Two Division III conferences are entering into what officials of the leagues called a "historic" agreement for their schools to fill out nonconference football schedules by playing each other.

The North Coast Athletic Conference, whose nine football-playing members each schedule three nonconference games annually, and the four football-playing members of the University Athletic Association, who each play seven nonleague games, announced they will schedule 19 games between the leagues' teams in 2008, then play the same matchups on the other team's home field in 2009.

Officials, who suggested the arrangement is unusual in college football and may be unprecedented in Division III, announced the agreement July 28. They said the pact helps institutions in the conferences fill their schedules with games against schools with compatible academic standards and institutional missions.

The scheduling agreement was crafted by NCAC Executive Director Dennis Collins and UAA Executive Secretary Dick Rasmussen, who both said the arrangement helps solve an increasingly difficult problem in scheduling nonconference games as Division III emphasizes conference play as the primary route to qualifying for postseason competition.

"Beyond that, our people are very pleased to be associated with their colleagues at the prestigious UAA universities, many of whom we played over the years, independently," Collins said.

"With the increasing emphasis on conference play over the last several years as a means to automatic qualification for the NCAA championship series, the scheduling of nonconference opponents during the regular season has become more and more of a challenge," said Rasmussen, who added that the agreement provides the conferences' schools "with a consistent and dependable schedule against programs with similar standards and program philosophies."

Officers of the league also lauded the agreement.

"The scheduling agreement between the football-playing members of the University Athletic Association and the North Coast Athletic Conference is both practical and symbolic," said Denison University President Dale Knobel, who currently is serving as NCAC president.

"It helps the UAA members round out a full schedule for their teams with predictability from year to year, and it assists NCAC colleges in filling nonconference dates. As important, it creates an alliance between strong academic institutions which share a commitment to enrolling student-athletes whose participation in sport supports their pursuit of academic excellence and provides avenues of personal challenge and growth."

Knobel's UAA counterpart, Carnegie Mellon University President Jared Cohon, noted that the agreement permits his conference's football programs "to continue to compete against some of the top academic institutions on the NCAA Division III level."

He added, "The new partnership adheres to the UAA belief that it is beneficial to compete with schools of similar academic standing and that academic and athletics excellence are not mutually exclusive."

Collins said that matchups between the two leagues will be scheduled throughout the season, rather than grouped during only its early weeks.

"In this case we integrated the UAA deep into the schedule to make sure they would not have scheduling holes in October where it is nearly impossible to schedule nonconference games," he said. "However, both conferences finish with their conference games the last three weeks of the football season."

The agreement enables the conferences' teams to maintain previously scheduled nonconference games in the 2008 and 2009 schedules -- including such traditional contests as the Monon Bell Game between NCAC member Wabash College and Indiana rival De Pauw University.

"The cooperation and flexibility of our members in putting this agreement together and balancing the competitive and geographic considerations, as well as factors such as maintaining traditional rivalries, has been exceptional," Rasmussen said.

Football-playing members of the two conferences are located on campuses ranging from Pittsburgh in the East to just west of Indianapolis, and from Chicago south to St. Louis. Seven NCAC institutions and one UAA institution are located in Ohio.

The participating NCAC members are Allegheny College, Denison, Hiram College, Kenyon College, Oberlin College, Ohio Wesleyan University, Wabash, Wittenberg University and the College of Wooster. The UAA members are Carnegie Mellon, Case Western Reserve University, the University of Chicago and Washington University of St. Louis.

Officials of the conferences could point to only one other football scheduling agreement of this kind between two leagues -- an arrangement during the 1990s between the Division I-AA Ivy Group and Patriot League.