The Wabash Little Giants are the intercollegiate athletics teams that represent Wabash College , a small private school for men in Crawfordsville, Indiana , United States. The college belongs to the National Collegiate Athletic Association and participates in Division III sports. The Little Giants compete as members of the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC). Despite the college's small enrollment and that it is "not a jock school", the Little Giants have had success in several sports. The most popular among Wabash fans are football and swimming . The Little Giants also have a well-respected cross-country team. In football, Wabash has an important rivalry with DePauw University , and each season they meet for the Monon Bell Classic . Wabash and DePauw compete annually to win the trophy, the Monon Bell, and as of 2015 the two teams have played 122 games in the series with Wabash holding a 60-53-9 advantage.
25-493: The Little Giants currently sponsor 12 varsity teams. Volleyball is the newest sport, having been added for the 2021 season (2020–21 school year); since the NCAC only sponsors volleyball for women, that team plays in the single-sport Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League . In 1884, Wabash played its first game of intercollegiate football when it defeated a team from Butler University on October 25, 4–0. The first intercollegiate game in
50-597: A 23-4 season. They were considered an inexperienced squad (their captains being the only seniors) coming into the season. They did win their opener in Greencastle against rival DePauw in a comeback effort, 63-62. Of the four games they lost, only one was to another Division III school, Hope College , in a thrilling overtime game in Crawfordsville. The other three were to Division I Louisiana Tech and UT San Antonio and Division II Texas A&I . The team finished
75-602: A CVC division, wished to create a more geographically compact league. The two groups agreed that the CVC's eastern teams would retain the CVC name and branding. Since the CVC retained six members, that group also retained its automatic berth in the Division III national championship . It was also agreed that two Midwestern schools that were adding the sport for 2014–15 (2015 season) and had been announced as incoming CVC members, Benedictine University and Loras College , would instead join
100-458: A result, the MCVL initially dropped to nine members for the 2018 season. Before that season, the MCVL returned to 10 members with the addition of Augustana College of Illinois, which was set to begin sponsoring varsity men's volleyball in the 2018 season. Augustana had intended to begin varsity play as an independent with a view toward eventually gaining MCVL membership, but was immediately accepted into
125-503: A season record of 21–3, winning all three tournament games in convincing fashion. They were coached by Robert E. "Pete" Vaughan and their players were Fred Adam, Paul Schanlaub, Lon Goldsberry, John Burns, and Clyde Grater. Wabash also won the 1982 NCAA Division III championship. Coached by Mac Petty (whose name now adorns the Chadwick Court floor) and captained by Mike Holcomb and future NFL star Pete Metzelaars , rolled their way to
150-603: A sport before a national championship tournament can be officially sanctioned. The main impetus for growth in Division III volleyball had been an unofficial D-III championship tournament known as the Molten Invitational , started in 1997. In 2010, the required number of programs was reached, leading to the creation of the D-III championship. The Division III championship began in 2012 with nine teams and has steadily expanded with
175-581: Is the calendar year before the first season of competition. NCAA Division III men%27s volleyball tournament The NCAA Division III men's volleyball tournament is a championship event officially sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the main governing body for U.S. college sports . Open only to schools in Division III of the NCAA, a group of schools that are not allowed to award athletic scholarships ,
200-536: The Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), plus 2015 arrival Marian—announced that it would begin sponsoring men's volleyball in the 2018 season. This followed previous announcements that NACC members Aurora University and Concordia University Wisconsin would launch varsity men's volleyball in that season, giving the NACC seven men's volleyball schools and an automatic berth in the Division III national championship. As
225-525: The University of Mount Union , which had spent its inaugural men's volleyball season of 2019 as an independent, for the 2020 season. Three schools became members in advance of the 2021 season. Wittenberg returned to the MCVL after a two-year absence, and the league added the new varsity programs of Baldwin Wallace University and Wabash College . The league's most recent expansion took place after
250-486: The 2020 season. Augustana, Carthage, Greenville, Loras, and North Central, along with new programs at North Park and Millikin, began CCIW conference play in 2020. Greenville and Loras were accepted into the CCIW as associate members. This temporarily left the MCVL in danger of eventually losing its automatic bid to the NCAA championship, but the league restored its membership to the six needed to maintain its automatic bid by adding
275-504: The 2023 season with the arrival of Calvin University , which started a new varsity men's volleyball program. When the MCVL announced Calvin's arrival, it announced a two-year moratorium on the addition of any further members. Fontbonne announced in March 2024 that it would close after the 2024–25 school year, and later announced it would not field a men's volleyball team in the 2025 season. With
