The New England Conference (full name: New England College Conference of Intercollegiate Athletics) was a collegiate sports conference in the

Eastern United States The Eastern United States, commonly referred to as the American East, Eastern America, or simply the East, is the region of the United States to the east of the Mississippi River. In some cases the term may refer to a smaller area or the East C ...

, more specifically in

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 ...

, that operated from 1923 to 1947. As four of its charter members remained aligned in

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

from the conference's inception through 2011, this conference can be considered the earliest ancestor of today's

Colonial Athletic Association The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I whose full members are located in East Coast ...

football conference.

History

The conference was formed on January 29, 1923, with five charter members: Connecticut Agricultural College, University of Maine, Massachusetts Agricultural College, New Hampshire College, and Rhode Island State College. These public schools are now known as the Universities of

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 (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the ...

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

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 ...

, and

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

, respectively. Ralph D. Hetzel of New Hampshire was the conference's first president. Conference rules went into effect in September 1923.

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in Charlotte, North Ca ...

, a private university, joined the conference in December 1936; by that time, Massachusetts State College (the name that Massachusetts Agricultural College adopted in 1931) was no longer a member of the conference. When Northeastern left the conference in 1945, the four remaining members plus New England's two other major public land-grant institutions, the University of Massachusetts and the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont (UVM), officially the University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, is a public land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont. It was founded in 1791 and is among the oldest universities in the Unite ...

, formed the

Yankee Conference The Yankee Conference was a collegiate sports conference in the eastern United States. From 1947 to 1976, it sponsored competition in many sports, but was a American football, football-only league from mid-1976 until its dissolution in 1996. It is ...

under a new charter, officially beginning play in 1947. The Yankee Conference would become football-only in 1975, and then was absorbed by the

Atlantic 10 Conference The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Easter ...

(A-10) in 1997. Membership changes in rival conference the

(CAA) would give that conference six football-playing members starting in 2005-06, all of which had football in the A-10. With that, the CAA announced its football-sponsoring full members would start playing football in the CAA in 2007. Eventually, it was agreed that the A-10 would hand off management of its entire football conference to the CAA. Further illustrating the continuity between these conferences, the automatic berth of the Yankee Conference in the Division I FCS playoffs passed in succession to the A-10 and CAA.

Members

* Connecticut Agricultural College (now University of Connecticut) * University of Maine * Massachusetts Agricultural College (later Massachusetts State College, now University of Massachusetts) ** Still a member as of December 1929. ** Left the conference by December 1936. * New Hampshire College (now University of New Hampshire) * Northeastern University ** Joined in December 1936. Football members during the seasons of 1938–39 through 1944–45. * Rhode Island State College (now University of Rhode Island) Designates charter members at 1923 formation.

History

Members

Champions

Football

Men's basketball

References