The Great Plains Athletic Conference found out Monday that it will be losing one of its members.

The GPAC was informed on Monday (July 20) of a 2pm press conference where Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska, announced that they have accepted membership in the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC), an affiliated conference of NCAA Division III. Their membership will begin in 2016-17.

 

“We were informed by the NWU administration of this decision to change conference affiliation to the Iowa Conference at 9:30am on Monday and prior to that time had no knowledge of their intentions to depart the GPAC,” said GPAC Commissioner Corey Westra in a statement on Monday.

 

“The GPAC member institutions will move forward as leaders in the NAIA and will continue to work diligently, just as we have since our inception in 2000, to offer the best athletic and academic offerings to our more than 5,000 student-athletes,” added Westra. “We are a strong conference and have a great group of institutions that will work together as we continue to offer character driven intercollegiate athletics in the NAIA.”