Taylor will see a new opponent in the Crossroads League starting next season, as the Manchester Spartans are set to move to the CL and the NAIA level starting in the 2027-28 school year.
Manchester University, a private liberal arts university in North Manchester, Ind., currently participates at the NCAA Division III level in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference. The school sponsors 21 collegiate sports.
The addition of Manchester now gives the CL 11 members in its fold, joining Taylor, Grace College, Huntington University, Indiana Wesleyan University, Bethel University, Goshen College, Marian University, University of Saint Francis, Spring Arbor University and Mount Vernon Nazarene University.
“Manchester is a very strong contender,” CL Commissioner Larry DeSimpelare said. “I think (the addition to the conference) makes us good partners with the NAIA.”
DeSimpelare said the move into the conference is a good fit geographically for the school. Eight of the current ten schools are located in Indiana, with Spring Arbor in Michigan and Mt. Vernon Nazarene in Ohio.
Another main reason why the move fits is due to the faith background of Manchester. Every school in the CL must have a faith-based affiliation, something that the conference has valued very highly since its inception.
Manchester has affiliated with the Church of the Brethren since the school’s inception. They are looking to strengthen that affiliation across the entire university during the transition into the CL. DeSimpelare said Manchester’s president Stacy Young has been instrumental in the desire to bring Manchester back to their faith-based roots.
The process took about three months before the council of presidents unanimously voted Manchester into the league. DeSimpelare said the conference had been discussing the idea of expansion for the last ten years.
Natalie Young, associate director of intercollegiate athletics at Taylor, expressed excitement about the addition of another faith-based institution that the Trojans get to compete with.
“For us it means another faith-based school that we get to work with,” Young said. “New people to get to meet and people who are also on mission of what we’re doing at Taylor.”
She added she’s excited that the league is one step closer to potentially sponsoring football as a sport. Manchester joins Taylor, Indiana Wesleyan, Marian and St. Francis as schools in the CL that have football teams, all of which play in the Mid-States Football Association. Manchester has not announced what conference the school will play football in.
DeSimpelare said the conference would love to someday sponsor football, but needs more members in the league that have football programs before that would be able to happen.
This is the first expansion of the CL since 2010, when Mt. Vernon Nazarene joined the then-called Mid-Central College Conference.
