The Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

. Full member institutions are all located in the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

with some affiliate members also located in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...

and

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

. All full members are a part of the Massachusetts State Universities system (every member in the Massachusetts State Universities system except the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt) is also a MASCAC member) and the public associate members are part of the

University of Massachusetts System The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medica ...

(UMASS System ( UMASS Dartmouth)), the

University System of New Hampshire The University System of New Hampshire (USNH) is a system of public colleges and universities in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. It was established in 1963 and is responsible for overseeing the University of New Hampshire - Durham, the Universit ...

(

Plymouth State University 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 an ...

), and the Connecticut State University System ( Western Connecticut State University) respectively. The rest of the associate members are

private colleges Private universities and private colleges are institutions of higher education, not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. They may (and often do) receive from governments tax breaks, public student loans, and grants. Depe ...

History

Chronological timeline

* 1971 - In June 1971, the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) was founded. Charter members included Boston State College, Bridgewater State College (now Bridgewater State University),

Fitchburg State College 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 ...

(now Fitchburg State University),

Framingham State College Framingham State University (Framingham State or FSU) is a public university in Framingham, Massachusetts. It offers undergraduate programs as well as graduate programs, including MBA, MEd, and MS. History As the first secretary of the newly ...

(now Framingham State University),

Lowell State College Lowell State College was a public college in Lowell, Massachusetts. It was established in 1959 and is the precursor to the University of Massachusetts Lowell. The founding of this new state school was the culmination of decades of institutional g ...

North Adams State College The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA) formerly known as North Adams State College (NASC) is a public liberal arts college in North Adams, Massachusetts. It is part of the state university system of Massachusetts. It is a member of th ...

(now the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts (MCLA)),

Salem State College Salem State University (Salem State or SSU) is a public university in Salem, Massachusetts. Established in 1854, it is the oldest and largest institute of higher education on the North Shore and is part of the state university system in Massa ...

(now Salem State University), Westfield State College (now Westfield State University) and Worcester State College (now Worcester State University), effective beginning the 1971–72 academic year. * 1974 - Massachusetts Maritime Academy (Mass Maritime) joined the MASCAC, effective in the 1974–75 academic year. * 1975 - Lowell State College left the MASCAC when it was merged into

Lowell Technological Institute The Lowell Technological Institute was a public college located in Lowell, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded in 1895 as the Lowell Textile School. Its campus is now part of the University of Massachusetts Lowell. History Beginnings P ...

to become the University of Lowell (now the University of Massachusetts Lowell (UMass Lowell)), effective after the 1974–75 academic year. * 1982 - Boston State College left the MASCAC when it was merged into the

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

(UMass Boston), effective after the 1981–82 academic year.

Member schools

Current members

The MASCAC currently has eight 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 sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

schools: ;Notes:

Associate members

The MASCAC currently has seven associate members, all but three are

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

schools:

Former members

The MASCAC had two former full members, both were

schools: ;Notes:

Former associate member

The MASCAC had one former associate member, which was also a

school:

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1971 till:2031 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:1971 till:1982 text: Boston State (1971–1982) bar:2 color:FullxF from:1971 till:2013 text:

Bridgewater State 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 ha ...

(1971–present) bar:2 color:Full from:2013 till:end bar:3 color:FullxF from:1971 till:2013 text: Fitchburg State (1971–present) bar:3 color:Full from:2013 till:end bar:4 color:FullxF from:1971 till:2013 text: Framingham State (1971–present) bar:4 color:Full from:2013 till:end bar:5 color:FullxF from:1971 till:1975 text: Lowell State (1971–1975) bar:6 color:FullxF from:1971 till:end text: MCLA (1971–present) bar:7 color:FullxF from:1971 till:end text: Salem State (1971–present) bar:8 color:FullxF from:1971 till:2013 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. Ran ...

(1971–present) bar:8 color:Full from:2013 till:end bar:9 color:FullxF from:1971 till:2013 text: Worcester State (1971–present) bar:9 color:Full from:2013 till:end bar:10 color:AssocOS from:1974 till:2013 text: Massachusetts Maritime (1974–present) bar:10 color:Full from:2013 till:end bar:11 color:AssocOS from:2009 till:2013 text: Massachusetts–Dartmouth (2013–present) bar:11 color:AssocF from:2013 till:end bar:12 color:AssocOS from:2009 till:2013 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 and ...

