Horizon League: Raise Your Sights

In its 29th year, the Horizon League continues to aspire toward the goal of being one of the nation's leading athletics conferences while being recognized as a leader in the development of student-athletes as leaders and role models.

Member institutions of the Horizon League: Butler University Cleveland State University University of Detroit Mercy University of Illinois at Chicago Loyola University Chicago Valparaiso University University of Wisconsin-Green Bay University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Wright State University Youngstown State University

The Horizon League membership features ten public and private institutions that have impressive academic reputations and a storied tradition of broad-based athletic programs. Current membership includes Butler University, Cleveland State University, the University of Detroit Mercy, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Loyola University Chicago, Valparaiso University, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wright State University and Youngstown State University.

The Horizon League's primary focus is on adding value to the educational experience through its four platforms of athletic performance, academic achievement, community outreach, and personal responsibility and accountability. It is the League's belief that athletics is a powerful and visible resource tool that can be used to enhance the student-athletes' collegiate experience. The Horizon League's goals are to enhance the holisitc university experience for the student-athlete, to create an affiliation of institutions with similar athletic goals, and to adhere to the principals of integrity, diversity, excellence and growth.

The Horizon League sponsors competition in 19 sports - nine for men (baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field and tennis) and 10 for women (basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, tennis and volleyball). In all sports, all teams participate in their respective postseason League championships regardless of regular-season performance, allowing all student-athletes an opportunity to qualify for NCAA championships. The League receives automatic bids to NCAA championships in baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's golf, men's and women's soccer, softball, men's and women's tennis, and women's volleyball.

The Horizon League is headquartered in Indianapolis, the "Amateur Sports Capitol of the World," with offices in the Pan American Plaza (201 S. Capitol Avenue), located across the street from the RCA Dome and just blocks from Conseco Fieldhouse, the State Capitol Building and the NCAA national office.

A PROUD HISTORY
Founded in 1979 as the Midwestern City Conference with six charter members, the League changed its name to the Midwestern Collegiate Conference in 1985 and added women's sports for the 1986-87 academic year. Charter members of the conference included current members Butler and Loyola as well as the University of Evansville, Oklahoma City University, Oral Roberts University and Xavier University. Among other current members, Detroit joined in 1980 and Cleveland State, UIC, Green Bay, Milwaukee and Wright State came aboard in 1994 in the largest non-merger conference expansion in history, with Youngstown State joining in 2001 and Valparaiso on July 1, 2007.

On June 4, 2001, the Horizon League unveiled its current name and ushered in a new dynamic direction that has brought the League closer to its stated goal of being one of the nation's top 10 conferences with a focus on enhancing the student-athletes experience by upgrading the League's market and competitive positions.

ATHLETIC SUCCESS
In the past few years, the Horizon League has enjoyed unprecedented success on the national stage, highlighted by three Sweet Sixteen appearances (Butler 2003, 2007; UW-Milwaukee 2005) and seven wins in the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship in the past five seasons. In other sports, League teams have won at least one game in their respective NCAA Championships each of the last five seasons in men's soccer (UW-Milwaukee 2002-05; UIC 2006) and four of the last six in softball (UIC 2002, 2004; Wright State 2003; UW-Green Bay 2005) while advancing into the second round in women's soccer each of the last three (Detroit 2004; UW-Milwaukee 2005-06). Butler's Victoria Mitchell became the League's first NCAA individual champion when she won the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 2005 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships and then finished fourth at the 2005 NCAA Cross Country Championships in leading the Butler women to a 24th-place national finish.

ACADEMIC SUCCESS
Horizon League student-athletes also excel in the classroom as more than 500 have been named to the Academic Honor Roll each of the past five semesters for carrying a grade-point average of 3.2 or better. Thirty-one student-athletes were named to ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District teams in 2006-07 and nine earned Academic All-America honors, including four first-team selections, after boasting 35 academic all-district picks and eleven Academic All-Americans in 2005-06.

