Waldorf added to GPAC membership, bringing school count to 13

FOREST CITY, Iowa — The Great Plains Athletic Conference will grow to 13 members for the 2024-25 school year, as it approved Iowa-based Waldorf University to join the conference.

The move was announced Monday, Sept. 18, as the Warriors will leave the North Star Athletic Association to join the GPAC. It also comes as the University of Jamestown may depart for NCAA Division II and the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. The Jimmies have applied for membership to the NSIC, and a decision on its entry into the conference is expected later this year.

Waldorf offers 23 varsity sports, including men's and women's soccer, which already play in the GPAC as an affiliate member. The GPAC's council of presidents approved the Waldorf membership last week.

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"This is a great day for the Great Plains Athletic Conference and our member institutions," said GPAC Commissioner Corey Westra. "We are excited to welcome Waldorf University to our conference as our 13th member. Throughout the membership process, we have been very impressed with the leadership of the university and are looking forward to having the Warriors join our league next year."

The university had 2,295 undergraduate students as of fall 2022, but more than 70% of those students are exclusively online distance students, with about 600 enrolled on campus in Forest City.

Waldorf will be the GPAC's easternmost school but will join four other Iowa colleges in the conference (Briar Cliff, Dordt, Morningside and Northwestern). Jamestown, which has been in the league since 2018-19, is currently the largest geographic outlier in the GPAC, the only North Dakota school in a 12-member league that stretches to South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska.

"We are very excited to join the Great Plains Athletic Conference," said Waldorf President Robert Alsop. "The GPAC has a strong reputation for quality academics and stellar athletic competition."

The move will leave the North Star conference with six members: Bellevue (Neb.), Dakota State, Dickinson (N.D.) State, Mayville State, Valley City State and Viterbo, and only four remaining members that play football. The conference had eight members during the 2022-23 school year before Presentation College closed its doors, and its seven members for football shrunk to five, with Presentation and affiliate member Iowa Wesleyan both closing.