The Little East Conference (LEC) is an

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their ...

intercollegiate

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams, playing competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions, with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Conf ...

. The member institutions are located in all six states of

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

History

Chronological timeline

* 1986 - On April 28, 1986, the Little East Conference (LEC) was founded. Charter members included Eastern Connecticut State University, the

University of Massachusetts Boston The University of Massachusetts Boston (stylized as UMass Boston) is a public research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the only public research university in Boston and the third-largest campus in the five-campus University of Massa ...

, Southeastern Massachusetts University (now the University of Massachusetts Darthmouth),

Plymouth State College Plymouth State University (PSU), formerly Plymouth State College, is a public university in the towns of Plymouth and Holderness, New Hampshire. As of fall 2020, Plymouth State University enrolls 4,491 students (3,739 undergraduate students ...

(now Plymouth State University),

Rhode Island College Rhode Island College (RIC) is a public college in Providence, Rhode Island. The college was established in 1854 as the Rhode Island State Normal School, making it the second oldest institution of higher education in Rhode Island after Brown Uni ...

and the

University of Southern Maine The University of Southern Maine (USM) is a public university with campuses in Portland, Gorham and Lewiston in the U.S. state of Maine. It is the southernmost of the University of Maine System. It was founded as two separate state universi ...

; effective beginning the 1986-87 academic year. * 1993 - Western Connecticut State University joined the Little East, effective in the 1993-94 academic year. * 1997 -

Keene State College Keene State College is a public liberal arts college in Keene, New Hampshire. It is part of the University System of New Hampshire and the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. Founded in 1909 as a teacher's college (originally, Keene No ...

joined the Little East, effective in the 1997-98 academic year. * 2000 -

Bridgewater State University Bridgewater State University is a public university with its main campus in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. It is the largest of nine state universities in Massachusetts. Including its off-campus sites in New Bedford, Attleboro, and Cape Cod, BSU h ...

Fitchburg State University Fitchburg State University (Fitchburg State) is a public university in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. It has 3,421 undergraduate and 1,238 graduate/continuing education students, for a total student body enrollment of 4,659. The university offers und ...

, Framingham State University, Salem State University,

Westfield State University Westfield State University (Westfield State) is a public university in Westfield, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1839 by Horace Mann as the first public co-educational college in America without barrier to race, gender, or economic class. ...

and

Worcester State University Worcester State University (WSU) is a public university in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1874 and enrolls nearly 5,500 undergraduates and over 900 graduate students. History Founded in 1874 as the Massachusetts State Normal Sch ...

joined the Little East as associate members for field hockey in fall, while Salem State also joined the Little East as an associate member for men's lacrosse in spring, both effective in the 2000-01 academic year. * 2003 - Salem State added men's tennis into its Little East associate membership, effective in the 2004 spring season (2003-04 academic year). * 2004 - Bridgewater State added men's and women's tennis into its Little East associate membership, while Salem State added women's tennis into its Little East associate membership, both effective the 2005 spring season (2004-05 academic year). * 2009 - Worcester State added women's tennis into its Little East associate membership, while Bridgewater State and Westfield State added women's swimming & diving into their Little East associate memberships, all effective in the 2009-10 academic year. * 2015 - Bridgewater State left the Little East as an associate member for women's swimming & diving, effective after the 2014-15 academic year. * 2018 -

Castleton University Castleton University is a public university in Castleton, Vermont. It has an enrollment of 2000 students and offers more than 30 undergraduate programs, as well as master's degrees in education and accounting. It is accredited by the New England ...

(later Vermont State University) joined the Little East, effective in the 2018-19 academic year. * 2019 -

Western New England University Western New England University is a private university in Springfield, Massachusetts. Academic programs are provided through its College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business, College of Engineering, School of Law, and College of Pharmacy and ...

joined the Little East as an associate member for women's swimming & diving, while Massachusetts Maritime Academy joined the Little East as an associate member for men's lacrosse, both effective in the 2019-20 academic year. * 2022 - The

University of New England University of New England may refer to: * University of New England (Australia), in New South Wales, with about 18,000 students * University of New England (United States), in Biddeford, Maine, with about 3,000 students See also *New England Colle ...

joined the Little East as an associate member for women's swimming & diving, effective in the 2022-23 academic year.

Member schools

Current members

The Little East currently has nine full members, all are

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

schools: ;Notes:

Associate members

The Little East currently has nine associate members, all but two are

schools: ;Notes:

Former associate members

The Little East had one former associate members, which was also a

school:

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1986 till:2026 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<# Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football id:AssocF value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.5,0.691,0.824) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote) id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:FullxF from:1986 till:end text: Eastern Connecticut State (1986–present) bar:2 color:FullxF from:1986 till:end text: Massachusetts–Boston (1986–present) bar:3 color:FullxF from:1986 till:end text: Massachusetts–Dartmouth (1986–present) bar:4 color:FullxF from:1986 till:end text:

Plymouth State Plymouth State University (PSU), formerly Plymouth State College, is a public university in the towns of Plymouth and Holderness, New Hampshire. As of fall 2020, Plymouth State University enrolls 4,491 students (3,739 undergraduate students ...

(1986–present) bar:5 color:FullxF from:1986 till:end text:

(1986–present) bar:6 color:FullxF from:1986 till:end text: Southern Maine (1986–present) bar:7 color:FullxF from:1993 till:end text: Western Connecticut State (1993–present) bar:8 color:FullxF from:1997 till:end text: Keene State (1997–present) bar:9 color:AssocOS from:2000 till:end text: Bridgewater State (2000–present) bar:10 color:AssocOS from:2000 till:end text: Fitchburg State (2000–present) bar:11 color:AssocOS from:2000 till:end text: Framingham State (2000–present) bar:12 color:AssocOS from:2000 till:end text: Salem State (2000–present) bar:13 color:AssocOS from:2000 till:end text:

Westfield State Westfield State University (Westfield State) is a public university in Westfield, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1839 by Horace Mann as the first public co-educational college in America without barrier to race, gender, or economic class. R ...

(2000–present) bar:14 color:AssocOS from:2000 till:end text: Worcester State (2000–present) bar:15 shift:(-20) color:FullxF from:2018 till:end text: Castleton/Vermont State (2018–present) bar:16 shift:(-40) color:AssocOS from:2019 till:end text: Massachusetts Maritime (2019–present) bar:17 shift:(-40) color:AssocOS from:2019 till:end text: Western New England (2019–present) bar:18 shift:(-80) color:AssocOS from:2022 till:end text: New England (Me.) (2022–present) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:1986

Sports

References

External links

* {{NCAA Division III conference navbox Sports organizations established in 1986 1986 establishments in the United States