The Horizon League is an 11-school collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, whose members are located in and near the Great Lakes region. The Horizon League founded in 1979 as the Midwestern City Conference. The conference changed its name to Midwestern Collegiate Conference in 1985 and then the Horizon League in 2001. The conference started with a membership of six teams and has fluctuated in size with 24 different schools as members at different times. The League currently has 11 members. Its most recent membership changes occurred on July 1, 2022 with the departure of the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) to the Missouri Valley Conference. The Horizon League does not sponsor football.

History

Foundation

In May 1978, DePaul University hosted a meeting with representatives from Bradley, Dayton, Detroit, Illinois State, Loyola–Chicago, Air Force, and Xavier who all agreed in principle that a new athletic conference was needed. Further progress was made through a series of early 1979 meetings in San Francisco, Chicago, and St. Louis that included participation by Butler, Creighton, Marquette, and Oral Roberts. On June 16, 1979, the Midwestern City Conference (nicknamed the MCC or Midwestern City 6) was formed by charter members Butler, Evansville, Loyola, Oklahoma City, Oral Roberts, and Xavier, with Detroit joining the following year. As of 2022, Detroit, now known as Detroit Mercy following a merger with Mercy College of Detroit in 1990, is the only remaining member from the league's early history. Mcconference

Maturity

In 1980 the league established its headquarters in Champaign, Illinois. The MCC gained an automatic bid to the

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as NCAA March Madness and commonly called March Madness, is a single-elimination tournament played each spring in the United States, currently featuring 68 college basketball teams from ...

in 1981, followed by the announcement that

Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private Jesuit research university with campuses in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, and Madrid, Spain. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Mississip ...

would be joining the following season. The University of Notre Dame joined the conference for all sports except basketball and football in 1982. The conference attained automatic qualification for the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship in 1984 and the conference moved its headquarters to

Indianapolis Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

. Three changes occurred in the summer of 1985: Oklahoma City dropped out of the NCAA altogether; the name was altered slightly to Midwestern Collegiate Conference; and the conference brought women's athletics into the fold. The latter triggered Notre Dame's temporary withdrawal from the league as its women's teams were contracted to the North Star Conference. ESPN began televising the MCC Championship game in 1986 and in 1987 Oral Roberts left the conference while Dayton joined and Notre Dame rejoined. The conference earned its first at-large bid to the men's basketball tournament and automatic qualification to the

NCAA Men's Soccer Championship The NCAA Division I men's soccer tournament, sometimes known as the College Cup, is an American intercollegiate soccer tournament conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and determines the Division I men's national champ ...

in 1989. The conference won an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament in 1991 and the conference lost members Marquette and Saint Louis. Duquesne and La Salle joined the MCC in 1992, the same year the conference gained an automatic berth to the NCAA Women's Volleyball Championship. Duquesne and Dayton left the conference in 1993.

Expansion

The largest non-merger conference expansion in NCAA history occurred on December 9, 1993 when

Cleveland State Cleveland State University (CSU) is a public research university in Cleveland, Ohio. It was established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965 after acquiring the entirety of Fenn College, a private school that had been in operation since 1923. ...

, UIC, Northern Illinois, Wisconsin-Green Bay, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and

Wright State Wright State University is a public research university in Fairborn, Ohio. Originally opened in 1964 as a branch campus of Miami University and Ohio State University, it became an independent institution in 1967 and was named in honor of aviation ...

left the

Mid-Continent The Mid-continent oil field is a broad area containing hundreds of oil fields in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The area, which consists of various geological strata and diverse trap types, was discovered and exploite ...

to join the Midwestern Collegiate beginning with the 1994–95 academic year. With Evansville's departure to the Missouri Valley Conference, there were 12 league members. Xavier, Notre Dame, and La Salle withdrew the following summer of 1995, followed by Northern Illinois in 1997. The conference changed its name to the Horizon League on June 4, 2001, in part due to the initials causing confusion between the MCC and the Mid-Continent Conference (who also used the initials). That year, Youngstown State University came to the Horizon League from the Mid-Con, and on May 17, 2006, Valparaiso University announced it would do the same in 2007. The split of the original Big East Conference, leading to the formation of the current Big East, had further fallout involving the Horizon League. Loyola announced in April 2013 that it would leave the Horizon League effective July 1 to join the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC), who itself lost Creighton to the reconfigured Big East. The Horizon announced that

Oakland University Oakland University is a public research university in Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, Michigan. Founded in 1957 through a donation of Matilda Dodge Wilson, it was initially known as Michigan State University-Oakland, operating under the Mi ...

