Established 2009 Division Division III Region Northeast | Association NCAA Members 8 | |
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Sports fielded 1 (football) (men's: 1; women's: 0) | ||
The Eastern Collegiate Football Conference is a football-only intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA’s Division III. Founded in 2009, it combines eight school from various and spread across the states of Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, New York, and Washington D.C.
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History
The Eastern Collegiate Football Conference was formed in the spring of 2009 as an NCAA Division III single-sport football conference. The conference, named after the geographic location of the institutions, began competition in the fall of 2009. Founding members were Anna Maria College, Becker College, Castleton State College (now Castleton University), Gallaudet University, Husson University, SUNY Maritime, Mount Ida College, and Norwich University.
Norwich was the league's first champion, posting a perfect 6-0 conference record and defeating Mt. Ida in the season-ending ECFC Championship Game. In 2010, SUNY Maritime earned the ECFC's first bid to the NCAA Division III Playoffs after a perfect 10-0 regular season record. SUNY Maritime would go on to lose 60-0 to Alfred University in the First Round of the NCAA Playoffs.
2015 Realignment
In April 2015, charter member Norwich announced it would be leaving the ECFC to join the NEWMAC when that conference begins sponsoring football in 2017. In November 2015, Becker announced it would also be leaving the ECFC in 2017 to join the Commonwealth Coast Conference. Becker's departure would have left the ECFC without the minimum 7 teams necessary to maintain the league's automatic bid to the Division III playoffs. But on January 27, 2016, the ECFC announced that Alfred State College and Dean College would be joining the conference for the 2017 season.
Member schools
1 - Alfred State and Dean will be joining the ECFC for the 2017 season.
Champions
NCAA Division III playoff performance
The ECFC is generally regarded as one of the weakest conferences in the country. Throughout its short history, the ECFC is winless in the NCAA Division III playoffs, posting an 0–7 record with its member schools' games decided by an average score of 50–11. Only one of these games has been decided by less than two touchdowns.