The Northeast Conference (NEC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Teams in the NEC compete in Division I for all sports; football competes in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Participating schools are located principally in the Northeastern United States, from which the conference derives its name.

History

The conference was named the ECAC Metro Conference when it was established in 1981. The original eleven member schools were Fairleigh Dickinson University, the Brooklyn campus of Long Island University (whose athletic program has now merged with that of LIU's Post campus into a single athletic program), Loyola College in Maryland (left in 1989), Marist College (left in 1997), Robert Morris University (left in 2020), St. Francis College (NY) (left in 2023), Saint Francis College (PA), Siena College (left in 1984), Towson State University (left in 1982), the University of Baltimore (left in 1983) and Wagner College.

The conference's name was changed to its present form on August 1, 1988. Other names considered were Big North, Great North, North Shore, Northern, Northeastern, Eastern and Eastern Private Intercollegiate.

The Northeast Conference has admitted new members ten times since 1981. The expansions and additions from the original charter members were in 1985 (Monmouth University, which left in 2013), 1989 (Mount St. Mary's University, which left in 2022), 1992 (Rider University, which left in 1997), 1997 (Central Connecticut State University), 1998 (Quinnipiac University and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County which respectively left in 2013 and 2003), 1999 (Sacred Heart University, which is leaving in 2024), 2008 (Bryant University, which also left in 2022), 2019 (Merrimack College, which is also leaving in 2024), 2022 (Stonehill College), 2023 (Le Moyne College), and 2024 (Chicago State University and Mercyhurst University). The Northeast Conference's full membership was largest at 12 in 2008 with the addition of Bryant University. It then dropped to 10 in 2013 with the departure of Monmouth and Quinnipiac for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), returned to 11 with the 2019 addition of Merrimack, and again dropped to 10 in 2020 with the departure of Robert Morris for the Horizon League. In 2022, the conference dropped to 9 members with the departure of Bryant and Mount St. Mary's, respectively for the America East Conference and the MAAC, plus the addition of Stonehill. On March 20, 2023, St. Francis Brooklyn announced that all intercollegiate sports would be dropped effective at the end of the 2022-23 season, dropping the NEC down to 8 full members. This was followed on May 10, 2023 by the announcement that Le Moyne College would begin a transition from Division II and join the NEC on July 1.

Additional changes were announced in 2018 and took effect with the 2019–20 school year. First, on September 10, the NEC announced it would add Merrimack. Then, on October 3, Long Island University announced that it would combine its two existing athletic programs—NEC member LIU Brooklyn and the Division II program at LIU Post—into a single Division I program under the LIU name. The new LIU program, nicknamed Sharks, maintains LIU Brooklyn's previous memberships in Division I and the NEC. Another recent change took place on July 1, 2020, when charter member Robert Morris left to join the Horizon League. The next changes in membership were on July 1, 2022, with Bryant leaving for the America East Conference, Mount St. Mary's leaving for the MAAC, and Stonehill arriving from NCAA Division II.

The Northeast Conference has a total of 9 full members in 24 championship sports: baseball, men's and women's basketball, women's bowling, men's and women's cross country, women's field hockey, football, men's and women's golf, men's and women's indoor track & field, women's lacrosse, men's and women's outdoor track & field, men's and women's soccer, softball, men's and women's swimming, men's and women's tennis, and men's and women's volleyball.

Men's lacrosse became the league's 23rd sport for the 2011 season. The number of sports dropped to 22 after the 2012–13 school year, when the conference dropped field hockey. The departure of Monmouth and Quinnipiac to become all-sports members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) in July 2013 gave the MAAC four full members that sponsored the sport; the other two were NEC single-sport affiliates Rider and Siena. The MAAC then decided to add field hockey as a sponsored sport for the 2013 season, and all of the NEC's remaining field hockey programs eventually joined the MAAC except for Saint Francis (PA), which joined the Atlantic 10 Conference. The NEC reinstated field hockey as a sponsored sport for the 2019 season with seven members—full members Bryant, LIU, Merrimack, Sacred Heart, and Wagner, plus associate members Fairfield and Rider. Saint Francis (PA) rejoined the NEC in field hockey during the 2021-22 season. A more recent addition to the NEC's sports roster was men's swimming & diving, added for 2020–21 with full members Bryant, LIU, Mount St. Mary's, St. Francis Brooklyn, and Wagner plus incoming associate member Howard.

In 2022–23, the NEC added one sport and dropped another. On September 30, 2021, the NEC announced that it would begin sponsoring men's volleyball in 2022–23 with six members. Before the end of the 2021–22 school year, the NEC announced that two Division II schools from the Buffalo, New York area, Daemen and D'Youville, would also become part of the new men's volleyball league. In a May 9, 2022 Twitter post, NEC commissioner Noreen Morris indicated that the NEC would shut down its men's lacrosse league after the then-ongoing 2022 season. The NEC had already lost two full members that sponsored the sport, and would eventually lose its two affiliate members in that sport when the Atlantic 10 Conference announced it would launch a men's lacrosse league in the 2023 season. Three of the remaining four NEC men's lacrosse programs became affiliate members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. The other program, Merrimack, was in talks with several lacrosse-sponsoring conferences for affiliate membership, and eventually joined the America East in time for the 2023 season.

