The Empire 8 (E8) is an 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 ...

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 ...

. The E8 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 t ...

, 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 court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, 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 ...

, men's football, 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 ...

, men's and women's

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

, men's and women's soccer, 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

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

and

diving Diving most often refers to: * Diving (sport), the sport of jumping into deep water * Underwater diving, human activity underwater for recreational or occupational purposes Diving or Dive may also refer to: Sports * Dive (American football), a ...

, men's and women's

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

, 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 eve ...

, 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 Sum ...

. The E8 shares offices with the

United Volleyball Conference The United Volleyball Conference is a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III men's volleyball conference located in the northeastern United States. Formed in August 2010 with play starting in January 2011, the conference operates o ...

, a separate Division III league that competes solely in men's volleyball.

History

The Empire 8 can trace its beginnings back to 1964 with the founding of the Independent College Athletic Conference (ICAC). At this time, the conference was made up of Alfred University,

Clarkson University Clarkson University is a private research university with its main campus in Potsdam, New York, and additional graduate program and research facilities in the New York Capital Region and Beacon, New York. It was founded in 1896 and has an e ...

, Hobart College, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), St. Lawrence University, and

Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...

. After Union left the league,

Ithaca College Ithaca College is a private college in Ithaca, New York. It was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music and is set against the backdrop of the city of Ithaca (which is separate from the town), Cayuga Lake, waterfalls, and go ...

and

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private research university in the town of Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional ...

(RIT) joined the ICAC. In 1991, the ICAC regrouped to become the Empire Athletic Association (EAA), with Clarkson leaving and

Hartwick College Hartwick College is a private liberal arts college in Oneonta, New York. The institution's origin is rooted in the founding of Hartwick Seminary in 1797 through the will of John Christopher Hartwick. In 1927, the Seminary moved to expand into a ...

joining to replace the spot. Hobart/William Smith, RPI, and St. Lawrence left in 1993, to be replaced by

Elmira College Elmira College is a private college in Elmira, New York. Founded as a college for women in 1855, it is the oldest existing college granting degrees to women that were the equivalent of those given to men. Elmira College became coeducational in a ...

, Nazareth College, and Utica University. Alfred re-joined and

St. John Fisher College St. John Fisher University is a private liberal arts college in Pittsford, New York. It is named after John Fisher, an English Catholic cardinal and saint. It was named St. John Fisher College until July 1, 2022. History St. John Fisher Univers ...

joined the league in 1998. The EAA became the Empire 8 Athletic Conference in 1999, hosting 13 sports.

Stevens Institute of Technology Stevens Institute of Technology is a private research university in Hoboken, New Jersey. Founded in 1870, it is one of the oldest technological universities in the United States and was the first college in America solely dedicated to mechanical ...

joined as a field hockey member beginning in 2006 and became a full member in 2007. RIT announced on June 5, 2009 that it planned to leave the Empire 8 for the

Liberty League The Liberty League is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division III. Member schools are top institutions that are all located in the state of New York. History It was founde ...

beginning in the fall of the 2011–12 season.

Houghton College Houghton University is a private Christian liberal arts college in Houghton, New York. Houghton was founded in 1883 by Willard J. Houghton and is affiliated with the Wesleyan Church.

also announced that they would join the Empire 8 in the 2012–13 season as they transitioned from a school of the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its st ...

(NAIA) to

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 st ...

status; they became full D-III members in 2016. The most recent changes to the conference's membership were published in the 2018–19 school year. First, Stevens announced in August 2018 that it would leave the E8 at the end of the 2018–19 school year to rejoin the

Middle Atlantic Conferences The Middle Atlantic Conferences (MAC) is an umbrella organization of three athletic conferences that competes in the NCAA's Division III. The 18 member colleges are in the Mid-Atlantic United States. The organization is divided into two main con ...

after an absence of more than 40 years. Stevens joined the MAC's Freedom Conference. In January 2019, the E8 reported that Stevens would eventually be replaced by

