The West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference was a collegiate athletic conference which historically operated exclusively in the state of West Virginia, but briefly had one Kentucky member in its early years, and expanded into Pennsylvania in its final years. It participated in the NCAA's Division II, but held its final athletic competitions in spring 2013, and officially disbanded on September 1 of that year. Its football-playing members announced in June 2012 that they planned to withdraw to form a new Division II conference effective at the end of the 2012–13 season; this led to a chain of conference moves that saw all but one of the WVIAC's members find new conference homes.
History
The conference was rated as one of the oldest in intercollegiate athletics, dating back to its founding in 1924 by the West Virginia Department of Education. In its final school year of 2012–13, the WVIAC offered championships in 16 sports and was headquartered in Princeton, West Virginia. Men's championships were offered in football, basketball, baseball, track, cross country, soccer, tennis, and golf. Women's titles were contested in volleyball, softball, basketball, cross country, soccer, track, tennis, and golf. The WVIAC moved into the NCAA Division II in 1994 after its long affiliation with the NAIA. Its post-season basketball tournament, which was first conducted in 1936, was at the time of the conference's demise one of the oldest college post-season tournaments in continuous existence—only the Southern Conference Men's Basketball Tournament, established in 1922, was older.
WVIAC breakup
On June 18, 2012, nine football-playing members of the WVIAC announced they would withdraw from the league to form a new regional all-sports conference. The WVIAC officially ceased to exist on September 1, 2013. Eight of the nine football-playing members and one non-football playing member of the conference joined a provisional D-II member from Virginia and two associate Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference members from Ohio to form a new all-sports conference, the Mountain East Conference. Seton Hill and Pitt-Johnstown joined the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. Three of the remaining non-football members accepted invitations to join the Great Midwest Athletic Conference. By the end of August 2012, the only WVIAC member without a conference home for 2013–14 was Bluefield State.
Member schools leaving before 2013
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Member schools at breakup
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Membership timeline
DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1924 till:2013 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<# Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb
id:line value:black
id:bg value:white id:Full value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:FullxF value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football id:AssocF value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only id:AssocOS value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all id:OtherC1 value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:FullxF from:1924 till:1932 text:Alderson bar:2 color:Full from:1924 till:1962 text:Bethany bar:2 color:AssocF from:1963 till:1964 bar:3 color:FullxF from:1924 till:1932 text:Broaddus bar:4 color:Full from:1924 till:1957 text:Charleston bar:4 color:FullxF from:1957 till:2003 bar:4 color:Full from:2003 till:2013 bar:5 color:Full from:1924 till:2013 text:Concord bar:6 color:Full from:1924 till:1953 text:Davis & Elkins bar:6 color:FullxF from:1953 till:1955 bar:6 color:Full from:1955 till:1962 bar:6 color:FullxF from:1962 till:2013 bar:7 color:Full from:1924 till:2013 text:Fairmont State bar:8 color:Full from:1924 till:2013 text:Glenville State bar:9 color:Full from:1924 till:1933 text:Marshall bar:9 color:FullxF from:1948 till:1949 bar:10 color:Full from:1924 till:1963 text:Potomac State bar:10 color:AssocF from:1964 till:1965 bar:11 color:Full from:1924 till:1989 text:Salem International bar:11 color:FullxF from:1989 till:2010 bar:12 color:Full from:1924 till:2013 text:Shepherd bar:13 color:Full from:1924 till:2013 text:West Liberty bar:14 color:Full from:1924 till:1927 text:West Virginia bar:15 color:Full from:1924 till:2006 text:West Virginia Tech bar:16 color:Full from:1924 till:1951 text:West Virginia Wesleyan bar:16 color:FullxF from:1951 till:1953 bar:16 color:Full from:1953 till:1985 bar:16 color:FullxF from:1985 till:1986 bar:16 color:OtherC1 from:1986 till:1988 bar:16 color:FullxF from:1988 till:1991 bar:16 color:Full from:1991 till:2013 bar:17 color:Full from:1929 till:1933 text:Morehead State bar:18 color:FullxF from:1932 till:2013 text:Alderson–Broaddus bar:19 color:FullxF from:1946 till:1977 text:Mountain State University bar:20 color:Full from:1955 till:1981 text:Bluefield State bar:20 color:FullxF from:1981 till:2013 bar:21 color:Full from:1955 till:1962 text:West Virginia State bar:21 color:Full from:1962 till:1963 bar:21 color:Full from:1963 till:2013 bar:22 color:FullxF from:1957 till:2013 text:Wheeling Jesuit bar:23 color:FullxF from:1999 till:2013 text:Ohio Valley bar:24 shift: color:FullxF from:2006 till:2013 text:Pittsburgh–Johnstown bar:25 shift: color:Full from:2006 till:2013 text:Seton Hill ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1925