, formerly of The Summit League, would immediately replace Loyola, within a month. The next change in the Horizon League's membership came in 2015 with the arrival of Northern Kentucky University from the Atlantic Sun Conference (now the

ASUN Conference The ASUN Conference, formerly the Atlantic Sun Conference, is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Divisio ...

). Two more membership changes were announced near the end of the 2016–17 school year. First, Valparaiso announced on May 25, 2017, that it would leave for the MVC effective July 1. The Crusaders replaced Wichita State, who announced that it would leave the MVC for the American Athletic Conference. Three days before Valparaiso's departure, the Horizon League Board of Directors unanimously approved the membership of

Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

(IUPUI) to replace Valparaiso, also effective July 1. The start of the 2020s set further membership changes into motion, with the arrivals of Purdue Fort Wayne and Robert Morris from the Summit League and the Northeast Conference, respectively, announced on August 5, 2019 and June 15, 2020. This brought the Horizon League up to 12 full-time members for the first time since the 1994-95 season. It was short-lived, however, as the UIC Flames were reported to be following many of their former conference members to the MVC effective July 1, 2022. On July 6, 2022, the Horizon League and Ohio Valley Conference (OVC) jointly announced that they would merge their men's tennis leagues under the Horizon banner, effective immediately. The five OVC members that sponsored the sport became Horizon associates. At the same time, the Horizon announced that

Belmont Belmont may refer to: People * Belmont (surname) Places * Belmont Abbey (disambiguation) * Belmont Historic District (disambiguation) * Belmont Hotel (disambiguation) * Belmont Park (disambiguation) * Belmont Plantation (disambiguation) * Belmon ...

, which had just left the OVC for the Missouri Valley Conference (which sponsors tennis only for women), would become a men's tennis associate, and Chicago State, which became a D-I independent after leaving the Western Athletic Conference days earlier, would become an associate in men's and women's tennis. As of the 2022–23 school year, eight of the 11 full Horizon League members are former members of the Mid-Con (now known as The Summit League), with the exceptions being Detroit Mercy, Northern Kentucky, and Robert Morris.

Basketball success

The Horizon League is best known for its men's basketball teams and is one of the top performing NCAA Division I conferences in that sport according to the NCAA Men's Basketball Rating Percentage Index (RPI). From 2005 to 2011, just seven conferences had wins in every NCAA tournament: the six "power" conferences, and the Horizon League ( Milwaukee twice,

once, and

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some a ...

four times; see Championships and post-season appearances). The Horizon League has been a multi-bid conference nine times, and placed three teams in 1998's March Madness. Multiple Horizon League members have made Sweet 16, Elite Eight and Final Four appearances. In the men's NCAA basketball tournament, the Horizon League currently holds the fifth best winning percentage among non-BCS "Power 6" conferences (21–31, , 11th best among the 31 Division I conferences). Over the last 20 years, the Horizon League currently ranks 11th out of 31 NCAA Division I conferences in average RPI season finishes, while having an average finish of 12th (out of 32) over the past ten seasons. In addition, it has also been the launching point of many teams who would later go on to join major or high mid-major conferences; five former members are currently in the

Atlantic 10 Conference The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Eastern ...

, and three former members each are in the Missouri Valley Conference and the current Big East Conference.

Horizon League Network

In 2006, the conference launched the Horizon League Network (HLN) as the centerpiece of a revamped web portal. The digital network aired over 200 live events free on the League's official website at the time. The Horizon League and WebStream Productions launched a completely redesigned Horizon League Network website in September 2009. The site serves as a portal to hundreds of live and on-demand videos while giving its users the ability to interact on an array of social media platforms. Horizon League Network migrated to

ESPN3 ESPN3 (formerly ESPN360 and ESPN3.com) is an online streaming service owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which operates the network, through its 80% controlling ownership interest) and Hearst Communications ...

in 2014, and over 700 events streamed live in 2015–16. Its coverage complements events televised on ESPN, ESPN2,

ESPNU ESPNU is an American multinational digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between the Disney Media Networks division of The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and the Hears ...

and members' local sports networks.