Keuka College Keuka College is a private college in Keuka Park, New York. Founded in 1890, the college emphasizes experiential learning as well as career and pre-professional education. It is classified among "Master's Colleges and Universities (small)" and ...

in 2020–21, and in March, The Sage Colleges merged Russell Sage College and Sage College of Albany, effectively making the former women-only Russell Sage co-educational in fall 2020. On July 15, 2020, the Empire 8 postponed all fall sports, but provided conference championships in those sports in spring 2021. On August 26, 2021, Medaille posted its admission to the E8 in 2022–23 from the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference.

Chronological timeline

* 1964 - The Empire 8 was founded of the Independent College Athletic Conference (ICAC). charter members included Alfred University, Clarkson College of Technology (now Clarkson University), Hobart College (later William Smith College followed suit when women's sports was added into the conference), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), St. Lawrence University, and

, effective beginning the 1964-65 academic year. * 1971 - Union (N.Y.) left the ICAC, effective after the 1970-71 academic year. * 1971 -

and

(RIT) joined the ICAC, effective in the 1971-72 academic year. * 1991 - Alfred and Clarkson left the ICAC, effective after the 1990-91 academic year. * 1991 - The ICAC has been regrouped to become the Empire Athletic Association ( EAA), effective in the 1991-92 academic year. * 1991 -

joined the EAA, effective in the 1991-92 academic year. * 1993 - Hobart/William Smith, Rensselaer Poly (RPI) and St. Lawrence left the EAA, effective after the 1992-93 academic year. * 1993 -

, Nazareth College and

Utica College Utica University is a private university in Utica, New York. The university dates back to the 1930s when Syracuse University began offering extension courses in the Utica area. In 2016, the university enrolled 3,084 undergraduate students and ...

(now Utica University) joined the EAA, effective in the 1993-94 academic year. * 1998 -

joined the EAA, with Alfred re-joining alongside, effective in the 1998-99 academic year. * 1999 - The EAA has been rebranded as the Empire 8 Athletic Conference (Empire 8 or E8), hosting 13 sponsored sports, effective in the 1999-2000 academic year. * 2006 -

(Stevens Tech or Stevens) joined the Empire 8 as an affiliate member for field hockey, effective in the 2006 fall season (2006-07 academic year). * 2007 - Stevens upgraded to join the Empire 8 for all sports, effective in the 2007-08 academic year. * 2011 - Rochester Tech (RIT) left the Empire 8 for the

, effective after the 2010-11 academic year. Salisbury U. (MD) joined for football. * 2012 -

Houghton College Houghton University is a private Christian liberal arts college in Houghton, New York. Houghton was founded in 1883 by Willard J. Houghton and is affiliated with the Wesleyan Church.

joined the Empire 8, effective in the 2012-13 academic year. * 2015 - Salisbury U. (MD) left to join the NJAC. * 2017 - Ithaca left the Empire 8 to join the Liberty League, effective after the 2016-17 academic year. * 2017 - Russell Sage College (then a women's college) and Sage College of Albany joined the Empire 8, effective in the 2017-18 academic year. * 2019 - Stevens left the Empire 8 to re-join back to the

(particularly the MAC's Freedom Conference), effective after the 2018-19 academic year. * 2020 -

joined the Empire 8, effective in the 2020-21 academic year * 2020 - The Sage Colleges merged Russell Sage and Sage College of Albany, effective making the former women-only Russell Sage co-educational, effective in the 2020-21 academic year. * 2022 -

Medaille College Medaille University is a private university in Buffalo, New York. The Sisters of St. Joseph founded Medaille in 1937. Medaille serves roughly 1,600 students from Western New York and Southern Ontario. Campuses Medaille's main campus is in Buffa ...

will join the Empire 8, effective beginning the 2022-23 academic year.

