After what took multiple months of meetings and speculation, teams from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) have decided to leave the conference and join the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC). 

The six schools that decided to make the switch were all in the southern half of the GLIAC. These six include, Malone University, The University of Findlay, Hillsdale College, Lake Erie College, Ohio Dominican University and Walsh University.

Malone University will begin competing in the G-MAC in 2016 and the other five schools will begin competing in the fall of 2017 leaving only Ashland University and Tiffin University as the only remaining Ohio based schools.

Athletic Director Al King said the G-MAC approached Lake Erie, Walsh, Ohio Dominican, Findlay and Hillsdale before they approached AU.

“The first I heard about any interest from the G-MAC was not until graduation,” said King. “It was a short time, only from the day of graduation until the end of June that we made the decision that we wanted to stay in the GLIAC.”

When deciding on whether or not to switch conferences, programs will need to examine how competitive they are and how the strength of their teams fits into the conference.

The G-MAC is comprised primarily of private, religious colleges and university that are more similar in size and mission.  For the most part, the northern members of the GLIAC are larger, public schools. 

“There are a number of reasons why these teams may have left the conference,” said King. “Some of it is financial, others look at it and say they can be more competitive in the G-MAC then they can in the GLIAC.  Some of them have said they wanted to be with other private schools.”

After the examination by King, President Carlos Campo, and Executive Vice President Scott Van Loo, of the different aspects of our athletic department including, competitiveness, fan base, thoughts of alumni and the university’s financial situation, the decision was made to remain in the GLIAC.

Despite Ashland being a small, private school and have a past of difficult financial situations, King said they are prepared to make adjustments. The GLIAC also plans on working with AU specifically when it comes to scheduling and travel in order to ensure Ashland remains in the conference. 

Once 2017 hits, the GLIAC will be down to ten teams and can decide to expand or remain the same. Even if no other teams are added to the conference, athletes at Ashland will not have to worry about an extensive amount of traveling up north.

“We will not have to travel up north all of the time to the Upper Peninsula,” said King. “With the subtraction of teams with the GLIAC comes the opportunity to schedule more non-league games.”

For sports like volleyball, soccer and basketball, when teams can play more than one game per weekend, they will have extra days they can schedule games with teams that are close to campus, including the teams who dropped out of the GLIAC.  This will also help the universities financial situation because the department can potentially save money traveling to schools within Ashland’s region.

“With the year we were coming off of and the strength that we have, we wanted to stay,” said King. “The GLIAC is where we want to be.”