The
North Star Conference or NSC was a women's conference in the
NCAA. The conference existed from the 1983–84 school year through the 1991–92 school year. Originally announced in 1983, the conference was formed by charter members
Butler,
Dayton,
DePaul,
Detroit,
Evansville,
Loyola (Chicago),
Notre Dame, and
Xavier. Although the conference was to offer competition in cross country, softball, swimming, tennis, and volleyball, the conference was created primarily as a basketball conference. With the exception of Butler and Dayton, all charter members' women's basketball teams were already competing at the NCAA Division I level; Butler and Dayton upgraded their teams from NCAA Division II and commenced competition in the conference's second season. The conference was effectively absorbed by the Mid-Continent Conference (now known as
The Summit League), as six of its final seven members moved their women's sports to that organization (the remaining member, Akron, moved all its sports for both sexes to the
Mid-American Conference).