Mountain East Conference

The Mountain East Conference (MEC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level and officially began competition on September 1, 2013. It consists of 11 schools, mostly in West Virginia with other members in Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Formation and history

The conference is an offshoot of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC), another Division II conference that had operated primarily in West Virginia since 1924. In June 2012, the nine football-playing schools in that conference announced plans to break away and form a new all-sports conference. The schools that made the initial announcement were the University of Charleston, Concord University, Fairmont State University, Glenville State College (now a university), Seton Hill University, Shepherd University, West Liberty University, West Virginia State University, and West Virginia Wesleyan College. All of these schools were in West Virginia, except for Seton Hill, located in Pennsylvania. According to regional media, the split was "supposedly rooted in different philosophies of progressivism", and also was partially driven by a desire to expand the new conference's footprint outside West Virginia. The divisions in the WVIAC were also rooted in the split between public and private schools, although the departing schools included institutions of both types.

At the time of the original announcement, the nine schools planned to expand to at least 12 members. Before the official launch of the conference on August 20, 2012, the MEC sought to add the WVIAC's other Pennsylvania member, the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; however, both Seton Hill and Pittsburgh–Johnstown chose to join the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC). The MEC filled out its charter membership with another West Virginia school, Wheeling Jesuit University, today known as Wheeling University; two Ohio schools, Notre Dame College and Urbana University; and the University of Virginia's College at Wise (UVA Wise), located in Southwest Virginia. Wheeling Jesuit was a WVIAC member that had been left out of the original WVIAC split. Urbana and UVA Wise were members of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) in 2012–13, while Notre Dame was a Division II independent that had housed five of its 22 sports in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. UVA Wise, which had previously been turned down for WVIAC membership, was transitioning from the NAIA and did not officially become an active D-II member until 2015-16; all of the other charter members were already full D-II members.

At its launch, the MEC had 11 football members, with Wheeling (then known as Wheeling Jesuit) being the only non-football school. On February 15, 2013, the NCAA accepted the MEC as its 25th D2 conference. The 2015–16 school year was the first in which MEC teams were eligible for automatic bids to NCAA Division II championships; before then, they were eligible only for at-large bids.

In 2018, UVA Wise and the South Atlantic Conference (SAC) jointly announced on April 13 that UVA Wise would leave the MEC to join the SAC for 2019–20 and beyond. Next, Shepherd and the PSAC jointly announced on June 7 that Shepherd would join the PSAC in 2019, becoming that league's first full member outside of Pennsylvania. The MEC would replace both members in the ensuing months. On July 5, the Mountain East Conference announced that Frostburg State University had accepted an offer of membership beginning with the 2019–20 academic year, contingent upon Frostburg State achieving active membership status in NCAA Division II (which would occur on the announced schedule). Finally, on August 30, the MEC announced two additional new members effective in 2019–20. Davis & Elkins College would become a full member, and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNC Pembroke) would join in five sports. UNC Pembroke began MEC competition in men's and women's indoor track & field, women's swimming & diving, and wrestling in 2019, with football following in 2020.

Multiple MEC membership changes were announced in 2020. On April 16, multi-sport associate member UNC Pembroke announced it would join Conference Carolinas (CC) effective in 2021–22. Because CC sponsors all of the non-football sports that UNCP housed in the MEC, UNCP is now an MEC member only in football. Five days later, charter member Urbana announced it would close at the end of the 2019–20 school year. Finally, on June 5, Alderson Broaddus University, a West Virginia school left out of the WVIAC split, announced that it would leave the G-MAC to join the MEC the following month. However, their tenure in the MEC was short-lived, as on July 31, 2023, Alderson Broaddus' authorization to grant degrees was revoked, resulting in the immediate suspension of all athletics.

In 2024, charter member Notre Dame College announced it would shut down. That same year, it was announced that Point Park University would join the conference from the NAIA River States Conference. This marked the MEC’s first member in Pennsylvania.

