The North Central Conference has prided itself on the success of its student-athletes on and off of the field-of-play. In the 57 years since the North Central Conference joined the NCAA, NCC member schools have brought home 43 NCAA Division II national team championships and over 300 individual national titles. NCC student-athletes have also earned more than 350 ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-America honors and 170 NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarships.

      The NCC, comprised of seven institutions in North Dakota, Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska, has had 12 national team champions in the past 7 years. The tradition of success is especially strong in women's basketball where NCC schools have claimed nine national championships, all in the last 16 seasons. An NCC team also reached the championship game in 11 straight seasons from 1991-2001. The conference was formed at a meeting in the fall of 1921 and the first conference championship was the track & field championship held in the spring of 1922 in Brookings, S.D.

      The North Central Conference awards championships in 20 sports. The 10 men's NCC sports are: baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, indoor track, outdoor track, swimming, tennis and wrestling. The 10 women's sports are: basketball, cross country, golf, indoor track, outdoor track, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis and volleyball.

      Each spring the conference awards an all-sport champion trophy for men and women and began a North Central Conference Cup during the 2003-04 season, which combines the points from the men's and women's all-sports awards. North Dakota and Minnesota State tied for the 2005-06 NCC Cup while the Mavericks also captured the men's award. Nebraska-Omaha captured the women's award.

      The North Central Conference honors one male and one female student each year with the NCC Scholar-Athlete Award, which strives to honor the top senior student-athlete in the conference. For the 2005-06 academic year, St. Cloud State's Ryan Koch was the recipient of the award for the men's sports, while Minnesota-Duluth's Lindsey Dietz was the women's sports honoree.

      Roger Thomas was named the NCC's sixth full-time Commissioner in January of 2005. Melanie Nelson, Associate Commissioner, joined the conference office in the spring of 1992 and Jon J. Martin, now Assistant Commissioner was named the first Director of Media Relations in July 1998.  Colin Kapitan is the coordinator of officials for both football and basketball.