Member schools

Current members

;Notes:

Associate members

Former members

Nicknames and school names reflect those used in the last school year of conference membership. ;Notes:

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1979 till:2024 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<# Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football id:AssocF value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.5,0.691,0.824) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote) id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.845,0.599) # Use this color to denote years as Midwestern City Conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.958,0.745,0.383) # Use this color to denote years as Midwestern Collegiate Conference id:OtherC3 value:rgb(0.910,0.645,0.167)# Use this color to denote years as Horizon League PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:FullxF from:1979 till:1985 text: Oklahoma City (1979–1985) bar:2 color:FullxF from:1979 till:1987 text: Oral Roberts (1979–1987) bar:3 color:FullxF from:1979 till:1994 text: Evansville (1979–1994) bar:4 color:FullxF from:1979 till:1995 text: Xavier (1979–1995) bar:5 color:FullxF from:1979 till:2012 text:

(1979–2012) bar:6 color:FullxF from:1979 till:2013 text: Loyola (1979–2013) bar:7 color:FullxF from:1980 till:end text: Detroit Mercy (1980–present) bar:8 color:FullxF from:1981 till:1991 text: Saint Louis (1981–1991) bar:9 color:FullxF from:1982 till:1986 text:

Notre Dame Notre Dame, French for "Our Lady", a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, most commonly refers to: * Notre-Dame de Paris, a cathedral in Paris, France * University of Notre Dame, a university in Indiana, United States ** Notre Dame Fighting Irish, th ...

(1982–1986; 1987–1995) bar:9 color:FullxF from:1987 till:1995 bar:10 color:FullxF from:1987 till:1993 text: Dayton (1987–1993) bar:11 color:FullxF from:1988 till:1991 text: Marquette (1988–1991) bar:12 color:FullxF from:1992 till:1993 text: Duquesne (1992–1993) bar:13 color:FullxF from:1992 till:1995 text: La Salle (1992–1995) bar:14 color:FullxF from:1994 till:1997 text: Northern Illinois (1994–1997) bar:15 color:FullxF from:1994 till:end text:

(1994–present) bar:16 color:FullxF from:1994 till:2022 text: UIC (1994–2022) bar:17 color:FullxF from:1994 till:end text: Green Bay (1994–present) bar:18 color:FullxF from:1994 till:end text: Milwaukee (1994–present) bar:19 color:FullxF from:1994 till:end text:

(1994–present) bar:20 color:FullxF from:2001 till:end text:

Youngstown State Youngstown State University (YSU or Youngstown State) is a public university in Youngstown, Ohio. It was founded in 1908 and is the easternmost member of the University System of Ohio. The university is composed of six undergraduate colleges an ...

(2001–present) bar:21 color:FullxF from:2007 till:2017 text: Valparaiso (2007–2017) bar:22 color:FullxF from:2013 till:end text:

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

(2013–present) bar:23 color:FullxF from:2015 till:end text: Northern Kentucky (2015–present) bar:24 color:FullxF from:2017 till:end text: IUPUI (2017–present) bar:25 shift:(-80,-5) color:FullxF from:2020 till:end text: Purdue Fort Wayne (2020–present) bar:26 shift:(-80,-5) color:FullxF from:2020 till:end text: Robert Morris (2020–present) bar:27 shift:(-80,-5) color:AssocOS from:2022 till:end text:

(2022–present) bar:28 shift:(-80,-5) color:AssocOS from:2022 till:end text: Chicago State (2022–present) bar:29 shift:(-80,-5) color:AssocOS from:2022 till:end text:

Eastern Illinois Eastern Illinois University is a public university in Charleston, Illinois. Established in 1895 as the Eastern Illinois State Normal School, a teacher's college offering a two-year degree, Eastern Illinois University gradually expanded into a co ...