Member schools

Current members

The Empire 8 currently has ten full members, all are private schools: ;Notes:

Affiliate members

The Empire 8 currently has four affiliate members; all but one 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 ''Öffentlichk ...

schools: ;Notes:

Future affiliate members

Former members

The Empire 8 had nine former full members, all were private schools: ;Notes:

Former affiliate members

The Empire 8 had four former affiliate members, all but one were

schools: ;Notes:

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1964 till:2030 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:1964 till:1991 text: Alfred (1964–1991) bar:1 color:FullxF from:1998 till:end text:(1998–present) bar:2 color:FullxF from:1964 till:1991 text: Clarkson (1964–1991) bar:3 color:FullxF from:1964 till:1993 text: Hobart/William Smith (1964–1993) bar:4 color:FullxF from:1964 till:1993 text: RPI (1964–1993) bar:5 color:FullxF from:1964 till:1993 text:

St. Lawrence Saint Lawrence or Laurence ( la, Laurentius, lit. " laurelled"; 31 December AD 225 – 10 August 258) was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roma ...

(1964–1993) bar:6 color:FullxF from:1964 till:1971 text: Union (NY) (1964–1971) bar:7 color:FullxF from:1971 till:2017 text:

Ithaca Ithaca most commonly refers to: *Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey'' *Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca *Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College Ithaca, Ithaka ...

(1971–2017) bar:8 color:FullxF from:1971 till:2011 text:

RIT Rit is a brand of dye A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied i ...

(1971–2011) bar:9 color:FullxF from:1991 till:end text: Hartwick (1991–present) bar:10 color:FullxF from:1993 till:end text: Elmira (1993–present) bar:11 color:FullxF from:1993 till:end text: Nazareth (N.Y.) (1993–present) bar:12 color:FullxF from:1993 till:end text: Utica (1993–present) bar:13 color:FullxF from:1998 till:end text: St. John Fisher (1998–present) bar:14 color:AssocF from:2002 till:2012 text: Springfield (Mass.) (2002–2012; football) bar:15 color:AssocOS from:2002 till:end text: Washington & Jefferson (2002–present; field hockey) bar:16 color:FullxF from:2007 till:2019 text: Stevens (2007–2019) bar:17 color:AssocF from:2011 till:2016 text:

Frostburg State University Frostburg State University (FSU) is a public university in Frostburg, Maryland. The university is the only four-year institution of the University System of Maryland west of the Baltimore-Washington passageway in the state's Appalachian highlan ...

(2011–2016; football) bar:18 color:AssocF from:2011 till:2016 text:

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

(2011–2016; football) bar:19 color:FullxF from:2012 till:end text:

Houghton Houghton may refer to: Places Australia * Houghton, South Australia, a town near Adelaide * Houghton Highway, the longest bridge in Australia, between Redcliffe and Brisbane in Queensland * Houghton Island (Queensland) Canada *Houghton Township, ...

(2012–present) bar:20 color:AssocF from:2012 till:2019 text: Buffalo State (2012–2019; football) bar:21 color:AssocF from:2014 till:end text: SUNY Brockport (2014–present; football) bar:22 color:AssocF from:2015 till:end text:

SUNY Cortland The State University of New York College at Cortland (SUNY Cortland or Cortland State College) is a public college in Cortland, New York. It was founded in 1868 and is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. History The State Un ...

(2015–present; football) bar:23 color:AssocF from:2015 till:end text: SUNY Morrisville (2015–present; football) bar:24 color:FullxF from:2017 till:end text: Russell Sage (2017–present) bar:25 color:FullxF from:2017 till:2020 text: Sage (2017–2020) bar:26 color:FullxF from:2020 till:end text: Keuka (2020–present) bar:27 color:FullxF from:2022 till:end text: Medaille (2022–future) bar:N color:powderblue from:1964 till:1991 text:ICAC bar:N color:blue from:1991 till:1998 text:EAA bar:N color:powderblue from:1998 till:end text:Empire 8 ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1965

Championships

References

External links

* {{NCAA Division III football conference navbox