History
The Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) is an affiliated conference of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), consisting of 12 private, faith-based colleges and universities in Nebraska, Iowa, North and South Dakota. Originally founded in 1969 as the Nebraska Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (NIAC), the league retains four of the six charter members - Concordia, Doane, Hastings, and Midland.
Learn more about our GPAC members by clicking the school link on the left.
In 1992, the NIAC added Northwestern and became the Nebraska-Iowa Athletic Conference. Eight years later, Dakota Wesleyan, Dordt, Mount Marty and Sioux Falls joined the conference which became the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) in 2000-2001.
Briar Cliff entered the league in 2002-2003 and Morningside joined starting with the 2003-2004 school year. Both schools are in Sioux City, Iowa.
In the summer of 2010 Dana College ceased operations (Member from 1969-2010) and in 2011 The University of Sioux Falls discontinued membership in the GPAC (Member from 2000-2011).
In 2015 the GPAC added College of Saint Mary in Omaha, Nebraska, as its 12th member.
Nebraska Wesleyan's membership in the GPAC ceased after the 2015-2016 academic year.
The University of Jamestown (ND) joined as a full member in 2018-2019.
Also in 2018-2019 Presentation joined as an affiliate in women's and men's soccer. In 2020-21 Ottawa (KS) and Central Christian (KS) joined as affiliate members in men's volleyball.
The GPAC sponsors 22 intercollegiate sports - nine for women, eleven for men and co-ed cheer & dance - and awards an All-Sports Trophy based on the final league standings and conference meet results at the end of each school year.
The GPAC is extremely proud of our athletic accomplishments, but we are also pleased that annually our league boasts over 700 NAIA Scholar-Athletes. Our student athletes work very hard to balance academics with athletics and this is a testament to the administrators, faculty, and coaches in the league. 2020-21 marks our 21st year as the Great Plains Athletic Conference, with the league founded originally as the Nebraska-Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (NIAC) in 1969.
Through our first 20 years as a conference the GPAC has 31 NAIA team National Champions.
Above all, the GPAC remains committed to Academic and Athletic Excellence!