SWAC to NWAACC?

North Idaho College’s athletic teams may be on the move from the Scenic West Athletic Conference to the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges to save about $600,000 a year in scholarships and travel expenses.

NIC, which would also be leaving the National Junior College Athletic Association, would miss out on the opportunity to compete for national titles. Instead, NIC teams (except for wrestling, which would remain in the NJCAA) would compete solely for conference championships.

If the NWAACC accepts NIC and its teams into the conference Tuesday, and NIC’s board of trustees agree to the terms Wednesday, NIC’s outdoor sports – men’s and women’s soccer, softball, and men’s and women’s golf – will move to the NWAACC this fall. NIC’s indoor sports – volleyball and men’s and women’s basketball – would move to the conference later.

The NWAACC consists of schools primarily from Washington and Oregon, with the nearest school being Community Colleges of Spokane. The closest college to NIC that competes in the SWAC is the College of Southern Idaho, located in Twin Falls.

While NJCAA teams can recruit internationally, NWAACC teams are restricted to western states including Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, California, Hawaii and Alaska.

NJCAA schools can offer its student-athletes full scholarships while NWAACC schools can offer partial scholarships. Not only can NJCAA schools offer full scholarships, they can offer more scholarships in general than NWAACC schools.