(2013–present) bar:12 color:AssocF from:2013 till:end bar:13 color:AssocF from:2013 till:end text: Western Connecticut State (2013–present) bar:13 color:AssocF from:2013 till:end bar:14 color:AssocOS from:2019 till:2020 text: Dean (2019–2020) bar:15 color:AssocOS from:2019 till:end text:

Eastern Nazarene The Eastern Nazarene College (ENC) is a Private university#United States, private, Christian college in Quincy, Massachusetts. Established as a Holiness Movement, holiness college in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1900, the college moved to Rhode Isla ...

(2019–present) bar:16 color:AssocOS from:2019 till:end text:

Elms Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the flowering plant genus ''Ulmus'' in the plant family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical-montane regions of Nor ...

(2019–present) bar:17 color:AssocOS from:2019 till:end text:

Mitchell Mitchell may refer to: People *Mitchell (surname) *Mitchell (given name) Places Australia * Mitchell, Australian Capital Territory, a light-industrial estate * Mitchell, New South Wales, a suburb of Bathurst * Mitchell, Northern Territo ...

(2019–present) bar:18 color:AssocOS from:2019 till:end text:

Springfield Springfield may refer to: * Springfield (toponym), the place name in general Places and locations Australia * Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast) * Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council) * Springfield, Queenslan ...

(2019–present) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1971

Sports

The MASCAC sponsors intercollegiate athletic competition in men's

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

, men's and women's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, men's and women's cross country, women's

field hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

, men's

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

, men's

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

, men's and women's

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

, women's

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

, men's and women's

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

, and women's

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

. The MASCAC sponsored football for the first time in 2013. Conference members Bridgewater State, Fitchburg State, Framingham State, Massachusetts Maritime, Westfield State, and Worcester State departed the

New England Football Conference Commonwealth Coast Football (CCC Football) was a single-sport athletic conference that competed in football in the NCAA's Division III. It began play as CCC Football in 2017 after the New England Football Conference (NEFC) was renamed following th ...

(NEFC) (now Commonwealth Coast Football) after the 2012 season. They were joined later by fellow NEFC opponents Plymouth State, UMass–Dartmouth, and Western Connecticut State. The NEFC retained the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III playoffs. On August 22, 2019, the MASCAC invited 5 of the recently dropped men's golf members from the

New England Collegiate Conference The New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) is an NCAA Division III college athletic conference based in the Northeastern United States. History In June 2007, nine colleges from New England announced the creation of a new athletic conference ...

(NECC) which includes

Dean College Dean College is a private college in Franklin, Massachusetts. It offers bachelor's degrees, associate degrees, and continuing and professional education and certificates. History Dean College was founded by Dr. Oliver Dean as a co-educatio ...

, Eastern Nazarene College,

Elms College The College of Our Lady of the Elms, often called Elms College, is a Private college, private Catholic church, Roman Catholic in Chicopee, Massachusetts. History The Sisters of St. Joseph and the Diocese of Springfield co-founded Elms as a g ...

Mitchell College Mitchell College is a private college in New London, Connecticut. In Fall 2020 it had an enrollment of 572 students and a faculty of 68. Admission rate was 70%. The college offers associate and bachelor's degrees in fourteen subjects. Academ ...

, and

Springfield College Springfield College is a private college in Springfield, Massachusetts. It confers undergraduate and graduate degrees. It is known as the birthplace of basketball because the sport was invented there in 1891 by Canadian-American instructor J ...

; all of them are

which is the first time that the MASCAC awarded membership to private colleges. The 5 private colleges joined the other men's golf sponsoring MASCAC schools from the NECC which includes MCLA, Salem State,

, and Worcester State to create a 9-team men's golf league. However Dean College men's golf left the MASCAC after the 2019-20 men's golf season to join their primary conference the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) in men's golf. The MASCAC started Automatic Qualification (AQ) to the

NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championships The NCAA Division III Men's Golf Championships is the annual golf tournament, typically played in mid-May, to determine the team and individual national champions of men's golf, collegiate golf in the United States. It has been played annually si ...

in the 2021–2022 season for the MASCAC men's golf tournament winner.

Men's sports

Women's sports

References

External links

* {{NCAA Division III hockey conferences NCAA Division III ice hockey conferences