COMMUNITY SERVICE
In addition to its athletics success, the Horizon League has secured a well-earned reputation for its community service initiatives. Each January, member institutions partner with local elementary schools for an art, music and essay contest highlighting the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with winners recognized at League games on the weekend of MLK Day. The Horizon League Student-Athlete Advisory Committee also has continued a tradition of working with youth at the Kaleidoscope Youth Center in Indianapolis during its annual summer meeting. On campus, student-athletes have raised money and awareness for such causes as breast cancer, diabetes and hurricane relief, while hosting blood drives, neighborhood clean-ups, Big Brother/Big Sister programs and more.

SPORTSMANSHIP
One of the Horizon League's points of emphasis is fostering collegial environments for competition among student-athletes, coaches, administrators and fans in a pro-active approach. Among the vehicles is the Ethical Conduct Pledge, which is signed each season by student-athletes, coaches, officials, and campus and League administrators. Its purpose is to make all the involved groups aware of the Horizon League expectations of behavior during conference events.

DEMOGRAPHICS
Horizon League institutions boast a combined enrollment of more than 130,000 plus nearly 700,000 living alumni centered in the League's Midwest footprint. League media markets include five of the nation's top 35 in Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Indianapolis and Milwaukee, covering more than ten million television households and encompassing nine percent of the nation's television audience.

GOVERNANCE
The Horizon League is governed by a Board of Directors comprised of the member institutions' chief executive officers. Dr. David Hopkins, President of Wright State, serves as Board Chair through June 30, 2008. Mike Cusack, Director of Athletics at Wright State, serves as chair of the Executive Council and Tonya McGowan, Associate A.D./SWA at UIC, is the Second Delegate, while Dr. Sylvia Furner of UIC serves as chair of the Faculty Athletics Representatives.

HORIZON LEAGUE NETWORK
The Horizon League is a recognized leader in video streaming, through the Horizon League Network (HLN), and has plans to produce more than 300 free, live events during the 2007-08 academic year. One-hundred fifty League events were aired in the first year of League-wide video streaming in 2005-06 and nearly 250 were produced last year as the service was re-branded as the Horizon League Network. In addition to live games, HLN includes highlight vignettes of all 19 League championships, weekly highlight videos during the men's and women's basketball season and other special programming covering Horizon League institutions, coaches and student-athletes.

LEADERSHIP
Jonathan B. LeCrone is in his 16th year as Commissioner of the Horizon League, having been named to the position on May 11, 1992, and is the tenth-longest tenured commissioner in Division I. He is the fifth commissioner in League history, succeeding Daniel B. "Tucker" DiEdwardo (1989-92), James W. Shaffer (1984-89), Cecil N. Coleman (1980-84) and James J. McCafferty (1979-80). LeCrone currently is in the final year of a five-year term on the 10-member NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee that handles the rules of the game and oversees and selects teams for the national championship.

VISIBILITY
The Horizon League has enhanced its media visibility with a number of initiatives. The League is in the third year of a five-year agreement with ESPN that includes selected regular-season men's basketball action (ESPN2) and the men's championship game (ESPN) and features increased exposures each year on ESPNU plus inclusion in the annual O'Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters, one of college basketball's premier in-season events. In addition, the Horizon League has national broadcast agreements with CSTV and the America Channel.

VALPO JOINS IN `07
On May 17, 2006, Valparaiso University accepted a membership invitation to join the Horizon League, marking the first membership change since Youngstown State joined in 2001. The Crusaders will compete in 17 of the League's 19 sports beginning with the 2007-08 academic year. Valpo's athletics history is highlighted by seven appearances in the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship from 1996-2004, including a dramatic trip to the Sweet Sixteen in 1998.

McCAFFERTY TROPHY
The Horizon League annually awards the McCafferty Trophy in recognition of its all-sports champion in honor of its first commissioner, James J. McCafferty. Butler and UIC shared the McCafferty Trophy in 2006-07, marking the first tie for the award in League history. UIC also captured the Men's All-Sports Award, while Milwaukee claimed the women's. Seven of the League's nine schools won at least one team championship last year.