The North Star Conference or NSC was a women's conference in the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

. The conference existed from the 1983–84 school year through the 1991–92 school year. Originally announced in 1983, the conference was formed by charter members

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 ...

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

, DePaul,

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Evansville Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in S ...

, Loyola (Chicago), Notre Dame, and Xavier. Although the conference was to offer competition in cross country, softball, swimming, tennis, and volleyball, the conference was created primarily as a basketball conference. With the exception of Butler and Dayton, all charter members' women's basketball teams were already competing at the NCAA Division I level; Butler and Dayton upgraded their teams from NCAA Division II and commenced competition in the conference's second season. The conference was effectively absorbed by the Mid-Continent Conference (now known as

The Summit League ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

), as six of its final seven members moved their women's sports to that organization (the remaining member, Akron, moved all its sports for both sexes to the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

Membership

Akron Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...

1988-1989 through 1991-1992 *

1984-1985 through 1985-1986 *

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. ...

1988-1989 through 1991-1992 *

1984-1985 through 1987-1988 * DePaul 1983-1984 through 1990-1991 *

1983-1984 through 1985-1986 *

1983-1984 through 1985-1986 * Illinois-Chicago 1988-1989 through 1991-1992 * Loyola (Illinois) 1983-1984 through 1985-1986 * Marquette 1986-1987 through 1988-1989 *

Northern Illinois Northern Illinois is a region generally covering the northern third of the U.S. state of Illinois. The region is by far the most populous of Illinois with nearly 9.7 million residents as of 2010. Economics Northern Illinois is dominated by th ...

1987-1988 through 1991-1992 * Notre Dame 1983-1984 through 1987-1988http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/nd/sports/w-baskbl/auto_pdf/0405mg-180-208.pdf * Valparaiso 1987-1988 through 1991-1992 * Wisconsin-Green Bay 1988-1989 through 1991-1992 * Wright State 1990-1991 through 1991-1992 * Xavier 1983-1984 through 1985-1986

Membership timeline

DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Define $now = 07/01/2010 ImageSize = width:750 height:auto barincrement:30 Period = from:01/01/1983 till:01/01/1993 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:lightline value:rgb(0.5,0.5,0.5) id:bg value:white PlotData= width:20 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:green from:07/01/1983 till:06/30/1991 text: DePaul (1984-1991) bar:2 color:green from:07/01/1983 till:06/30/1986 text:

(1984-1986) bar:3 color:green from:07/01/1983 till:06/30/1986 text:

(1984-1986) bar:4 color:green from:07/01/1983 till:06/30/1986 text: Loyola (Illinois) (1984-1986) bar:5 color:green from:07/01/1983 till:06/30/1988 text: Notre Dame (1984-1988) bar:6 color:green from:07/01/1983 till:06/30/1986 text: Xavier (1984-1986) bar:7 color:green from:07/01/1984 till:06/30/1986 text:

(1984-1986) bar:8 color:green from:07/01/1984 till:06/30/1988 text:

(1985-1988) bar:9 color:green from:07/01/1986 till:06/30/1989 text: Marquette (1987-1989) bar:10 color:green from:07/01/1987 till:06/30/1992 text:

(1988-1992) bar:11 color:green from:07/01/1987 till:06/30/1992 text: Valparaiso (1988-1992) bar:12 color:green from:07/01/1988 till:06/30/1992 text:

(1989-1992) bar:13 color:green from:07/01/1988 till:06/30/1992 text:

(1989-1992) bar:14 color:green from:07/01/1988 till:06/30/1992 text: Illinois-Chicago (1989-1992) bar:15 color:green from:07/01/1988 till:06/30/1992 text: Wisconsin-Green Bay (1989-1992) bar:16 color:green from:07/01/1990 till:06/30/1992 text: Wright State (1991-1992) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:01/01/1983 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightline unit:month increment:6 start:01/01/1983 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(370,30) # tabs:(0-center) text:"North Star Conference Membership History"

Commissioner

*Jean Ponsetto 1987–1989

Women's Basketball

Conference Champions

Regular season

Conference Tournament

Honors

Coach of the Year

*1983-84 *1984-85 Mary DiStanislao, Notre Dame *1985-86 Mary DiStanislao, Notre Dame *1986-87 *1987-88

Muffet McGraw Ann "Muffet" McGraw (born December 5, 1955) is an American former college basketball coach, who served as the head women's basketball coach at Notre Dame from 1987 to 2020, compiling a 848–252 (.771) record over 33 seasons. She led her team to ...

, Notre Dame *1988-89 Jane Albright-Dieterle, Northern Illinois *1989-90 Jane Albright-Dieterle, Northern Illinois *1990-91 *1991-92

Player of the Year

*1983-84 *1984-85 *1985-86 Trena Keys, Notre Dame *1986-87 Trena Keys, Notre Dame *1987-88 *1988-89 *1989-90 Carol Owens, Northern Illinois *1990-91 Lisa Foss, Northern Illinois *1991-92

Attendance

Women's Volleyball

Conference Champions

Regular season

*Season Number of Teams School *1983 6 *1984 8 *1985 8 *1986 4 *1987 6 *1988 8 Northern Illinois *1989 7 *1990 8 *1991 7

Conference Tournament

References

{{Reflist

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20080510134324/http://www2.ncaa.org/portal/media_and_events/ncaa_publications/records_books/winter/basketball/index.html Sports in the Midwestern United States Defunct NCAA Division I conferences Summit League 1983 establishments in the United States 1992 disestablishments in the United States Sports leagues established in 1983 Sports leagues disestablished in 1992