# List of defunct men's college basketball conferences in the United States

This is a list of defunct National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men's college basketball conferences in the United States. The NCAA is divided into three divisions, based on school size and enrollment. Each division is made up of several conferences for regional league play. Over time, these conferences will disband due to lack of teams, joining of their teams to other conferences, lack of budget, merging to another conference, stopped sponsoring basketball or simply a command from the NCAA.
College basketball was started in 1895 with its first ever game between Hamline and Minnesota. It was later developed in 1896 with its first game in a five player format with Chicago against Iowa. Almost all schools are independent at that time until since the formation of the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (now NCAA) in 1906. But even before the development, conferences began to form, such as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives (now Big Ten Conference) in 1896 which is the oldest active conference in the NCAA, and the Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League formed in 1901, which was folded into the Ivy League in 1955.
As of July 2019, there are 30 defunct conferences in total: 20 conferences in Division I, six in Division II and four in Division III. The defunct conference that was active for the shortest period is the Northern California Conference, formed in 1937 and ended in 1939; the longest-lived defunct conference is the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC), which has a span of 89 years (1924 to 2013). The most recent conference to dissolve is the Division II Heartland Conference, which disbanded at the end of the 2018–19 school year, with seven of its nine members joining the Lone Star Conference and the other two moving to the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association.

## Division I

| Conference | Founded | Dissolved | Members |
| American South Conference | 1987 | 1991 | 7 |
| American West Conference | 1993 | 1996 | 4 |
| Big Eight Conference | 1907 | 1996 | 8 |
| Border Intercollegiate Athletic Association | 1931 | 1962 | 6 |
| East Coast Conference | 1958 | 1994 | 6 |
| Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League | 1901 | 1955 | 8 |
| Eastern Intercollegiate Conference | 1932 | 1939 | 6 |
| Great Midwest Conference | 1991 | 1995 | 7 |
| Great West Conference | 2004 | 2013 | 5 |
| Gulf Star Conference | 1984 | 1987 | 6 |
| Middle Atlantic States Conference North | 1946 | 1949 | 6 |
| Metropolitan Collegiate Conference | 1965 | 1969 | 10 |
| Metro Conference | 1975 | 1995 | 7 |
| Metropolitan New York Conference | 1933 | 1963 | 11 |
| Middle Three Conference | 1943 | 1952 | 3 |
| New Jersey-New York 7 Conference | 1976 | 1979 | 7 |
| Northern California Conference | 1937 | 1939 | 5 |
| Pacific Coast Conference | 1915 | 1959 | 9 |
| Southwest Conference | 1914 | 1996 | 8 |
| Western New York Little Three Conference | 1946 | 1958 | 3 |

### Notes

* ↑ The American West Conference began as a football-only league in 1993 with five teams. Charter member UC Davis left after that season, leaving only four teams when it began sponsoring basketball in 1994.
* ↑ The Big Eight Conference started basketball in 1928.
* ↑ The East Coast Conference started basketball in 1974.
* ↑ The Great West Conference, originally a football-only league, began sponsoring basketball in 2009.
* ↑ The Metropolitan New York Conference started basketball in 1943.

## Division II

| Conference | Founded | Dissolved | Members |
| Heartland Conference | 1999 | 2019 | 9 |
| Indiana Collegiate Conference | 1951 | 1979 | 8 |
| Indiana Intercollegiate Conference | 1922 | 1950 | 7 |
| Mason-Dixon Conference | 1940 | 1974 | 10* |
| North Central Conference | 1922 | 2008 | 8 |
| West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference | 1924 | 2013 | 15 |

## Division III

| Conference | Founded | Dissolved | Members |
| Lake Michigan Conference | 1974 | 2006 | 8 |
| Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference | 1969 | 2006 | 6 |
| Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association | 1976 | 1996 | 9 |
| Wisconsin State University Conference | 1913 | 1997 | 8 |