presidents’ Athletic Conference next year,” said Dr. Hilary L. Link, president of Allegheny. “This return aligns with all three of the strategic priorities that make up our Renaissance Vision for Allegheny College’s future. These priorities include engaging more fully with our local context, owning and articulating our unique interdisciplinary academic brand, and focusing on holistic student success – to make the best Allegheny experience the typical Allegheny experience. The PAC’s mission of promoting athletics and the pursuit of academic excellence is a great fit for Allegheny.”

Allegheny will retain its membership in the North Coast Athletic Conference for the 2021-22 school year. It is the only Pennsylvania school in the NCAC. The Gators field 23 varsity-level athletic teams.

“The PAC is excited about having Allegheny as a new member,” said Paul J. McNulty, president of Grove City College and chairman of the PAC Presidents’ Council. “Allegheny has such a wonderful history of excellence going back centuries, and the quality of the education at Allegheny, the values of the institution and the excellence of its athletic program fits very well with what the institutions in the PAC are trying to accomplish.

“I know I speak for my fellow presidents when I say how excited we are to have Allegheny come in and enhance what we are trying to accomplish. We really want to be one of the best conferences in the nation when it comes to not just what we do on the field, on the courts or in the pools, but what we accomplish in shaping young men and women for the future and finding that strong holistic approach to being student-athletes and we can only expect great things by having Allegheny as part of our community.”

Allegheny has been a member of the NCAC since its inception in 1984. Prior to joining the NCAC, Allegheny was a member of the PAC from 1958 through the spring of 1984. During its prior tenure in the PAC, Allegheny won more than 45 team championships, earned the school’s first team national championship (1983 men’s golf) and had five student-athletes win NCAA Division III individual championships.

Current members of the PAC are Bethany, Chatham, Franciscan, Geneva, Grove City, Saint Vincent, Thiel, Washington & Jefferson, Waynesburg and Westminster.