(2022–present) bar:30 shift:(-80,-5) color:AssocOS from:2022 till:end text: Lindenwood (2022–present) bar:31 shift:(-80,-5) color:AssocOS from:2022 till:end text: Southern Indiana (2022–present) bar:32 shift:(-80,-5) color:AssocOS from:2022 till:end text: Tennessee State (2022–present) bar:33 shift:(-80,-5) color:AssocOS from:2022 till:end text: Tennessee Tech (2022–present) bar:N color:orange from:1979 till:1985 text: Midwestern City Conference bar:N shift:(20) color:redorange from:1985 till:2001 text: Midwestern Collegiate Conference bar:N color:orange from:2001 till:end text: Horizon League ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:1980 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center) text:^"Horizon League membership history" #> If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. <#

Men's basketball

Horizon League men's basketball tournament champions

Historic

From 1995 to 2011, the Horizon League sent an impressive 24 qualifiers (7 At-Large berths) to the Men's NCAA basketball tournament, making the Horizon League one of the most prolific mid-major (non-power 6) conferences in all of college basketball. Even more impressively, those 24 clubs produced 22 wins in that span, including five "Sweet 16" appearances, making the Horizon League the only non-BCS conference to have Sweet 16 participants in five NCAA tournaments during that span (2003, 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2011). Four schools from the conference have produced "modern-day" Sweet 16 appearances – Loyola (

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

), Xavier (

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

), Butler (

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

and

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

), and Milwaukee (

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

). The Horizon League also compiled a 19–12 record in the NCAA tournament from 2003-2011, ranking tops among all 32 NCAA Division I conferences for winning percentage (.613) in March Madness during that span. This historic stretch of conference dominance was thanks to NCAA Tournament wins from Butler (15), Milwaukee (3), and Cleveland State (1) . Butler appeared in the men's national championship game in both

and

. Since the NCAA began seeding teams in 1979, Loyola's 4 seed in the 1985 tournament is the best for a Horizon League team. The Horizon League currently holds the best winning percentage among non-

BCS conferences The Power Five conferences are the five most prominent and highest-earning athletic conferences in college football in the United States. They are part of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of NCAA Division I, the highest level of collegiat ...

in the men's NCAA basketball Tournament (.488, 7th overall amongst the 32 Division I conferences). One former Horizon League member claims a national championship from the era before the league's creation. In the 1963 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, Loyola defeated two-time defending champ Cincinnati. Before post-season tournaments determined champions, former Horizon member Butler claimed national titles in 1924 and 1929. The League hosted the men's Final Four in 1991, 1997, 2000, 2006, 2009 and 2010. It also hosted the women's Final Four in 2005 and 2007. Horizon League commissioner Jonathan B. LeCrone, who is in his 17th year as league commissioner, just finished a five-year term on the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee.

2000s

As stated on their official website, the recent success of Horizon League athletic teams on the national stage heightened the visibility of the league and its member schools and quickly moved it closer toward its stated goal of becoming one of the nation's top 10 Division I NCAA athletic conferences.

2002–03

In the

2003 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The 2003 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 18, 2003, and ended with the championshi ...

, the Horizon League entered two teams for the first time since 1998. Milwaukee, who earned a 12 seed in its first bid to the tournament since joining the conference, lost by one point to

in the first round.

, who earned both an at-large bid and a 12 seed, made its fifth tournament appearance in seven years. The Bulldogs made it to the Sweet 16 with victories over No. 20 (5 seed) Mississippi State and No. 14 (4 seed) Louisville before falling to No. 3 (1 seed)

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

in the East Regional. The Bulldogs finished the year ranked No. 21 in the final ESPN/USA Today Top 25 Poll.

2004–05

In the men's 2005 NCAA basketball tournament, the Horizon League enjoyed one of its best showings ever as 12 seed Milwaukee marched to the Sweet 16 with victories over No. 19 (5 seed) Alabama and No. 14 (4 seed)

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

before they fell to then-No. 1 and eventual tournament runner-up Illinois. Milwaukee ranked as high as No. 23 in the March 7 ESPN/USA Today Top 25 Poll.

2005–06

In the 2006 NCAA basketball tournament, 11 seed Milwaukee once again advanced in the Tournament by upsetting the No. 20 (6 seed) Oklahoma 82–74. The Panthers, led by first year head coach Rob Jeter, fell to eventual national champion No. 11 (AP)/No. 10 (ESPN) (3 seed) Florida in the second round of the tournament. The league had a team advance past the first round for the second straight year and third time in the last four years.

