GLVC to add Upper Iowa as league’s 14th institution beginning in 2023-24

QUINCY — The Great Lakes Valley Conference continues to shift its geographic footprint.

The NCAA Division II league announced Tuesday its Council of Presidents approved admitting the University of Upper Iowa, making it the conference’s 14th member. The Peacocks will join the GLVC for the 2023-24 academic year and be immediately eligible to participate in GLVC championship events.

“Throughout the evaluation process, our institutional representatives were impressed with UIU’s passion, enthusiasm, and focus on the student-athlete experience,” said Dr. Sue Thomas, Truman State University president and chair of the GLVC Council of Presidents, in a press release.

Upper Iowa becomes the first GLVC institution in Iowa and one of nine schools west of the Mississippi River. In the past 15 years, the league has seen four schools east of the Mississippi — SIU-Edwardsville, Northern Kentucky, Bellarmine and Southern Indiana — leave to reclassify as NCAA Division I programs.

Two others — Kentucky Wesleyan and Wisconsin-Parkside — joined other D-II conferences and Saint Joseph’s closed its doors completely.

Of the league’s 13 current schools, eight are in Missouri, four in Illinois and one in Indiana. The GLVC was founded in 1978 with six schools from Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio.

“We greet this move to the Great Lakes Valley Conference with a great deal of excitement and energy,” Upper Iowa President Dr. William R. Duffy said in a press release. “The GLVC is comprised of institutions similar in size and scope to UIU and joining the conference will open up new strategic opportunities for the university.”

Upper Iowa has been competing in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference since 2006 and has been a member of NCAA Division II since 2003 when it reclassified from Division III. 

The Peacocks have captured six NSIC titles in the sports of wrestling (three), women’s golf (two), and women’s tennis (one), as well as one Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) conference championship in men’s soccer and one NSIC tournament championship in softball. 

Additionally, the wrestling team has earned three NCAA trophies for a third-place finish and a pair of fourth-place results over the last 12 years.

The Peacocks currently sponsor 18 of the GLVC’s 24 sports, including all seven of the league’s core sports — baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, softball and volleyball.