Northeast Conference

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 except football, which competes in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA). Participating schools are located in the Northeastern United States.

Contents

• 2016 nec baseball tournament g6 bryant wins northeast conference championship
• Membership timeline
• Sports Sponsored
• NEC Rivalries
• Brenda Weare Commissioners Cup
• References

The conference was named the ECAC Metro Conference when it was established in 1981. The original eleven member schools were Fairleigh Dickinson University, Long Island University, Loyola College in Maryland (left in 1989), Marist College (left in 1997), Robert Morris University, St. Francis College (N.Y.), St. 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 expanded seven 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), 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) and 2008 (Bryant University). The Northeast Conference's ranks was largest at 12 in 2008 with the addition of Bryant University, but dropped to 10 in 2013 with the departure of Monmouth and Quinnipiac for the MAAC.

The Northeast Conference has a total of 10 full members in 22 championship sports: baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, women’s bowling, men’s and women’s cross country, 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, women’s swimming, men’s and women’s tennis, and women’s volleyball. Currently the conference is seeking to expand with the possible addition of Delaware State University and New Jersey Institute of Technology.

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.

There are also seven affiliate members which compete in football, men's lacrosse, and women's bowling.