[1] On July 7, 1978, at a meeting in Louisville hosted by Bellarmine, these six schools formed the GLVC, with the intention of competing in the 1978–79 season.

While the origins of the conference's name are lost to history, its initial footprint was bordered by the Great Lakes in the north and the Ohio Valley in the south.

[1] Though conceived as a men's basketball league, the GLVC from the start planned to sponsor championships in golf, tennis, baseball, cross country, and track & field.

[2] The conference crowned golf and tennis champions in 1978-79 and added cross country and baseball the following year.

Within two years, the conference added women's championships in basketball, tennis, cross country, volleyball, and softball.

The GLVC reached sixteen members with the admission of William Jewell College, which began competing in fall 2011.

A GLVC team played in the championship game of the NCAA Division II men's basketball tournament in eleven consecutive seasons (1993-94 through 2003–4).

The admission of William Jewell, approved in October 2009, gave the conference six football-playing members (along with Indianapolis, Kentucky Wesleyan, St. Joseph's, Quincy, and Missouri S&T), the minimum number needed to sponsor the sport.

Though they competed in the GLVC for just one year, Central State and Urbana eventually were followed by a dozen other schools admitted to the league as associates in one or more sports while maintaining full membership elsewhere.

[14] The partnership lasted for three seasons, after which the GLVC and GSC-PBC each had enough lacrosse-playing members to offer separate championships in the sport.

[15] One year later, Wisconsin–Parkside left the GLVC to join the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC).

[19] In 2019 the GLVC and G-MAC established the annual America's Crossroads Bowl in Hobart, Indiana, featuring their highest-ranking football teams not qualifying for the NCAA Division II playoffs.

[20] In women's lacrosse, the initial lineup in spring 2020 consisted of seven full members—regional powers Lindenwood and Indianapolis, along with Lewis, Maryville, McKendree, Quincy, and Rockhurst.

In March 2020, GLVC winter and spring sport competitions ended when the NCAA suspended play due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The most recent departures from the GLVC came at the end of the 2021–22 academic year, when charter member Southern Indiana joined Lindenwood in moving to Division I and the Ohio Valley Conference,[22][23] temporarily reducing the league to thirteen schools.

In July 2024, the GLVC announced that it would begin sponsoring men's volleyball in the 2026 season (2025–26 academic year), with an initial lineup consisting of full members Maryville, Missouri S&T, Quincy, Rockhurst, and Southwest Baptist, plus associate members Roosevelt University and Thomas More University.

[26] In January 2025, the GLVC announced that it would begin sponsoring STUNT, also in the 2026 season (2025–26 academic year), with an initial lineup consisting of full members Maryville, Quincy, Southwest Baptist, Drury, and Lewis, plus associate member East Stroudsburg University.

That sport competed in Blue and Green divisions (named for the conference's colors) until 2004, when it returned to a single table.

For schools that play only spring sports (such as women's lacrosse) in the GLVC, the calendar year of arrival precedes the first season of competition.

For schools that play only spring sports (such as men's volleyball) in the GLVC, the calendar year of arrival precedes the first season of competition.

The remaining current emerging sports (acrobatics & tumbling, equestrian, and rugby) are not sponsored by GLVC members.

Other examples are sprint football, a weight-restricted variant of American football, sponsored by Quincy, and the men's and women's ice hockey teams of McKendree and Maryville, which compete at the club level in the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA).