The Great Waters Women’s Rugby Conference is the second women's D2 conference to announce that it will join the NSCRO/NCRO organization.

Great Waters follows on with the neighboring Northern Lights Conference. While NSCRO (soon to be renamed NCRO) has added eight men's D2 conferences to its organization, the women's D2 conferences have moved a shade slower. The 15-member Great Waters is a large hyrbid conference that, like the Northern Lights, includes both D2 and Small College teams.

The Great Waters organized as a D2 conference in January 2012 with nine core teams in Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. In 2014 five Chicago area teams joined the conference followed by Michigan Tech in 2018. The Conference has evolved into a mix of ten D2 schools and five NSCRO teams.

The fifteen member schools voted unanimously at the Spring February 2020 Conference AGM to make the move.

DePaul University
Loyola University
Marquette University
Michigan Technological University
Northern Michigan University 
Northwestern University
University of Chicago 
University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Wisconsin Eau Claire
University of Wisconsin La Crosse
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
University of Wisconsin Platteville
University of Wisconsin Stevens Point
University of Wisconsin Stout 
University of Wisconsin Whitewater