The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) is a

college athletic conference In college athletics in the United States, institutions typically join in Athletic conference, conferences for regular play under different governing bodies. Varsity sports There are several national and regional associations governing the var ...

comprising schools that compete in 15

sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...

(13 men's and 13 women's). It has 220 member institutions in

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. ...

Divisions I, II, and III, ranging in location from Maine to South Carolina and west to Missouri. Most or all members belong to at least one other

athletic conference An athletic conference is a collection of sports teams which play competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller Division (sport), divisions, with the best teams competing at successively ...

. The ECAC was founded as the Central Office for Eastern Intercollegiate Athletics in 1938, largely through the efforts of

James Lynah James Lynah (1881 – February 24, 1956) was an American businessman and sports administrator who is considered the principal founder of the Eastern College Athletic Conference. Lynah Rink, an indoor ice hockey rink on the campus of Cornell ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. In 1983, the Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (EAIAW) was consolidated into the ECAC. Most member schools are in other conferences as well, but through the ECAC they are able to participate in sports that their main conferences do not offer. Its headquarters are located in

Danbury, Connecticut Danbury ( ) is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, located approximately northeast of New York City. Danbury's population as of 2020 was 86,518. It is the third-largest city in Western Connecticut, and the seventh-largest ...

. The ECAC also now offers

esports Esports (), short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, played individually or as teams. ...

competitions to its member schools.

Membership

Division I

As of fall 2023, there are 78 Division I members.

Division II

As of fall 2023, there are 7 Division II members.

Division III

As of spring 2018, there are 79 Division III members.

Affiliates

The ECAC has several affiliated single-sport leagues: *

Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges The Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) is a college athletic conference of fifteen men's college rowing crews. It is an affiliate of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Members Fifteen colleges and universities are membe ...

Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges The Eastern Association of Women's Rowing Colleges (EAWRC) is a college athletic conference of eighteen women's college rowing crew teams. The conference is an affiliate of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Members :See footnot ...

* ECAC Equestrian *

Eastern Intercollegiate Gymnastics League The Eastern Intercollegiate Gymnastics League (EIGL) is an NCAA Division I college athletic conference which sponsors men's gymnastics. It is an affiliate of the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC). Members :''See footnote'' *Army Black Kn ...

Intercollegiate Rowing Association The Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) governs College rowing (United States), intercollegiate rowing between Varsity team, varsity men's heavyweight, men's lightweight, and women's lightweight rowing programs across the United States, whil ...

* Intercollegiate Association of Amateur Athletes in America *

ECAC Lacrosse League The ECAC Lacrosse League was an American NCAA Division I college athletic conference and part of the Eastern College Athletic Conference. Founded in 1999 with play beginning in 2000, this part of the conference only sponsored men's lacrosse. It di ...

(defunct) * ECAC Division II Lacrosse League (defunct) *

ECAC Hockey ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I college ice hockey, ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United ...

(independent since 2004)

Sports

ECAC men's basketball tournaments

At various times, the ECAC has organized regional

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

championship tournaments at the end of the regular season for teams playing at the NCAA Division I, Division II, and

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 Third ...

levels. It held the Division I tournaments from 1975 to 1982 to provide independent colleges and universities in the northeastern United States with a means of participating in end-of-season tournaments that resulted in the winning team receiving an automatic bid to the

NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament The NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, branded as March Madness, or The Big Dance, is a single-elimination tournament played in the United States to determine the men's college basketball national champion of the NCAA Division I, Di ...

, similar to the end-of-season tournaments held by conventional athletic conferences. The Division I ECAC tournaments were discontinued after all participating schools joined conferences of their own during the late 1970s and early 1980s.Varsity Pride: ECAC Men's Basketball Tournaments
The ECAC also held combined Division II/III regional end-of- season tournaments from 1973 to 1980 and a single Division II-only tournament after the regular season from 1988 to 2006 and in 2007, 2008, and 2014. Since 1981, it has organized regional Division III-only men's basketball tournaments annually at the end of each regular season.

ECAC Division III football bowls

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

, the ECAC organizes four

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

bowl game In North America, a bowl game, or simply bowl, is one of a number of postseason college football games primarily played by NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams. For most of its history, the FBS did not use a playoff tourname ...

s each year. The bowl games are as follow: * ECAC Asa S. Bushnell Bowl * ECAC Clayton Chapman Bowl * ECAC James Lynah Bowl * ECAC Scotty Whitelaw Bowl

Awards

:''See footnotes'' * Div. I FBS Football Major Awards * Div. I FCS Football Major Awards * Div II Football Major Awards * Div. III Football Major Awards *Robbins Scholar-Athletes *Award of Merit (for student-athletes) *Award of Valor (for student-athletes) *ECAC Rowing TrophyECAC Awards and Honors: ECAC Rowing Trophy
. ECAC official website. Retrieved 2010-03-03.

References

External links

* {{Coord, 41, 38, 34, N, 70, 20, 47.48, W, display=title Sports leagues established in 1938 1938 establishments in the United States