After the announcement of six schools from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference leaving the last year, two teams will become new additions to the league for the 2017-2018 seasons.

Davenport University and Purdue University Calumet formally accepted invitations for membership at the 2016 National Collegiate Athletic Association Convention last week after making multiple presentations for the GLIAC athletic directors as well as the GLIAC council of presidents who vote on whether or not a school makes it into the league.

These two teams will help fill the empty space created by Malone University, The University of Findlay, Hillsdale College, Lake Erie College, Ohio Dominican University and Walsh University; all GLIAC south teams that have moved to another local conference, the G-MAC.

Both schools are coming from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), which is separate from the NCAA. As a result, both universities will need to go through a membership process that will result in their acceptance into the NCAA Division II athletic programs.

“I think when you look at both it is exciting from an Ashland standpoint,” said Ashland University athletic director Al King. “Both schools are teams that we have not played a lot. They are NAIA and whenever you have a NAIA school there is going to be a learning curve and a jump as they move up, and they know that.”

The Peregrines of Purdue University Calumet are located in Hammond, Ind., right outside of the Chicago metropolitan area while the Panthers of Davenport call the familiar Grand Rapids Michigan area their home.

“Purdue-Calumet has put a great system in place to be successful as far as staffing and with their idea of want to do,” said King. “And what they bring us is a school one hour from Chicago, it brings theAU brand and the GLIAC brand into a new area and we think that is exciting.”

Founded in 1946, Purdue University Calumet is much younger than that of Davenport, which has a tradition of strong and successful athletics at the NAIA level.

“Davenport has had a lot of success and they are very aggressive athletically,” said King, “The GLIAC is the league they want to be in. They really want to be successful, and they have shown at the NAIA level that they can.”

King says the two biggest challenges the conference will face throughout this whole transition throughout the league is deciding the number of teams that are best fit for the GLIAC as well as planning a schedule once all the changes have been made.

The GLIAC will decrease from having 16 teams to 12, so deciding if this is an optimum number for the league is going to be a challenge.

As a result of having only two Ohio teams and one Indiana team in the conference, AU may expect to see a significant increase in travel, although all athletic directors among the schools in the GLIAC are looking at planning a schedule that will result in as few classes possible to be missed.

Overall, King believes these two teams will be great assets to the GLIAC and to AU’s athletic program itself, although he knows it is going to take some time for both schools and the conference to adjust to the changes.

“Time will tell,” said King. “They’ve competed in the NAIA with a certain type of athlete. They will have to ask themselves, what type of athlete do we need to compete in the GLIAC? What level of athlete do we need to go get? There is a lot of work to be done, but it is a positive.”