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#1732901791706300-408: The addition of another new program at Calvin. The impending closure of Fontbonne dropped the membership to nine members for 2025, and the addition of Spalding will again return the membership to 10 in 2026. All current, former, and future conference members are private institutions. The conference formed Eastern and Western Divisions for the 2017 season, but reverted to a single-table format following
325-527: The championship was established in 2012. The tournament would be followed as the newest NCAA championship event by a single all-divisions championship in women's beach volleyball which began in 2016. The idea of a Division III championship was first floated by several figures in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association in the late 1980s, but was long dormant because of NCAA participation rules—50 schools must sponsor
350-456: The conference membership remain at 10, with one departing member replaced by a new school. After the 2019 season five teams left and Mount Union was added, dropping the league to six members for the 2020 season. The league returned to nine members for the 2021 season with the return of Wittenberg and the addition of new programs at Baldwin Wallace and Wabash, and returned to 10 for the 2024 season with
375-404: The departure of Fontbonne, and the moratorium on new members set to expire after the 2025 season, the MCVL announced that Spalding University would join the conference for the school's first season of varsity men's volleyball in 2026. The league was founded with eight members. Six joined for the 2016 season, five left after the 2017 season, and one joined for the 2018 season. The 2019 season saw
400-409: The departure of the five NACC members. Note that because NCAA men's volleyball is a spring sport, the year of joining is the calendar year before the first year of competition, and the year of departure for former members coincides with the final season of MCVL competition. School names and nicknames reflect those used in the final season of MCVL membership. As noted previously, the year of joining
425-479: The growth of D-III men's volleyball. The most recent expansion came for the 2019 season, with the field going from 12 to 14 teams. This differs from the top-level NCAA Men's National Collegiate Volleyball Championship , which involved four teams through the 2013 tournament and expanded to six teams for 2014 and seven for 2018. Like the National Collegiate Championship, the Division III championship
450-563: The league. After the 2018 season, the MCVL lost one member and gained another. Wittenberg left to become a single-sport affiliate in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference , while Trine University resurrected a varsity program that last played in 2002 and joined the MCVL. The MCVL lost half of its 2019 membership when the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) added men's volleyball for
475-525: The new Midwestern league. The next month, the new league was unveiled as the MCVL. In September 2014, two Illinois schools that were adding volleyball in the 2015–16 school year (2016 season), Greenville College (now Greenville University) and North Central College , were accepted as the league's 9th and 10th members. Three months later, four additional schools— Adrian College , Marian University of Wisconsin, Olivet College , and Wittenberg University —were announced as new members for 2015–16. The MCVL
500-406: The season against Hope, winning 82-70. The next two games did not come so easily, squeezing out a 54-51 win against Augustana and sweating out a 68-64 win against Stanislaus State . Wabash then faced defending champion Potsdam State . The champs had no answer for Metzelaars, however, as he poured in 45 points en route to an 83-62 victory. It was the largest margin of victory in the championship at
525-569: The state took place on May 31, between Butler and DePauw University . From the 1890s to the 1910s, the Wabash football team played schedules against many much larger colleges, such as Illinois , Indiana and Purdue , against whom the Little Giants occasionally won impressive upsets. For instance Wabash won all five games against Purdue between 1906 and 1911. Wabash College began varsity intercollegiate competition in men's basketball in 1897. Wabash
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#1732901791706550-540: The time. Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League The Midwest Collegiate Volleyball League (MCVL) is an intercollegiate men's volleyball conference associated with the NCAA 's Division III . The MCVL was founded in March 2014 by an amicable split of the Continental Volleyball Conference (CVC), which itself had only been created in 2011. The CVC's six Midwestern schools, which had previously formed
575-507: The year on a 19-game winning streak. Along the way, they broke Rose-Hulman's 12-game win streak, defeating the Engineers 100-51. The team received their NCAA bid the next day. They closed the regular season defeating DePauw by 10 in Crawfordsville. In the regional tournament, Wabash first met Ohio Northern and rode Metzelaars' 30 point effort to an easy 81-61 win. Next up, the Little Giants were able to avenge their only Division III loss of
600-511: Was not eligible for an automatic berth in the Division III national championship in its first two seasons (2015 and 2016); during that time, its teams were eligible for at-large berths. In January 2017, the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC), the all-sports home of five MCVL members—charter members Benedictine, Dominican University of Illinois, Lakeland College of Wisconsin (now Lakeland University) and
625-473: Was retroactively recognized as the pre- NCAA Tournament national champion for the 1905–06 and 1907–08 seasons by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll . The 1922 National Intercollegiate Basketball Tournament was the first national championship tournament ever held in intercollegiate basketball. The 1921–22 Wabash College team won the championship game, 43–23, over Kalamazoo College . Wabash finished with
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