-- Portions of this press release are compliments of the Landmark Conference 

SELINSGROVE, PA (February 10, 2022) -- The Landmark Conference announced Wednesday that it will welcome two new institutions to its membership, beginning in the summer of 2023, as the Landmark's Executive Board confirmed the acceptance of Lycoming College and Wilkes University as the league's ninth and 10th full-time members. 

The Landmark Presidents Council also unanimously voted to add football as a conference-sponsored sport beginning with the Fall 2023 season. The additions of Lycoming and Wilkes brings the total of Landmark football-playing institutions to six as they join Catholic University, Juniata College, Moravian University, and Susquehanna University on the gridiron. Football increases the Landmark's NCAA sport offerings to 23, and marks the first new sport offered by the conference since the league added Women's Golf in 2018. Susquehanna University will stay members of the Centennial Conference through the 2022 season, finishing a 12-year tenure as affiliate members of the league before joining the Landmark Conference in 2023.

"We are pleased to welcome Wilkes and Lycoming into the Landmark Conference, and we are excited to help build a new football conference," said Susquehanna President Jonathan D. Green. "We remain grateful to the Centennial Conference for their gracious inclusion of Susquehanna as an affiliate football member for many years, and we look forward to continuing to play members of that conference in the future."

"Today's announcement of the decision by the Presidents Council to sponsor football with the addition of Wilkes and Lycoming to the Landmark was an important moment for the long-term future of the conference," said SU Director of Athletics Sharief Hashim. "We are proud to have been an affiliate member of the Centennial Conference and the history that surrounds it over the last 11 seasons and look forward to forging ahead in 2023." 

"We look forward to competing in the Centennial Conference this upcoming fall for our final season and will miss the relationships we have built with those schools since 2010," said head football coach Tom Perkovich. "Personally, I have coached in the conference all but one year since 2003 so this will be a big change. We look forward to the challenge given to us by the Presidents Council and are excited to build a strong and competitive non-conference schedule in 2023." 

The River Hawks have gone 50-49 in the Centennial Conference for football over the 10 seasons as members, as the 2020 season was canceled due to CoVID-19. Susquehanna has won six or more conference games within the Centennial the last four seasons, and has earned a 4-0 record in the Centennial-MAC Bowl series. 

The introduction of Lycoming and Wilkes to the league concludes a thorough strategic membership process undertaken by the Landmark's executive leadership team that began in February 2020. The conference office, in conjunction with institutional Presidents, Athletic Direct Reports, and Athletic Directors explored new affiliations for the conference while considering academic data, institutional resources, varsity sports offerings, and geography. After thorough consideration and benchmarking, Lycoming and Wilkes distinguished themselves as ideal candidates to join the Landmark Conference. 

Lycoming (Williamsport, Pa.) and Wilkes (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.) join member-institutions Catholic (Washington, D.C.), Drew University (Madison, N.J.), Elizabethtown College (Elizabethtown, Pa.), Goucher College (Baltimore, Md.), Juniata College (Huntingdon, Pa.), Moravian University (Bethlehem, Pa.), the University of Scranton (Scranton, Pa.), and Susquehanna University (Selinsgrove, Pa.). 

"This is an exciting time for the Landmark Conference, and I am excited to lead such a strong group of institutions through this historic change," stated Landmark Conference Commissioner, Katie Boldvich. "The additions of Lycoming College and Wilkes University builds on the already strong Landmark brand while also creating new competitive opportunities and strategic goals for the league. I look forward to working with both institutions during their transition and look forward to building strong relationships with their institutional leadership, athletic department staff, coaches, and student-athletes alike." 

This expansion marks only the third change to conference membership in the past 15 years. Lycoming and Wilkes will be the second full-time additions to the league's membership in the past eight years, with Elizabethtown coming as the other addition in 2014. 

During the conference's strategic membership exercise, conference leadership explored several academic demographics including; acceptance rates, retention, overall graduation rates, endowment, and other key academic categories. When comparing Lycoming and Wilkes to the current makeup of the conference in these key areas, it was clear their institutions shared the same vision of the current eight Landmark member institutions. 

The coming weeks and months will offer an opportunity for the conference and its current and incoming member institutions to assess necessary logistical changes to conference operations such as future schedules, postseason tournament formats, student-athlete, and team award recognition and more. The Landmark will host a membership focused Symposium this spring to afford an opportunity for administrators, support staff and coaches to come together in-person and to share ideas and discuss these forthcoming changes.   

Members of the Landmark Conference share a focus on institutional excellence through the emphasis of their academic missions and a belief that athletics competition is an important component of the undergraduate experience. Intercollegiate athletic programs are maintained with a perspective that holds paramount the academic programs of the institution and the academic and personal growth of the student-athlete. For more information on the Landmark visit: www.landmarkconference.org.