INDIANAPOLIS-- The University of Indianapolis will be one of the charter members of the newly-formed Great Lakes Valley Conference announced Tuesday by league and school officials.  The addition of football to the league's sponsored sports beginning in 2012 will allow UIndy to compete as a full member, joining 17 other Greyhound varsity teams that battle for GLVC championships.

UIndy, which currently competes in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) as an associate member, will play its 2010 and 2011 schedules in that league.  Indianapolis has been a member of the GLIAC since it merged with the Midwest Intercollegiate Football Conference back in 1999.      

"Our teams already compete in the Great Lakes Valley Conference in 17 varsity sports,” UIndy President Dr. Beverley J. Pitts said. “The competition level is intense and among the best in Division II.  We're confident the league will provide a long-standing home for our football team that will be a better fit geographically and help foster rivalries that exist within other sports.”

 “The GLVC has been our conference of choice for the vast majority of our sports,” Director of Athletics Dr. Sue Willey said. “Active conference members are required to transition their sports teams to the GLVC when they become sponsored by the conference.  We will transition to the GLVC over the next two years and begin GLVC football in the fall of 2012.  We will be competing in a different conference but, just as we do in our other sports, we will be competing in a region that includes the GLIAC.   Regardless of the conference affiliation our goals remain the same.  We will continue to run a great program which graduates its players, plays exciting football and wins.”    

Six current GLVC members sponsor football, with newcomer William Jewell College set to join the league from the NAIA ranks for the 2011-12 season.  Three are currently affiliated with the Great Lakes Football Conference (Kentucky Wesleyan College, Missouri Science & Technology, Saint Joseph's) and Quincy is a member of the Mid-State Football Association.

”We're looking forward to helping make the GLVC a great Division II league,” UIndy Head Football Coach Bob Bartolomeo said.  “Our natural rivalries in other sports can have some carryover and will make this an exciting league.  Our focus remains in everyone heading the same direction as we build for the playoffs.”

It is anticipated that the 2012 GLVC schedule will be adopted at the league's 2010 spring meeting to be held in St. Louis on May 24-26. The Conference will also be exploring additional football-playing institutions that would serve as associate members of the GLVC.

UIndy sponsors 21 varsity sports at the NCAA Division II level, including 17 as a full member of the Indianapolis-based GLVC.  The Greyhounds will remain associate members of the GLIAC in men's and women's swimming and diving (which are not current GLVC sports) and will continue its independent status in wrestling (which is not offered by the GLVC or GLIAC).