The NWC was formed in 1926, making it one of the oldest continuously existing athletics conferences in the western United States. For 60 years, the Northwest Conference sponsored sports exclusively for men, but in 1984 it joined with the Women's Conference of Independent Colleges to become the Northwest Conference of Independent Colleges, shortening the name to its current moniker in 1996 when it joined the NCAA.
The College of Idaho reinstated its football program in 2014 after a 37-year hiatus[1] and joined the Frontier Conference for football. C of I is now a member of the NAIA's Cascade Collegiate Conference for other sports. Whitworth left the NWC in 1984 but returned in 1988. George Fox University and Seattle University joined the conference in 1997. Seattle dropped out again in 1999 to become members of NCAA Division II.[2]Menlo College joined the conference in 2005 as a football-only member.
1931 - Albany College (now Lewis & Clark College) joined the PNWC, effective in the 1931-32 academic year.
1938 - Lewis & Clark left the PNWC, effective after the 1937-38 academic year.
1948 - Puget Sound left the PNWC, effective after the 1947-48 academic year.
1949 - Lewis & Clark re-joined back to the PNWC, effective in the 1949-50 academic year.
1965 - Pacific Lutheran College (now Pacific Lutheran University) joined the PNWC, effective in the 1965-66 academic year.
1970 - Whitworth College (now Whitworth University) joined the PNWC, effective in the 1970-71 academic year.
1978 - The College of Idaho left the PNWC, effective after the 1977-78 academic year.
1984 - Whitworth left the PNWC, effective after the 1983-84 academic year.
1984 - The PNWC merged with the Women's Conference of Independent Colleges (WCIC) to become the Northwest Conference of Independent Colleges (NCIC), therefore adding women's sports in the conference, effective in the 1984-85 academic year.
1988 - Whitworth re-joined back to the NCIC, effective in the 1988-89 academic year.
1995 - George Fox College (now George Fox University) joined the NCIC, effective in the 1995-96 academic year.
1996 - Puget Sound re-joined back to the NCIC, effective in the 1996-97 academic year.
1996 - The NCIC has rebranded its name to become the Northwest Conference (NWC), effective in the 1996-97 academic year.
Each year the NWC awards one of its member institutions the NWC All Sports Trophy. In each sport the Conference Champion is awarded 18 points, second place is awarded 16 points, and so on. The school with the most points at the conclusion of the academic year wins the trophy. Football, women's volleyball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's golf, men's baseball, women's softball, and men's and women's track and field are the 18 sports in which points are awarded.
Most recently, Whitworth won the NWC All Sports Trophy for 2017-18, their twelfth overall and eleventh in a row. Pacific Lutheran has won the award 15 times, more than any other school. Linfield has won the trophy three times while Puget Sound has won it twice.[11]