UIW Joins Lone Star Conference
By Wayne Witt; UIW Sports Information Director
An intense effort spanning the past few years came to fruition on January 16, 2010, when the president’s council of the Lone Star Conference (LSC) voted to invite Incarnate Word to its membership.
The specified date is officially here, July 1, 2010. UIW is the 16th member-school for the league which has nearly 80 years of history behind it.
The Lone Star Conference sponsors championships in 16 sports, eight men’s and eight women’s. Incarnate Word will be the sole member to compete in all 16. UIW also will continue its programs in men’s and women’s swimming (Rocky Mountain Conference) and in synchronized swimming.
“The Lone Star Conference presents a new series of challenges,” UIW Director of Athletics Mark Papich said. “I believe Incarnate Word will continue to be highly competitive as in the past we always have had Lone Star schools on many of our non-conference schedules.”
The 16 members of the LSC include nine Texas schools, six in Oklahoma and one in New Mexico.
“There will be challenges in travel,” Papich said. “And we will be competing for positions in post-season play in a larger conference. That makes each and every contest important at the moment it occurs.
"We however had reached the point that with the inception of football at Incarnate Word it was in the interest of the University to find a place, a conference, to support that initiative.”
To put the exclamation point on the motivation to shift conferences, UIW’s football Cardinals will play the first-ever contest with Incarnate Word as a member of the Lone Star. Incarnate Word will travel to Southeastern Oklahoma for a league game on September 11. Not too many days later the UIW volleyball, men’s soccer, and women’s soccer teams will have played their first LSC games.
The LSC - founded on April 25, 1931 - has grown from an original five-team conference of Texas-based schools to the now-16-member, three-state league.
Throughout the league's 79-year history, various institutions have competed under the LSC banner. Today, only Texas A&M University-Commerce (then East Texas State) remains from the original group that was formed in 1931 when North Texas State, Southwest Texas State, Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin withdrew from the old Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association.
The membership alignment has changed over the years, with current members having been added in each of the past five decades. Texas A&M-Kingsville (formerly Texas A&I) joined in 1954, followed by Angelo State in 1968 and Abilene Christian in 1973.Conference membership remained within the Texas borders until 1984 when Eastern New Mexico was admitted. Since then, the LSC has grown to include members from Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Central Oklahoma (1987) and Cameron (1988, 1996) were the next additions in the LSC's expansion phase, while Texas Woman's (1989) and previous members West Texas A&M (1986, 1993) and Tarleton State (1968, 1994) joined the league soon after.
Midwestern State was admitted early in 1995, and the league grew again later that year with the acceptance of four more Oklahoma schools - East Central, Northeastern State, Southeastern Oklahoma and Southwestern Oklahoma - along with Harding and Ouachita Baptist from Arkansas.
That brought the league membership to 17, but Harding and OBU departed the conference after the 1999-2000 academic year, while UIW was added in 2010 to bring about the LSC's current look.
Other past members of the LSC include Trinity, Houston, Lamar, Howard Payne, Sul Ross State and McMurry.
Beginning with the 1997-1998 academic year, the league was formed into two divisions - North and South - in football, volleyball, basketball, baseball and softball. Divisional champions are crowned according to results among division teams, with an overall league champion also being decided either by crossover games or a postseason championship tournament. Volleyball and baseball returned to playing without divisions in 2007-2008, making this the fourth straight year for division play to be utilized in only football, basketball and softball.
Incarnate Word will play in the South Division, a grouping which in football in 2009 sent four teams to the NCAA playoffs and put another into a post-season bowl game.
While the LSC has maintained a long-standing tradition of competitive athletic programs for its members, many teams and individuals have gone on to distinguish themselves on the national stage. Entering 2010-2011, LSC member institutions have collected more than 100 team national championships, including 72 in NCAA Division II. Angelo State provided the most recent addition to that total, claiming the women’s track and field championship this past spring.
Men's championships include football, soccer, cross country, basketball, baseball, track and field, tennis and golf. Women's titles are determined in volleyball, soccer, cross country, basketball, softball, track and field, tennis and golf.
The conference office is located in Richardson, Texas, a northern suburb of Dallas. Stan Wagnon serves as commissioner, with assistance from Jay Poerner (compliance) and Melanie Robotham (media relations).
LONE STAR CONFERENCE MEMBERSHIP
SOUTH DIVISION
Abilene Christian
Angelo State
Incarnate Word
Midwestern State
Tarleton State
Texas A&M - Kingsville
Texas Women's
West Texas A&M
NORTH DIVISION
Cameron
Central Oklahoma
East Central Oklahoma
Eastern New Mexico
Northeastern Oklahoma
Southeastern Oklahoma
Southwestern Oklahoma
Texas A&M-Commerce