Valparaiso Beacons
The Valparaiso Beacons is the name of the athletic teams from Valparaiso University – often referred to as Valpo – in Valparaiso, Indiana, United States. The Beacons compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level and are members of the Missouri Valley Conference in all sports except football, bowling, and men's swimming.
| Valparaiso Beacons | |
|---|---|
| University | Valparaiso University |
| Conference | MVC (primary) Pioneer Football League (football) C-USA (women's bowling) MAC (men's swimming) |
| NCAA | Division I (FCS) |
| Athletic director | Charles Small |
| Location | Valparaiso, Indiana |
| Varsity teams | 19 |
| Football stadium | Brown Field |
| Basketball arena | Athletics–Recreation Center |
| Baseball stadium | Emory G. Bauer Field |
| Soccer stadium | Brown Field |
| Mascot | Beacon (Golden Retriever) & Blaze (Chocolate Labrador Retriever) |
| Nickname | Beacons |
| Colors | Brown and gold |
| Website | www |
On May 8, 2017, the Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) extended an invitation to Valparaiso to join the conference effective July 1, 2017. Valparaiso accepted the invitation on May 25. The men's teams in swimming and tennis moved to the Summit League when Valparaiso joined the MVC. The Valparaiso football team remains in the Pioneer Football League, and the bowling team remained in the Southland Bowling League (SBL) until that league agreed to merge into Conference USA (C-USA) after the 2022–23 bowling season.
On November 20, 2019, Valpo announced that the men's soccer and tennis teams would be eliminated to allow greater attention to the school's other sports teams. Men's swimming moved to the Mid-American Conference in 2021. Valparaiso became a C-USA bowling associate after that league absorbed the SBL.
Formerly named the Crusaders, the university dropped that name and associated mascot and logos in 2021, because of the "negative connotation and violence associated with the Crusader imagery", specifically its appropriation by hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan.