The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has notified Illinois Tech of the university’s successful completion of Year Three in the Provisional Membership process. Illinois Tech will now move on to the fourth and final year of the provisional phase.

Upon successful completion of Year Four of Provisional Membership, the Scarlet Hawks will become full NCAA Division III members. This also coincides with Illinois Tech’s entrance into the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC), which is set to begin in the 2018–19 school year.

“We can now see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Director of Athletics Joe Hakes, who has guided the Scarlet Hawks through the provisional process. “The shift to DIII policies and procedures takes a while for the institution to grasp. We now have a DIII mindset and believe in the emphasis it places on the student-athletes.”

“We look forward to the memberships in the NCAA and the NACC,” he added. “Those memberships give us direction moving forward.”

Illinois Tech’s successful advancement is the byproduct of a large amount of hard work and collaboration across the university.

“Our staff and the rest of the campus community did a really good job in putting the information together for our Annual Report and our Institutional Self-Study Guide,” said Hakes. “Those two reports were key to the positive feedback from both the Membership Committee and the NCAA Membership Services Staff.”