The North Coast Athletic Conference and the University Athletic Association announced Thursday a scheduling agreement for the 2008 and 2009 football seasons.
The agreement allows teams in both NCAA Division III conferences to play two teams of the other conference in each of the two seasons.
Wabash College, an NCAC member, will play at UAA's Washington University in St. Louis in 2008 and at home against the University of Chicago. For 2009, the sites will be flip-flopped for the two games with Wabash travelling to Chicago and Washington coming to Wabash. Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania are the other two members of the UAA.
"It helps the UAA, which is a smaller conference, with some of their scheduling," Wabash sports information director Brent Harris said of the agreement's benefits. "For us, we now know the 10 schools that we play. We don't have some of the scheduling problems that some other schools have."
Each year, Wabash plays 10 games, with seven against NCAC opponents and the Monon Bell game against DePauw being another. The two games against UAA opponents will fill the final two voids for the Little Giants in 2008 and 2009. All Division III schools are allowed a maximum of 10 games.
"Our people are very pleased to be associated with the colleagues at the prestigious UAA universities, many of whom we played over the years independantly," NCAC Executive Director Dennis Collins said.
Last season, Wabash played Washington, winning 21-10. The two teams meet again Sept. 17 at Washington in St. Louis.
The matchups for the agreement were based on location, with the idea of staying regionalized.
"For us geographically, it's going to be much easier to play Washington and the University of Chicago," Harris said. "This is a unique opportunity. There's not a lot of Division III conferences that go out and do something like this. I'll be interested in seeing how this plays out."
"I know Wabash, they have been playing Washington, but they haven't been able to get Chicago on the schedule," Collins said. "So I know they are excited about this."
Talks for the agreement began in November, 2004. After the initial idea, the conferences met with football coaches who were interested in the idea at the member schools. Both sets of athletics directors met in January to discuss the concepts of the agreement.
"We were able to zip everything up in May, but we weren't ready to announce it right away because of travelling and conventions," Collins said. "I think our presidents are really excited about this and we'll do it again."
Sam King is the assistant sports editor for The Journal Review.
Photo: Wabash defeated Washington University 21-10 last year at Byron P. Hollett Little Giant Stadium. An agreement announced Thursday between the NCAC and the UAA will have the two teams meeting in 2008 and 2009.
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