Menlo Leaving NWC As Football Associate Member
Menlo College will leave the Northwest Conference as an associate member in football on June 4th. The Atherton, California-based school had been the NWC’s only associate member since the 2006 season.
The Oaks had been dual members of the NAIA and the NCAA, but now will consolidate all of their sports under the NAIA banner following a campus review of its athletic programs. Keith Spataro, Menlo’s Director of Athletics, informed the league of his school’s decision earlier this spring.
"Menlo has been an outstanding associate member in football and we're pleased to have had such a positive and mutually beneficial relationship for the past four seasons,” said Matt Newman, Northwest Conference Commissioner. “We wish Keith Spataro and his Menlo colleagues the best of luck as they move to full NAIA membership."
The NWC will retain an automatic berth to the NCAA Division III football playoffs this fall as Pacific University begins its program and the league keeps the necessary seven members. In addition, George Fox University has approved reinstatement of its football program for the 2013 season.
"We appreciate Menlo’s participation in the NWC as a football member and wish them success,” said Whitworth University President Bill Robinson, who has served as the NWC’s chief executive in 2009-10. “The ideal is always to have full members competing in the conference sports, so we are thrilled that Pacific and George Fox are adding football.”
All seven NWC football members are currently scheduled to play Menlo during the upcoming season. Those games will not count as in-region, division III contests.
The Northwest Conference is comprised of nine independent, private colleges and universities in Oregon and Washington. The current football playing schools in the NWC are: Lewis & Clark College, Linfield College, Pacific University, Pacific Lutheran University, University of Puget Sound, Whitworth University and Willamette University.
