New England Small College Athletic Conference

Members

Colleges in the New England Small College Athletic Conference have some of the largest liberal arts financial endowments in the world, which allows the colleges to provide many resources for their academic programs and research endeavors. As of 2016, Williams College has an endowment of $2.3 billion. Additionally, each college receives millions of dollars in research grants and other subsidies from federal and state governments.

Pre-NESCAC

Williams began its inaugural football season in 1881 and its rivalry with Amherst College is one of the longest at any level of college football. Bates and Bowdoin have competed against each other athletically since the 1870s and subsequently share one of the ten oldest NCAA Division III football rivalries, in the United States, there is a long history of athletic competition between the two colleges and Colby. Colby began its now most notable hockey rivalry, with Bowdoin in 1922.

In 1899, Amherst, Wesleyan and Williams schools first began to compete together as the "Triangular League". Since then they have continued to play each other in most sports on a regular basis.

History of the athletic league

The conference originated with an agreement among Amherst, Bowdoin, Wesleyan and Williams in 1955. In 1971, Bates, Colby, Hamilton, Middlebury, Trinity, Tufts, and Union College joined on and the NESCAC was officially formed. Union withdrew in 1977, and was replaced by Connecticut College in 1982. The schools share a similar philosophy for intercollegiate athletics. The Conference was created out of a concern for the direction of intercollegiate athletic programs and remains committed to keeping a proper perspective on the role of sport in higher education.

Member institutions believe athletic teams should be representative of school's entire student bodies and hew to NCAA Division III admissions and financial policies prohibiting athletic scholarships while awarding financial aid solely on the basis of need. Due to the prestigious reputations of its member schools, the NESCAC is able to attract many of the most athletically and intellectually gifted student-athletes in the country. Members stress that intercollegiate athletic programs should operate in harmony with the educational mission of each institution. Schools are committed to maintaining common boundaries to keep athletics strong yet in proportion to their overall academic mission. Presidents of each NESCAC institution control intercollegiate athletic policy. Conference tenets are usually more restrictive than those of the NCAA Division III regarding season length, number of contests and post-season competition.

School rivalries

Many of the schools in the New England Small College Athletic Conference participate in inter-school rivalries.

Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium

Bates and Bowdoin have competed against each other athletically since the 1870s and subsequently share one of the ten oldest NCAA Division III football rivalries, in the United States. In the 1940s, Colby began competing and subsequently went on to form the consortium in the 1960s, after the University of Maine moved to Division I athletics. The official athletic competition started in the 1965, when Colby joined Bates and Bowdoin in their more structured football games and created the Colby-Bates-Bowdoin Consortium (CBB). As an aside, the three Maine schools cooperate in other ways, having joined together to form Maine Public Broadcasting and its flagship station, WCBB-TV.

Little Three

Amherst, Wesleyan and Williams have also competed with each other since their inception and have gone on to unofficially create an athletic conference, the "Little Three". Although meant to draw the parallel between the Big Three of the Ivy League, there is no connection between the established athletic conference with Amherst, Wesleyan, and Williams.

Geographic distribution

Most applicants to schools in the NESCAC come from the Northeast, largely from the New York City, Boston, and Philadelphia areas. As all NESCAC schools are located on the East Coast, and all but one are in New England, most graduates end up working and residing in the Northeast after graduation.

Academics and financial aid

Many schools in the New England Small College Athletic Conference are known for low grade inflation and rigorous academic standards. The practice was often contrasted with the Ivy League schools with respect to uncovered grade inflation. Some members have received limited media coverage over perceived grade inflation. The colleges are known for a range of high and relatively low tuition rates and compressive fees, some of the colleges have been named the most expensive in the United States.

Fashion and lifestyle

Preppy styles are often associated with the NESCAC and its culture. The athletic conference is often associated with the upper class White Anglo-Saxon Protestant community of the Northeast, Old Money, or more generally, the American upper middle and upper classes. However, all schools have made institutional efforts to diversify student body, and attract and wide range of students to their institutions. Many schools in the NESCAC provide significant financial aid to help increase the enrollment of lower income and middle class students.

Some typical preppy styles also reflect traditional upper class New England leisure activities, such as equestrian, sailing or yachting, hunting, fencing, rowing, lacrosse, tennis, squash, golf, and rugby. Longtime New England and Canadian outdoor outfitters, such as L.L. Bean, Patagonia, Canada Goose, Ralph Lauren, Brooks Brothers, and Vineyard Vines have become part of conventional NESCAC style. This can be seen in sport stripes and colors, equestrian clothing, plaid shirts, field jackets and nautical-themed accessories worn by the students of the NESCAC.

Socioeconomics and social class

Many colleges banned fraternities and sororities on the grounds of unwarranted exclusivity, and provided on-campus social houses for all students to engage with. Williams College displaced their fraternity system in the 1960s due to high levels of racial and religious discrimination. President Chandler said, "there remained the system of blackballing and secret agreements between some fraternities and their national bodies to exclude blacks and Jews... it was essentially a caste system based on socioeconomic status as perceived by students." Bates rejected the fraternity system in 1855, when it was founded. Colby disbanded its fraternities and sororities in 1984. At Bowdoin, fraternities were phased out in 2000. Colleges in the New England Small College Athletic Conference, are widely known for a prominent drinking culture.

U.S. Presidents and the NESCAC

Schools in the New England Small College Athletic Conference have graduated four U.S. Presidents as of 2016. The first president to graduate from the athletic conference was Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the U.S., a Bowdoin graduate of 1856. The 20th President of the U.S., James A. Garfield graduated from Williams College in 1888. The third U.S. President to graduate from a NESCAC was Calvin Coolidge, who graduated from Amherst College in 1895.

Note: Union College joined the NESCAC in 1971, but left in 1977, and was replaced by Connecticut College in 1982. Union graduated Chester A. Arthur, the 21st U.S. President in 1849.

Football scheduling

Due to the fact that there are 10 football-playing schools in the NESCAC, but only 8 regular season games, NESCAC football teams rotate their opening opponents on a two-year cycle.

Four NESCAC institutions are among the 39 that founded the NCAA in 1905: Amherst, Tufts, Wesleyan, and Williams. Prior to 1993 NESCAC generally did not allow member schools to send teams to NCAA championships. Since then all sports except football have had this freedom, many excelling in the NCAA Division III championships. The NACDA Directors' Cup, awarded since 1996 to the college or university in each NCAA Division that wins the most college championships, has been claimed at the Division III level by a NESCAC institution every year except 1998. In the 2012–13 season, four of the top ten NACDA Director's Cup institutions were from NESCAC: Williams (1), Middlebury (3), Amherst (6), and Tufts (8). In addition to the ban on post-season play, the NESCAC football league is notable for member teams playing conference games only. While some Division II and Division III teams play only conference schedules, NESCAC is unique in all of its members playing only within conference games.

Athletic spending

The U. S. Department of Education publishes statistics on athletic spending by colleges. In 2013–14, athletic spending by NESCAC schools was as follows:

Note: Nine (out of the eleven) NESCAC schools rank in the top 25 Division III for total athletic spending. With the exception of Connecticut College, all NESCAC schools rank in the top 10% of Division III for # of varsity athletes. Connecticut College athletic spending and # of varsity athletes are lowest because it does not have a football team. Tufts per-student athletic spending is low because it has nearly double the undergraduate population (5,100) of its nearest NESCAC rival (Wesleyan, with 2,800), and it has not emphasized athletic spending.