2006–07

In the 2006–07 basketball season, Butler won the Preseason NIT tournament in

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

with wins over in-state rivals Notre Dame and Indiana in the NIT's Midwest regional bracket, followed by wins over No. 21 Tennessee and No. 23

Gonzaga Gonzaga may refer to: Places * Gonzaga, Lombardy, commune in the province of Mantua, Italy * Gonzaga, Cagayan, municipality in the Philippines *Gonzaga, Minas Gerais, town in Brazil *Forte Gonzaga, fort in Messina, Sicily People with the surna ...

in the NIT Final Four in Madison Square Garden. Later, the Bulldogs claimed victory over

Purdue Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

in the Wooden Tradition. On February 5, 2007, Butler became the first school in Horizon League history to rank in the Top 10 of the national college basketball polls, as the Bulldogs reached No. 9 and No. 10 in the ESPN/USA Today and AP polls, respectively. The Bulldogs ended their season with a No. 21 ranking in the final AP poll, a 5 seed in the NCAA tournament and a Sweet 16 berth by beating Old Dominion and Maryland before losing to eventual national champion Florida.

also qualified for the NCAA tournament as the winner of the Horizon League tournament championship and tying Butler for the regular season championship. As a 14 seed, the Raiders fell to No. 13 (AP)/No. 11 (ESPN) (3 seed) Pittsburgh in the first round.

2007–08

During the 2007–08 basketball season, Butler won the Great Alaska Shootout with wins over Michigan, Virginia Tech and Texas Tech, and also claimed wins over Ohio State and Florida State, who extended their record against BCS schools to 10–1 since the start of the 2006–07 season. As a 7 seed in the 2008 NCAA basketball tournament, the Bulldogs beat 10 seed South Alabama before falling in overtime to No. 5 (AP)/No. 4 (ESPN) (2 seed) Tennessee. Butler finished the season ranked No. 11 in the AP poll and No. 14 in the ESPN/USA Today poll. Cleveland State also earned a 6 seed in the NIT, losing in the first round to Dayton.

2008–09

Starting in 2009, regional convenience store and gas station chain Speedway served as the title sponsor of the conference tournament that Cleveland State won and earned the Horizon League's automatic bid to the NCAA Tourney while Butler earned an at-large bid. Butler, a 9 seed, lost in the first round to LSU while 13 seed Cleveland State upset No. 8 (AP)/No. 9 (ESPN) (4 seed) Wake Forest 84–69 (and achieved the third biggest upset in NCAA history winning by 15 points) and shocked the nation in the first round of play before falling to 12 seed Arizona in the second round of tournament play. Butler finished the season ranked No. 22 in the final AP poll and No. 25 in the final ESPN/USA Today poll.

2009–10

After defeating No. 25 (12 seed) UTEP, 13 seed

Murray State Murray State University (MSU) is a public university in Murray, Kentucky. In addition to the main campus in Calloway County in southwestern Kentucky, Murray State operates extended campuses offering upper level and graduate courses in Paducah, ...

and No. 4 (1 seed)

Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy *Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' *Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York **North Syracuse, New York *Syracuse, Indiana * Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, Miss ...

, the No. 8 (ESPN)/No. 11 (AP) (5 seed) Butler men's team defeated No. 7 Kansas State, the 2 seed in the West, by a score of 63–56 to advance to their first Final Four. After beating the No. 12 (ESPN)/No. 13 (AP) (5 seed) Michigan State Spartans 52–50 in the national semifinals, Butler played in Indianapolis against the South Regional Champions, No. 3 (1 seed) Duke for the NCAA Division I National Championship. Butler lost what many call the most thrilling college basketball game in a generation, losing 61–59 in a game that came down to the final play. This is the farthest any team has reached in the tournament while a member of the Horizon League. Butler was the first Division I men's team to play in the Final Four in its hometown since UCLA in 1972, and the first of either sex since Texas played in the 1987 Women's Final Four on its home court. Also of note, former Milwaukee head coach Bruce Pearl coached the Tennessee Volunteers to the Elite Eight and narrowly lost the opportunity to play Butler by losing to Michigan State, who Butler beat in the Final Four.

