ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) acknowledges the announcement and decision of Northland College on Wednesday to cease institutional operations following the completion of the 2024-25 academic year. The UMAC will proceed as a seven-member conference beginning with the 2025-26 academic year.
“Despite the collaborative efforts of the entire Northland family, we no longer have the resources needed to navigate the economic and demographic storms endangering small, liberal arts institutions today,” said Ted Bristol, Chair of the Northland College Board of Trustees. “With declining enrollment and soaring costs, it takes more to operate the College than we raise in tuition. Even after enacting aggressive measures to cut costs and raise revenues, Northland College has no sustainable path forward.”
At this time, Northland plans to still complete their 2025 baseball and softball seasons, including all UMAC regular season contests on the schedule for both sports.
“The formal announcement of Northland College closing as an institution comes with great sadness,” said Corey Borchardt, UMAC Commissioner. “Northland has been a valuable member of the UMAC for nearly three decades and the conference extends great empathy to the institutional senior leadership team, athletics department administrative team, members of the coaching staff, and student-athletes. As a conference, we will continue to support Northland student-athletes and athletics staff members through this challenging time.”
Remaining conference members are engaging in contingency plans for 2025-26 and will begin the process of developing updated future schedules as well as addressing other conference operational impacts.
Northland joined the UMAC as a full member beginning in the 1998-99 academic year. The LumberJacks and LumberJills won eight regular season championships and four postseason tournament championships in their UMAC history.
The LumberJills’ women’s basketball team won eight of those 12 championships. Northland clinched the UMAC Women’s Basketball Regular Season Championship six times with a five-season run from 1999-00 to 2003-04 and once more in 2008-09. They went on to win the UMAC Tournament in 2003-04 and 2008-09.
Northland’s men’s soccer (2002) and women’s soccer (2016) programs also won regular season championships in the UMAC. The LumberJills’ volleyball (2007) and softball (2008) programs both earned postseason tournament titles.
Northland was one of the first UMAC members to transition completely to NCAA Division III in the early 2000’s. The LumberJills’ 2008-09 women’s basketball team was one of the first UMAC programs to compete in NCAA DIII championships and postseason play.
The UMAC is an NCAA Division III member comprised of eight full-time member schools from Minnesota and Wisconsin: Bethany Lutheran College, Crown College, Martin Luther College, North Central University, Northland College, University of Minnesota Morris, University of Northwestern, and University of Wisconsin-Superior.