Same face, new place

Point Park to join American Mideast Conference in 1999

Published 3/19/98

Point Park College will leave the Keystone-Empire Collegiate Conference and join the American Mideast Conference in the 1999-2000 school year, making the AMC the largest National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics-affiliated conference in the country.

With the addition of Point Park and two other schools, Wilberforce University and Seton Hill College, which are expected to join the AMC starting in 1999, the AMC will be the largest NAIA conference in the country with 15 members.

The AMC is currently called the Mid-Ohio Conference, and the name switch will take place on July 1 of this year.

Founded in 1949, the MOC always had members from Ohio, but with the additions of Geneva College, located in Beaver Falls, Pa.; and St. Vincent College in Latrobe, Pa., The MOC will open up to out-of-state colleges for the first time.

The Mid-Ohio Conference Council of Presidents announced on March 12 that the new name and conference expansion are part of the MOC's 50-year anniversary.

Hal Minford, assistant men's basketball coach, said the college's induction to the AMC was part of a package deal that involved several Keystone-Empire Collegiate Conference members moving over to the new conference.

KECC members St. Vincent and Geneva are to enter the AMC during the 1998-99 season and Seton Hill College is to join Point Park in moving in 1999.

"We wanted to keep some rivalries together," Minford said.

Another factor in Point Park's desire to move to the AMC, Minford said, was because the teams in that conference would have better climate conditions than other local conferences opponents and the competition would be more intense.

Currently, the largest NAIA-affiliated conference is the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference with 14 members.

The AMC will offer championships in 14 sports, and Point Park men's soccer, basketball and baseball, and women's volleyball, basketball and softball are included.

The 14 sports are women's cross country, soccer, volleyball, basketball, softball, tennis, and track and field. Men's athletics include cross country, soccer, basketball, baseball, golf, tennis, and track and field.

Colleges already included in the AMC are: Cedarville College, Malone College, Mount Vernon Nazarene College, Ohio Dominican College, the University of Rio Grands, Shawnee State University, Tiffin University, Urbania University and Walsh University.

Three schools will begin AMC competition in the 1998-99 school year. In addition to Geneva and St. Vincent, Notre Dame College will start competing in women's athletics only.

In order to join the conference, AMC administrative assistant Mark Womack said that a prospective college has to first show an interest in applying. Next, the college has to fill out an application for membership, which is then looked over by a league committee. This is followed by having league committee representatives scout out college's facilities.

The college must give a presentation to the league committee as to why it wants to join the AMC, and the decision is finalized by having the council of presidents vote the applying college in or not.

Womack said Point Park's trip to the NAIA Final Four last year played no part in considering the college's application for membership.

Although an influx of colleges applying the the AMC is rare, Womack said an opportunity presented itself for expansion due to the fact the KECC conference was folding and several Western Pennsylvania schools, including Point Park, were looking for other conferences to align with.

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