2010–11

Butler once again represented the Horizon League in the tournament with another very strong showing. As an 8 seed, Butler defeated (9 seed) Old Dominion, narrowly upset Pittsburgh (who was No. 1 ranked and seeded), Wisconsin (4 seed) and Florida (2 seed) to return to the Final Four. Butler faced VCU, an 11 seed Cinderella team who unexpectedly reached the Final Four as the first team to play five tournament games to reach the Final Four, due to VCU's participation in the inaugural First Four Round. After Butler defeated VCU 70–62, the Bulldogs were in the national championship game for the second consecutive season. This time they faced Connecticut at Reliant Stadium in Houston. The Huskies were too much for the Butler Bulldogs to handle, as Butler lost the game 53–41 in an unusually low-scoring national championship game. This made Butler national runner-up for the second straight season.

2011–12

In the 2012 postseason, the Detroit Titans won their first Horizon League Championship since 1999 under head coach Ray McCallum. They defeated top seeded Valparaiso 70–50. The tournament MVP was son

Ray McCallum, Jr. Ray Michael McCallum Jr. (born June 12, 1991) is an American professional basketball player for Legia Warszawa of the Polish Basketball League. In the 2012–13 NCAA Division I men's basketball season, he was named the Horizon League Player of t ...

2012–13

Valparaiso was the regular season champion of the Horizon for the second straight year. It defeated Wright State 62–54 in the championship game under coach

Bryce Drew Bryce Homer Drew (born September 21, 1974) is an American college basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Grand Canyon Antelopes. Previously he served as the head coach of the Vanderbilt Commodores and in the same capacit ...

for its first Horizon League Championship. This was the first season that the league was absent of Butler, who departed for the Atlantic 10.

2013–14

Green Bay won the regular season championship in 2014. It was upset by Milwaukee in the tournament semi-final. Milwaukee would go on to win the tournament, knocking off Wright State.

2014–15

Following a good outcome, finishing as the 2014 champions, the Milwaukee Panthers were banned from the 2015 NCAA Tournament and postseason play. Valparaiso won the regular and postseason championships. It entered the NCAA tournament as a 13th seed, although losing in the first round.

2015–16

The 2015 season ushered in the arrival of the Northern Kentucky Norse to the league, who departed from the Atlantic Sun Conference. Valparaiso won the regular season championship again but was defeated by Green Bay in the tournament championship 78–69.

Other sports

The Milwaukee baseball team made national headlines during the 1999 College World Series by upsetting No. 1 ranked Rice in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. In the 2004–05 academic year, Milwaukee's men's soccer team defeated 16th-ranked San Francisco, while Detroit upset Michigan in women's soccer in their respective NCAA tournaments. Also that year, Butler's men's cross country team finished fourth in the nation at the NCAA Cross-Country Championships, and their own Victoria Mitchell became the first Horizon League athlete to win an individual national title when she captured the 3,000 Meter Steeplechase at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Green Bay also upset 6th-ranked Oregon State in the opening round of the NCAA softball tournament. Although the league does not sponsor

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

, current members Robert Morris and Youngstown State play in Division I FCS. Youngstown State plays in the Missouri Valley Football Conference; Robert Morris originally planned to play the 2020–21 season as an independent and join

Big South Conference The Big South Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I. Originally a non-football conference, the Big South began sponsoring football in 2002 as part of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Th ...

football in July 2021, but COVID-19 issues led the Big South to bring Robert Morris into its football league for its rescheduled spring 2021 season. Cleveland State currently does not have a football team but has considered launching a non-scholarship FCS football program in the near future, giving the city of Cleveland its first Division I

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

team.Cleveland State Ballot Initiatives
, (Cleveland State – Student Life – Board of Elections), retrieved 2010-06-19.
(Cleveland.com), retrieved 2010-06-19. Milwaukee has also examined reviving its football program as recently as 2011.

Facilities

;Notes

References

External links

* {{NCAA nonfootball Div1 conferences Organizations based in Indianapolis Sports in Indianapolis Sports organizations established in 1979 Articles which contain graphical timelines 1979 establishments in the United States