In July 2022, the Northeast Conference announced a partnership with the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in which MEAC schools sponsoring baseball and men's and women's golf would become affiliate members in their respective sports beginning in the 2022-23 season. That September, the NEC announced that MEAC member Delaware State, which had just joined NEC baseball and women's golf, would add women's lacrosse and women's soccer to its NEC membership in 2023–24.

In March 2023, St. Francis College (Brooklyn) announced that it would discontinue its athletic programs at the end of the spring 2023 schedule. Le Moyne was announced as SFC's replacement that May.

The NEC added two affiliate members in 2023–24—Binghamton University in men's golf plus men's and women's tennis, and Niagara University in bowling. Niagara added that sport for 2023–24 by effectively absorbing the bowling program of Medaille University, a nearby Division III school that closed at the end of the 2022–23 school year.

In October 2023, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference announced that Merrimack and Sacred Heart would join the conference for the 2024-25 season. This announcement came on the heels of the NEC announcing it would bring back men's lacrosse as a conference sponsored sport for the 2024–25 academic year, after having to discontinue it two years prior due to lack of sponsoring members. The original plan was for full members Le Moyne, LIU, Merrimack, Sacred Heart, and Wagner to be joined by two new associate members, the University of Detroit Mercy and the Virginia Military Institute (VMI). However, the departure of Merrimack and Sacred Heart left the number of men's lacrosse programs in the conference below the 6 member minimum required for an automatic bid to the NCAA Division I men's lacrosse tournament. In response to this, the NEC announced in November 2023 that Cleveland State University as well as former full member Robert Morris would join the league as men's lacrosse associates as well. In November 2023, Robert Morris also announced that it would return to the NEC in football. Shortly after this, Maryland Eastern Shore announced that it would add men's volleyball in the 2026 season (2025–26 school year) as an NEC associate member, increasing the number of its NEC teams to four. It became the first historically African-American Division I member to announce the addition of that sport. In April 2024, Sacred Heart announced it would leave NEC men's volleyball and return to the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, where it had played that sport before the NEC established its own league.

In response to the departure of Merrimack and Sacred Heart, the NEC announced first in December 2023 that D-I independent Chicago State University would join the NEC. A few months later, in April 2024, Mercyhurst University announced it would transition from Division II and join the NEC, bringing the league back to 9 members for the 2024-25 season.

Currently, a total of 13 affiliate members compete in football, women's golf, women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's swimming, women's bowling, and men's volleyball.

Member schools

Full members

Current full members

Notes

Future members

Former full members

Notes

Affiliate members

Current affiliate members

Notes

Future affiliate members

Former affiliate members

Notes

Membership timeline

Full members  Full members (non-football)  Football Affiliate  Affiliate member (other sports)  Other Conference  Other Conference 

Sports

The Northeast Conference currently sponsors championship competition in 11 men's and 13 women's NCAA sanctioned sports. Twelve schools are associate members in 14 of those sports.

The most recent changes to the NEC sports lineup came in 2022 with the addition of men's volleyball and the elimination of men's lacrosse, though men's lacrosse will be reinstated in 2024–25.

Notes

Men's sponsored sports by school

Notes

Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the Northeast Conference which are played by NEC schools:

Notes

Women's sponsored sports by school

Notes

Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Northeast Conference which are played by NEC schools:

In addition to the above, Fairleigh Dickinson and Sacred Heart count their female cheerleaders (but not male cheerleaders) as varsity athletes.

Notes

Basketball champions

Men's basketball champions

† No. 1 seed in NEC tournament

Women's basketball champions

Football champions

NEC Rivalries

Before the 2013 departure of Monmouth and Quinnipiac, the NEC had 6 rivalry matchups in the conference; which is most prevalent during NEC's men's and women's basketball "Rivalry Week." The concept of playing back-to-back games against a local rival the same week is the only one of its kind among the nation's 31 NCAA Division I conferences. The pre-2013 NEC rivalries are as follows (with the current NEC team listed first in the matchups that are now non-conference):

Non-conference

• Constitution State Rivalry: Central Connecticut vs. Sacred Heart (non-conference starting in 2024–25)
• Garden State Rivalry: Fairleigh Dickinson vs. Monmouth (non-conference since 2013–14)
• Governor's Cup: Sacred Heart vs. Quinnipiac (non-conference since 2013–14, MAAC rivalry in 2024–25)
• Keystone Clash: Saint Francis (PA) vs. Robert Morris (non-conference since 2020–21)
• NY–MD Showdown: Wagner vs. Mount St. Mary's (non-conference since 2022–23)

Discontinued

• Battle of Brooklyn: LIU vs. St. Francis Brooklyn (St. Francis Brooklyn dropped athletics after the 2022–23 academic year.)

Brenda Weare Commissioner's Cup

The NEC Commissioner's Cup was instituted during the 1986-87 season with Long Island winning the inaugural award. Cup points are awarded in each NEC sponsored sport. For men's and women's basketball, men's and women's soccer, women's volleyball, football, women's bowling, softball, men's and women's lacrosse, and baseball, the final regular season standings are used to determine Cup points. Starting with the 2012-13 season, the Conference began awarding three bonus points to the NEC Tournament champion in those sports. In all other sports, points are awarded based on the finish at NEC Championship events.

Facilities

Departing members in pink. Future members in gray.

Notes

References

External links

• Official website