| American Lacrosse Conference | |
| Founded: | 2001 |
| Dissolved: | 2014 |
| Association: | NCAA |
| Division: | Division I |
| Teams: | 7 (final), 9 (total) |
| Sports: | 1 |
| Mens: | 0 |
| Womens: | 1 |
| Region: | Eastern United States |
| Headquarters: | Erie, Pennsylvania |
The American Lacrosse Conference (ALC) was a women's lacrosse-only college athletic conference whose members competed at the Division I level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). All of the ALC's members throughout its history were located in the eastern half of the United States. The conference was founded in 2001 in advance of the 2002 NCAA lacrosse season with seven members; nine schools were members at one time or another during its history.
In 2009–10, two more Southeastern Conference universities joined the ALC: South Carolina[1] and Florida.[2] The South Carolina program was eventually delayed with no timetable to begin play.[3] In 2011 it was announced that the conference would add Michigan as the seventh member.[4] The Wolverines began NCAA competition in 2013–14, after transitioning the program from club to varsity status.[5]
Starting with the 2015 season, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, and Northwestern joined Maryland and Rutgers in the new Big Ten women's lacrosse league, and Johns Hopkins' women's lacrosse team went independent.[6] In April 2014 it was announced that the two remaining programs, Florida and Vanderbilt, would be joining the Big East Conference as affiliate members in 2015, leaving the 2014 season as the last in American Lacrosse Conference history.[7]
In its final season, the ALC had seven members in the Eastern United States:
| Institution | Nickname | Location | Founded | Affiliation | Enrollment | New lacrosse conference | Current lacrosse conference | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gators | Gainesville, Florida | 1853 | Public | 51,413 | Big East | The American | ||
| Johns Hopkins University | Blue Jays | Baltimore, Maryland | 1876 | Private | 6,025 | Independent | Big Ten | |
| [8] | Wolverines | Ann Arbor, Michigan | 1817 | Public | 37,197 | Big Ten | ||
| Northwestern University | Wildcats | Evanston, Illinois | 1851 | Private | 13,407 | Big Ten | ||
| Ohio State University | Buckeyes | Columbus, Ohio | 1870 | Public | 51,818 | Big Ten | ||
| Pennsylvania State University | Nittany Lions | State College, Pennsylvania | 1855 | Public | 41,289 | Big Ten | ||
| Vanderbilt University | Commodores | Nashville, Tennessee | 1873 | Private | 11,500 | Big East | The American |
Schools that left the ALC before 2014 include Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina and Ohio University in Athens, Ohio. Davidson later moved to the National Lacrosse Conference, still later became an associate member of the Big South Conference, and now houses its women's lacrosse team with most of its other sports in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Ohio University exited the ALC when the OU Athletics Department decided to drop several sports programs including women's lacrosse in January 2007.[9]
Years listed in this timeline are lacrosse seasons. Since NCAA lacrosse for both men and women is a spring sport, the year of joining is the calendar year before the first season.
Period = from:2002 till:2022TimeAxis = orientation:horizontalPlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<#Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white
id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.726,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:Ind value:rgb(0.667,0.667,0.667) # Use this color to denote a team that independent id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.896,0.599) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two
PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:Full from:2002 till:2006 text:Davidson bar:1 color:Ind from:2006 till:2010 text:Independent (2006–2009) bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:2010 till:2013 text:NLC (2010–2012) bar:1 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:2015 text:Big South (2013–2014) bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:2015 till:end text:Atlantic 10 (2015–)
bar:2 color:Full from:2002 till:2015 text:Johns Hopkins bar:2 color:Ind from:2015 till:2017 text:Ind. (2015–2016) bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:2017 till:end text:Big Ten (2017–)
bar:3 color:Full from:2002 till:2015 text:Northwestern bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:2015 till:end text:Big Ten (2015–)
bar:4 color:Full from:2002 till:2007 text:Ohio
bar:5 color:Full from:2002 till:2015 text:Ohio State bar:5 color:OtherC1 from:2015 till:end text:Big Ten (2015–)
bar:6 color:Full from:2002 till:2015 text:Penn State bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:2015 till:end text:Big Ten (2015–)
bar:7 color:Full from:2002 till:2015 text:Vanderbilt bar:7 color:OtherC2 from:2015 till:2018 text:Big East (2015–2018) bar:7 color:OtherC1 from:2018 till:end text:The American (2019–present)
bar:8 color:Full from:2010 till:2015 text:Florida bar:8 color:OtherC2 from:2015 till:end text:Big East (2015–2018) bar:8 color:OtherC1 from:2018 till:end text:The American (2019–present)
bar:9 color:Full from:2014 till:2015 text:Michigan bar:9 color:OtherC1 from:2015 till:end text:Big Ten (2015–)
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:2002TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(0,30) tabs:(150-center) text:^"ALC Membership History"
| Year | Regular season | Record | Tournament championship | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Vanderbilt | 6–0 | not held | |
| 2003 | Ohio State / Penn State | 5–1 | not held | |
| 2004 | Vanderbilt / Northwestern | 5–1 | not held | |
| 2005 | Northwestern | 6–0 | not held | |
| 2006 | Northwestern | 5–0 | not held | |
| 2007 | Northwestern | 4–0 | Northwestern 22, Johns Hopkins 6 | |
| 2008 | Northwestern | 4–0 | Northwestern 14, Vanderbilt 3 | |
| 2009 | Northwestern | 4–0 | Northwestern 13, Penn State 3 | |
| 2010 | Northwestern | 5–0 | Northwestern 23, Vanderbilt 14 | |
| 2011 | Florida | 5–0 | Northwestern 10, Florida 9 | |
| 2012 | Florida | 5–0 | Florida 14, Northwestern 7 | |
| 2013 | Florida / Northwestern / Penn State | 4–1 | Northwestern 8, Florida 3 | |
| 2014 | Florida | 6–0 | Florida 9, Northwestern 8 |