The run of one of the nation’s oldest collegiate conferences could be coming to an end.
"It could be," WVIAC Commissioner Barry Blizzard said Monday when asked if the departure of nine current members would spell the end of the conference.
The West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference was formed in 1924. It once included both WVU and Marshall. There are currently 16 active members of the league. Nine of those schools have announced intentions to leave in order to form a new all-sports conference starting in the fall of 2013.
Six schools–Alderson-Broaddus College, Bluefield State College, Davis & Elkins College, Ohio Valley University, Wheeling Jesuit University and the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown–would remain.
"You have to have at least eight active institutions under current NCAA regulations to be an active Division-II conference," Blizzard said. "That number will go to ten in a very short time.
"Some schools must be added immediately If the WVIAC is to survive. I don’t know where they would come from.
"The future of this league is very much in jeopardy," Blizzard said.
If the WVIAC dissolves, one of the longest running basketball tournaments in the country would come to an end. The WVIAC post season basketball championship tournament has run continuously since 1936. it predates both the NCAA Tournament (1939) and the NIT (1938.)
One of the reasons for the divide among current members of the conference is differing viewpoints on expansion.
"We have looked at different schools every since we tore down the wall around West Virginia in bringing in Seton Hill and Pitt-Johnstown," Blizzard said. "I am not real sure there are a lot of possibilities.
"The landscape in the East right now is pretty tight in terms of places to look," Blizzard said. "If we were out West we would have plenty of options."