John Carroll to join North Coast Athletic Conference

CLEVELAND — Keri Alexander Luchowski, the Executive Director of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC), announced today that John Carroll University of University Heights, Ohio, has accepted a unanimous invitation to join the NCAC. The Blue Streaks will begin conference competition in 2025-26.

“We are thrilled to welcome our friends at John Carroll University to the North Coast Athletic Conference family,” Alexander Luchowski said. “We are excited about the new opportunities John Carroll brings to the NCAC and can’t wait for competition to begin. John Carroll’s commitment to all sports and its support for its student-athletes make it a first-class addition to our league. I look forward to seeing how they enhance our rich tradition and history as they move into full NCAC membership.”

The addition solidifies the NCAC footprint with an institution devoted to highly competitive athletics within a rigorous academic environment and provides permanent quality opponents within conference play.

“John Carroll University’s membership in the NCAC makes sense geographically, academically, and athletically, and we look forward to partnering with them to promote an environment in which athletes thrive academically, athletically, and socially,” said Judy Holdener, Faculty Athletics Representative at Kenyon College.

The expansion brings the core NCAC membership to 10 NCAA Division III institutions spanning Ohio and Indiana. John Carroll joins Denison University, Hiram College, Kenyon, Oberlin College, Ohio Wesleyan University, Wabash College, Wittenberg University and The College of Wooster. The NCAC also includes four field hockey affiliate members in Allegheny College, Earlham College, Transylvania University and Washington & Jefferson College.

Founded in 1886 by the Society of Jesus, John Carroll is a private, selective, coeducational, residential liberal arts university with an undergraduate enrollment of 2,615 representing 36 states and 15 countries. The Blue Streaks compete in 24 sports. John Carroll has won 12 Ohio Athletic Conference men’s all-sports trophies, including the past eight in a row; the Blue Streaks women have finished within the top half of the conference in each of the past 11 years. John Carroll, which re-joined the OAC in 1989 after a stint from 1932-1949, was also a founding member of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference. JCU is nationally competitive with top-30 finishes in the Learfield Directors’ Cup in each of the last two years, along with seven individual national championships, 55 individual All-Americans, and 29 NCAA Championship appearances since 2021.