Chronological timeline

* 2013 – The Mountain East Conference was founded. Charter members included the University of Charleston, Concord University, Fairmont State University, Glenville State College (now Glenville State University), Notre Dame College of Ohio, Shepherd University, Urbana University, the University of Virginia's College at Wise (UVA Wise), West Liberty University, West Virginia State University, West Virginia Wesleyan College and Wheeling Jesuit University (now Wheeling University), beginning the 2013–14 academic year. Every member school (except UVA Wise, Notre Dame (Oh.) and Urbana) came from the defunct West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC).
* 2019
** UVA Wise left the MEC to join the South Atlantic Conference (SAC) after the 2018–19 academic year.
** Davis & Elkins College and Frostburg State University joined the MEC in the 2019–20 academic year.
** The University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNC Pembroke) joined the MEC as an associate member for men's and women's indoor track & field, women's swimming & diving and wrestling in the 2019–20 academic year.
* 2020
** Alderson Broaddus University joined the MEC in the 2020–21 academic year.
** UNC Pembroke added football to its MEC associate membership in the 2020 fall season (2020–21 academic year).
* 2021 – UNC Pembroke left the MEC as an associate member for men's and women's indoor track & field, women's swimming & diving and wrestling after the 2020–21 academic year.
* 2023 – Alderson Broaddus left the MEC before the 2023–24 academic year began, as the school had suspended all athletic programs. For the 2023-2024 academic year, the Mountain East Conference announced a non-conference scheduling agreement with NCAA Division II Independent and former WVIAC member Salem University to fill in the scheduling gaps left by the Alderson Broaddus' closure. The Tigers would compete against MEC schools in baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, and women’s volleyball.
* 2024
** Point Park University joined the MEC in the 2024–25 academic year.
** Notre Dame announced it would permanently close at the end of the 2023–24 academic year.
** Dominican University of California joined the MEC as an associate member for women's lacrosse for the 2025 seasons (2024–25 academic year). Dominican will not play regular season games against MEC member schools, but will participate in the conference women's lacrosse tournament in order for the MEC to maintain the 6 member minimum required to maintain an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II women's lacrosse tournament.
** Salem joined the MEC as an associate member for men's and women's swimming & diving and men's wrestling for the 2024–25 academic year. Additionally, the MEC also announced it would extend the non-conference scheduling agreement it made with Salem through the 2024–25 academic year.
* 2025
** UNC Pembroke will leave the MEC as an associate member for football after the 2024 fall season (2024–25 academic year), thus ending its associate membership within the conference.
** Kutztown University of Pennsylvania will join the MEC as an associate member for acrobatics & tumbling for the 2025 season (2025–26 academic year).

Member schools

Current members

The Mountain East currently has 11 full members, with five being private and six being public schools. Reclassifying members listed in yellow.

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Associate members

The Mountain East currently has three associate members, one public school and two private schools:

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Future associate member

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Former members

The Mountain East had five former full members; three are private schools which left the MEC when the schools closed, while two are public schools that remain in operation.

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Former associate member

Current Mountain East football associate UNC Pembroke had housed four sports in the MEC before it joined a conference that sponsored all of those sports.

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Membership timeline

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bar:4 color:Full from:2013 till:end text: Glenville State (2013–present)

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bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:2019 till:end text: PSAC

bar:7 color:Full from:2013 till:2020 text: Urbana (2013-2020)

bar:8 color:Full from:2013 till:2019 text: UVA Wise (2013–2019)
bar:8 color:OtherC1 from:2019 till:end text: SAC

bar:9 color:Full from:2013 till:end text: West Liberty (2013–present)

bar:10 color:Full from:2013 till:end text: West Virginia State (2013–present)

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bar:15 color:AssocF from:2021 till:2025

bar:16 color:Full from:2020 till:2023 text: Alderson Broaddus (2020–2023)

bar:17 color:FullxF from:2024 till:end text: Point Park (2024–present)

bar:18 color:AssocOS from:2024 till:end text: Dominican (CA) (lacrosse (W) 2024–present)

bar:19 color:AssocOS from:2024 till:end text: Salem (swimming (M+W), wrestling 2024–present)

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<#

Sports

The MEC sponsored 16 sports in all, eight each for men and women, at its formation. Women's lacrosse became the 17th conference sport for the 2014–15 school year (2015 season). Men's and women's swimming and diving were added as the 18th and 19th conference sports for 2017–18, with the MEC and Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) forming a swimming and diving alliance that conducts a joint conference championship meet. The following school year saw the MEC add acrobatics & tumbling as an official sport, two years before it was added to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program. The MEC was the first NCAA conference to establish acrobatics & tumbling as an official sport. The most recently added sports are men's and women's indoor track & field and wrestling, which debuted in 2019–20.

Men's sponsored sports by school

Departing member in pink.

Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the Mountain East Conference which are played by MEC schools:

Women's sponsored sports by school

Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Mountain East Conference which are played by MEC schools:

In addition to the above:
* Charleston considers its female cheerleaders (but not its male cheerleaders) to be varsity athletes.
* Glenville State considers its female cheerleaders (but not its male cheerleaders) to be varsity athletes. It also fields men's and women's teams in the non-NCAA sport of boxing.
* Wheeling fields a varsity team in the non-NCAA sport of men's rugby.
* Future member Point Park considers its cheerleaders, both male and female, and its all-female dance team to be varsity athletes. It also sponsors a varsity esports program, with men and women competing alongside and against one another.

References

External links

*

{{NCAA Division II football conference navbox

Sports leagues established in 2012
2012 establishments in West Virginia
Harrison County, West Virginia