The organization of the Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference (MCAC) was conceived at a meeting at Coe College on May 12, 1921.

The University of Chicago returned as a football-only member in 2017, and added baseball to its conference membership in the 2019 season (2018–19 school year).

The MWC split into North and South divisions for football, men's and women's tennis, baseball, and softball from 2012 through 2016.

Divisional play ended with the departure of Carroll after the 2015–16 school year,[1] and resumed for football only with the addition of the University of Chicago as an affiliate member for the 2017–18 season.

[3] Every member in the history of the MWC and its predecessor conferences, whether full, affiliate, current, or former, has been a private school.