Horizon League

The Horizon League is a NCAA conference that plays in the NCAA Division I. The conference is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana and features universities and colleges from the Great Lakes Region. While it plays many sports, it has never played football.

History

The Horizon League was founded in 1979 as the Midwestern City Conference (MCC) with six members. None of these schools are in the league now. The school that has been in the league the longest is Detroit Mercy, which joined in 1980 (when it was known as simply "Detroit").

The conference changed its name in 1985 to Midwestern Collegiate Conference. In 1993, the largest conference expansion in NCAA history that did not involve a merger was announced. Six schools left the Mid-Continent Conference, now known as The Summit League, to join the Midwestern Collegiate Conference for the 1994–95 school year. In June 2001, the conference changed its name to the current Horizon League to avoid confusion with the "other" MCC (which did not become The Summit League until 2007).

Today, eight of the Horizon League's 11 full members (those playing most, if not all, of their sports in the league) are former members of The Summit League. The exceptions are Detroit Mercy, Northern Kentucky,^[1] and Robert Morris.^[2]

The most recent changes to the conference membership happened in the 2020s. First, in 2020, Purdue Fort Wayne^[3] and Robert Morris joined.^[2] In 2022, UIC left to join the Missouri Valley Conference.^[4] Most recently, the conference announced in February 2025 that Northern Illinois, which had left in 1997, would return in 2026. Northern Illinois will return to the Horizon League at the same time that the school's football team joins the Mountain West Conference.^[5]

Members

The Horizon League now has 11 full members, with a 12th joining in 2026.

School	Location	Founded	Type	Nickname	Joined
Cleveland State University	Cleveland, Ohio	1964	Public	Vikings	1994
University of Detroit Mercy	Detroit. Michigan	1877	Private	Titans	1980
University of Wisconsin–Green Bay (Green Bay)	Green Bay, Wisconsin	1965	Public	Phoenix	1994
Indiana University Indianapolis (IU Indy)[a]	Indianapolis, Indiana	1969	Public	Jaguars	2017
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (Milwaukee)	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	1956	Public	Panthers	1994
Northern Kentucky University	Highland Heights, Kentucky	1968	Public	Norse	2015
Oakland University	Rochester, Michigan[b]	1957	Public	Golden Grizzlies	2013
Purdue University Fort Wayne	Fort Wayne, Indiana	1964[c]	Public	Mastodons	2020
Robert Morris University	Moon Township, Pennsylvania	1921	Private	Colonials	2020
Wright State University	Dayton, Ohio[d]	1964	Public	Raiders	1994
Youngstown State University	Youngstown, Ohio	1908	Public	Penguins	2001

1. IU Indy joined the Horizon League as IUPUI, representing the former Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. At the end of the 2023–24 school year, the Indiana University and Purdue University systems shut down IUPUI. That school was replaced by new IU and Purdue campuses. The athletic program transferred to the new IU campus. Shortly before the campus split became official, the athletic website adopted a branding as IU Indy.^[6]
2. The Oakland campus has a mailing address of Rochester, but is actually located in the neighboring cities of Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills.
3. Purdue Fort Wayne did not exist until 2018, but inherited its athletic program from Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW), founded in 1964. In 2018, the Indiana University and Purdue University systems shut down their joint Fort Wayne campus. Each system then opened a new Fort Wayne campus of its own.^[7]
4. The Wright State campus has a mailing address of Dayton, but is actually located in the neighboring suburb of Fairborn.

Future member

School	Location	Founded	Type	Nickname	Joining
Northern Illinois University	DeKalb, Illinois	1895	Public	Huskies	2026

Former full members

A total of 14 schools have been full members, but are no longer in the conference. Northern Illinois will return to the Horizon League in 2026.

Nicknames are those used when the schools were conference members.

School	Location	Founded	Joined	Left	Type	Nickname	Current Conference
Butler University	Indianapolis, Indiana	1855	1979	2012	Private	Bulldogs	Big East
University of Dayton	Dayton, Ohio	1850	1987	1993	Private	Flyers	Atlantic 10
Duquesne University	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	1878	1992	1993	Private	Dukes	Atlantic 10
University of Evansville	Evansville, Indiana	1854	1979	1994	Private	Purple Aces	Missouri Valley
La Salle University	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	1863	1992	1995	Private	Explorers	Atlantic 10
Loyola University Chicago	Chicago, Illinois	1870	1979	2013	Private	Ramblers	Atlantic 10
Marquette University	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	1881	1988[a]	1991	Private	Warriors[b]	Big East
Northern Illinois University	DeKalb, Illinois	1895	1994	1997	Public	Huskies	MAC (Horizon in 2026)
University of Notre Dame[c]	South Bend, Indiana	1842	1982 1987/1988[d]	1986 1995	Private	Fighting Irish	ACC
Oklahoma City University	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma	1904	1979	1985	Private	Chiefs[e]	Sooner (NAIA)
Oral Roberts University	Tulsa, Oklahoma	1963	1979	1987	Private	Titans[f]	The Summit
Saint Louis University	St. Louis, Missouri	1818	1981[g]	1991	Private	Billikens	Atlantic 10
University of Illinois Chicago (UIC)	Chicago, Illinois	1859	1994	2022	Public	Flames	Missouri Valley
Valparaiso University	Valparaiso, Indiana	1859	2007	2017	Private	Crusaders[h]	Missouri Valley
Xavier University	Cincinnati, Ohio	1831	1979	1995	Private	Musketeers	Big East

1. The Marquette men's basketball team joined in 1989, a year after the school joined in other sports.
2. Marquette changed its nickname to "Golden Eagles" in 1994.
3. Notre Dame was never a conference member in men's basketball.
4. When Notre Dame rejoined the conference in 1987, it did so only for men's sports. Women's sports joined the next year.
5. Oklahoma City changed its nickname to "Stars" in 1999.
6. Oral Roberts changed its nickname to "Golden Eagles" in 1993.
7. The Saint Louis men's basketball team joined in 1982, a year after the school joined in other sports.
8. Valparaiso changed its nickname to Beacons in 2021.

Associate members

NCAA conferences often have one or more "associate" members that play only a limited number of sports in the conference, usually one. For most of its history, the Horizon League has not had associate members. The first such member was Belmont, which was a men's soccer member from 2014 to 2018. More recently, the Horizon greatly expanded its men's tennis league. The Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) merged its men's tennis league into the Horizon in 2022.^[8] At the same time, Belmont returned to the conference for men's tennis,^[9] and Chicago State moved men's and women's tennis into the Horizon.^[8]

Lindenwood shut down its men's tennis team after the 2023–24 season. At the same time, Chicago State joined the Northeast Conference, which sponsors tennis for both sexes. However, it kept both tennis teams in the Horizon League through the 2024–25 season, honoring its affiliation contract with that conference. Eastern Illinois shut down its men's tennis team after the 2024–25 season.

Current

School	Location	Founded	Type	Nickname	Horizon League sport(s)	Joined	Main conference
Belmont University	Nashville, Tennessee	1890	Private	Bruins	Men's tennis	2022	MVC
University of Southern Indiana	Evansville, Indiana[a]	1965	Public	Screaming Eagles	Men's tennis	2022	OVC
Tennessee State University	Nashville, Tennessee	1912	Public	Tigers	Men's tennis	2022	OVC
Tennessee Technological University (Tennessee Tech)	Cookeville, Tennessee	1915	Public	Golden Eagles	Men's tennis	2022	OVC

1. Mailing address; the campus is in unincorporated Vanderburgh County.

Former

As noted above, current men's tennis member Belmont once housed its men's soccer team in the Horizon League.

School	Location	Founded	Type	Nickname	Horizon League sport	Joined	Left	Main conference	Conference in former Horizon sport
Belmont University	Nashville, Tennessee	1890	Private	Bruins	Men's soccer	2014	2018	MVC
Chicago State University	Chicago, Illinois	1867	Public	Cougars	Men's and women's tennis	2022	2025	NEC
Eastern Illinois University	Charleston, Illinois	1895	Public	Panthers	Men's tennis	2022	2025	OVC	None
Lindenwood University	St. Charles, Missouri	1827	Public	Lions	Men's tennis	2022	2024	OVC	None