The ECAC Northeast was an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

's Division III as a

hockey ''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...

-only conference. For many years it was one of the three men's hockey conferences that operated under the umbrella of the

Eastern College Athletic Conference The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) is a college athletic conference comprising schools that compete in 15 sports (13 men's and 13 women's). It has 220 member institutions in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III, ranging in location from ...

; the others were the ECAC East (now the

New England Hockey Conference New England Hockey Conference (formerly the ECAC East) is a college athletic conference which operates in the northeastern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division III as a hockey-only conference. __TOC__ History The New England ...

), and the ECAC West (soon to be the United Collegiate Hockey Conference). Member institutions were located in the New England region of the

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, in the states of

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

and

Rhode Island Rhode Island ( ) is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Connecticut to its west; Massachusetts to its north and east; and the Atlantic Ocean to its south via Rhode Island Sound and Block Is ...

. Unlike the ECAC East and ECAC West, there was no women's division of the ECAC Northeast. Most ECAC Northeast schools did not sponsor women's ice hockey; the two that did ( Nichols &

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) played in the ECAC East. The ECAC Northeast dissolved in 2016 when The Commonwealth Coast Conference, a Division III all-sports conference and the primary conference of most ECAC Northeast members, decided to sponsor men's ice hockey as a varsity sport. Becker, Johnson and Wales, and Suffolk joined the CCC as associate members for ice hockey, while CCC member University of New England moved their men's team from the ECAC East to play in the CCC league.

History

The foundation of the ECAC Northeast was laid in 1971 when ECAC 2, the college division of the ECAC created a third conference called ECAC 3. When the NCAA created Division III in 1973 ECAC 3 was placed at that level and remained there for the rest of its existence. In 1985, as a result of the NCAA beginning a Division III Tournament, ECAC 2 was reorganized into two separate conferences, ECAC East and ECAC West, with each becoming D-III leagues. To prevent confusion, ECAC 3 was renamed as ECAC North/South with all members split into North and South divisions (similar to how ECAC 2 had been divided into East and West divisions). This arrangement continued until 1992 when ECAC North/South was rearranged into three divisions (North, South and Central) and renamed ECAC North/South/Central. Over the course of the 1997–98 season the South Division lost 6 of its 8 teams, mostly to Division I, but rather than return to a two-division arrangement the league rebranded as ECAC Northeast. A year later the four member schools who were from Division II schools began playing in a separate tournament which allowed the other programs to play in an NCAA-sanctioned D-III conference tournament for the first time. As a result, ECAC Northeast got its first automatic bid to the tournament in

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

. In 2009 the nine schools whose primary conference was either MASCAC or Northeast-10 left when those two leagues began sponsoring ice hockey. The remaining teams stayed on for another seven years but in 2016 the

Commonwealth Coast Conference The Conference of New England (CNE), formerly known as the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC), is an List of NCAA conferences, intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division ...

, the primary conference for seven of the nine member teams, began sponsoring ice hockey. All nine teams joined CCC as either full or associate members and the ECAC Northeast was dissolved.

ECAC Northeast Tournament

Upon its founding, ECAC 3 instituted a tournament. Originally only a single game the championship slowly expanded along with the league.

Members

There were nine member schools as of the conference's final season in 2015–16. † as of 2018 ''* Assumption, Franklin Pierce, Southern New Hampshire, and Stonehill are Division II schools; and were not allowed to participate in the ECAC Northeast playoffs after 1999, nor were they eligible for the Division III national tournament.''

Membership timeline

DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy ImageSize = width:1600 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:06/01/1971 till:06/01/2018 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 AlignBars = late Colors = id:men value:rgb(0.5,0.8,0.8) id:time value:rgb(0.2,0.9,0.2) id:line value:black id:bg value:white LineData = layer:back color:line at:06/15/1985 at:06/15/1992 at:06/15/1998 at:06/15/2016 PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:tim color:time from:06/01/1971 till:06/01/1985 text:ECAC 3 (1971-85) bar:tim color:time from:07/01/1985 till:06/01/1992 text:ECAC North/South (1985-92) bar:tim color:time from:07/01/1992 till:06/01/1998 text:ECAC North/South/Central (1992-98) bar:tim color:time from:07/01/1998 till:06/01/2016 text:ECAC Northeast (1998-2016) bar:Mit color:men from:06/01/1971 till:06/01/1975 text:

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

(1971-75) bar:NAS color:men from:06/01/1971 till:06/01/1975 text: North Adams State (1971-75) bar:Leh color:men from:06/01/1971 till:06/01/1986 text: Lehigh (1971-86) bar:Wes color:men from:06/01/1971 till:06/01/1995 text: Wesleyan (1971-95) bar:Ass color:men from:06/01/1971 till:06/01/2009 text: Assumption (1971-2009) bar:WSU color:men from:06/01/1971 till:06/01/2009 text: Worcester State (1971-2009) bar:Nic color:men from:06/01/1971 till:06/01/2016 text: Nichols (1971-2016) bar:NSN color:men from:06/01/1972 till:06/01/1974 text: Nasson (1972-74) bar:USM color:men from:06/01/1972 till:06/01/1975 text: Maine at Portland–Gorham (1972-75) bar:USM color:men from:06/01/1985 till:06/01/1995 text: Southern Maine (1985-95) bar:Fra color:men from:06/01/1972 till:06/01/1979 text: Framingham State (1972-79, 1982-2009) bar:Fra color:men from:06/01/1982 till:06/01/2009 text: bar:RIT color:men from:06/01/1972 till:06/01/1980 text:

RIT RIT is a common abbreviated name for Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York, USA. RIT or rit may also refer to: Business * Recherche et Industrie Thérapeutiques, the former name of what is now GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals in Bel ...

(1972-80) bar:Amh color:men from:06/01/1972 till:06/01/1992 text: Amherst (1972-92) bar:Bry color:men from:06/01/1973 till:06/01/1975 text: Bryant (1973-75) bar:Ply color:men from:06/01/1973 till:06/01/2009 text: Plymouth State (1973-2009) bar:WfS color:men from:06/01/1974 till:06/01/1978 text: Westfield State (1974-78, 2008–09) bar:WfS color:men from:06/01/2008 till:06/01/2009 text: bar:Gor color:men from:06/01/1974 till:06/01/1981 text: Gordon (1974-81) bar:Tri color:men from:06/01/1974 till:06/01/1991 text:

Trinity The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, thr ...

(1974-91) bar:Fai color:men from:06/01/1974 till:06/01/1998 text: Fairfield (1974-98) bar:MaD color:men from:06/01/1974 till:05/01/1991 text:

Southeastern Massachusetts Southeastern Massachusetts is a region of Massachusetts located south of Boston and east of Rhode Island. It is commonly used to describe areas with cultural ties to both Boston and Providence, Rhode Island, and includes the cities of New Bedford ...

(1974-91) bar:MaD color:men from:07/01/1991 till:06/01/2009 text: UMass Dartmouth (1991-2009) bar:MMA color:men from:06/01/1975 till:06/01/1978 text: Massachusetts Maritime (1975-78) bar:Fit color:men from:06/01/1975 till:06/01/2009 text: Fitchburg State (1975-2009) bar:NYC color:men from:06/01/1976 till:06/01/1977 text: CCNY (1976-77) bar:Que color:men from:06/01/1976 till:06/01/1980 text:

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

(1976-80) bar:Ram color:men from:06/01/1976 till:06/01/1981 text: Ramapo (1976-81) bar:Qui color:men from:06/01/1976 till:06/01/1998 text:

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(1976-98) bar:Ben color:men from:06/01/1977 till:06/01/1998 text:

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(1977-98) bar:Ion color:men from:06/01/1977 till:06/01/1998 text:

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(1977-98) bar:SNH color:men from:06/01/1977 till:05/01/2001 text: New Hampshire College (1977-2001) bar:SNH color:men from:07/01/2001 till:06/01/2009 text: Southern New Hampshire (2001-09) bar:Cla color:men from:06/01/1978 till:06/01/1981 text: Clark (1978-81) bar:Hob color:men from:06/01/1978 till:06/01/1983 text:

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(1978-83) bar:Sto color:men from:06/01/1978 till:06/01/2009 text: Stonehill (1978-2009) bar:Ups color:men from:06/01/1979 till:06/01/1988 text: Upsala (1979-88) bar:Can color:men from:06/01/1980 till:06/01/1982 text: Canisius (1980-82) bar:UMB color:men from:06/01/1980 till:06/01/1982 text: UMass Boston (1980-82) bar:CtC color:men from:06/01/1980 till:06/01/1991 text:

Connecticut College Connecticut College (Conn) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. Originally chartered as Thames College, it was founded in 1911 as the state's only women's colle ...

(1980-91) bar:SJU color:men from:06/01/1980 till:06/01/1992 text: St. John's (1980-92) bar:Suf color:men from:06/01/1980 till:06/01/2016 text:

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

(1980-2016) bar:WNE color:men from:06/01/1980 till:06/01/2016 text: Western New England (1980-2016) bar:SMC color:men from:06/01/1982 till:06/01/2001 text: Saint Michael's (1982-2001) bar:KSC color:men from:06/01/1983 till:06/01/1986 text: Keene State (1983-86) bar:RWU color:men from:06/01/1983 till:06/01/1998 text:

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(1983-98) bar:Ski color:men from:06/01/1983 till:06/01/1998 text:

Skidmore Skidmore may refer to: Places United States * Skidmore, Kansas * Skidmore, Maryland * Skidmore, Michigan, an unincorporated community * Skidmore, Missouri, a city * Skidmore, Texas * Skidmore, West Virginia * Skidmore Fountain, a public fountai ...

(1983-98) bar:Vil color:men from:06/01/1983 till:06/01/1998 text: Villanova (1983-98) bar:Cur color:men from:06/01/1983 till:06/01/2016 text:

Curry Curry is a dish with a sauce or gravy seasoned with spices, mainly derived from the interchange of Indian cuisine with European taste in food, starting with the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch and British, and then thoroughly internatio ...

(1983-2016) bar:Haw color:men from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/1988 text: Hawthorne (1984-88) bar:Scr color:men from:06/01/1985 till:06/01/1991 text:

Scranton Scranton is a city in and the county seat of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Scranton is the most populous city in Northeastern Pennsylvania and the ...

(1985-91) bar:Tuf color:men from:06/01/1986 till:06/01/2001 text:

Tufts Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy progr ...

(1986-2001) bar:WIT color:men from:06/01/1992 till:06/01/2016 text: Wentworth (1992-2016) bar:SHU color:men from:06/01/1993 till:06/01/1998 text:

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(1997-2016) bar:LVC color:men from:06/01/1998 till:06/01/2004 text: Lebanon Valley (1998-2004) bar:FPU color:men from:06/01/2002 till:06/01/2009 text:

Franklin Pierce Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804October 8, 1869) was the 14th president of the United States, serving from 1853 to 1857. A northern Democratic Party (United States), Democrat who believed that the Abolitionism in the United States, abolitio ...

(2002-09) bar:Bec color:men from:06/01/2006 till:06/01/2016 text: Becker (2006-16) bar:End color:men from:06/01/2015 till:06/01/2016 text: Endicott (2015-16) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:01/01/1975

References

{{NCAA Division III hockey conferences Defunct NCAA Division III ice hockey conferences