Eastern Collegiate Football Conference

The Eastern Collegiate Football Conference is a football-only intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA’s Division III. Founded in 2009, it combines six schools spread across the states of Massachusetts, Vermont, and New York, plus Washington, D.C.. Starting in the 2020-2021 Season, Keystone College, located in Pennsylvania will be the 7th member of the conference.

Eastern Collegiate Football Conference
ECFC
Established2009
AssociationNCAA
DivisionDivision III
Members7 (6 in 2019, 7 in 2020)
Sports fielded
  • 1 (football)
    • men's: 1
    • women's: 0
RegionNortheast
HeadquartersWilmington, Vermont
CommissionerKatie Boldvich
Websiteeasterncollegiatefootball.com
Locations

History

The Eastern Collegiate Football Conference was formed in the spring of 2009 as an NCAA Division III single-sport football conference. The conference, named after the geographic location of the institutions, began competition in the fall of 2009. Founding members were Anna Maria College, Becker College, Castleton State College (now Castleton University), Gallaudet University, Husson University, SUNY Maritime, Mount Ida College, and Norwich University.

Norwich was the league's first champion, posting a perfect 6-0 conference record and defeating Mt. Ida in the season-ending ECFC Championship Game.[1] In 2010, SUNY Maritime earned the ECFC's first bid to the NCAA Division III Playoffs after a perfect 10-0 regular season record.[2] SUNY Maritime would go on to lose 60-0 to Alfred University in the First Round of the NCAA Playoffs.[3]

2015 realignment

In April 2015, charter member Norwich announced it would be leaving the ECFC to join the NEWMAC when that conference began sponsoring football in 2017.[4] In November 2015, Becker announced it would also be leaving the ECFC in 2017 to join what was then known as the New England Football Conference, which by the time of Becker's departure would be rebranded as Commonwealth Coast Football.[5] Becker's departure would have left the ECFC without the minimum 7 teams necessary to maintain the league's automatic bid to the Division III playoffs. But on January 27, 2016, the ECFC announced that Alfred State College and Dean College would be joining the conference for the 2017 season.[6]

Later developments

The ECFC would later see two schools announce their departure from the conference, placing its automatic bid to the Division III playoffs in doubt once again. First, Husson announced in June 2017 that it would join Commonwealth Coast Football in 2019.[7] Then, in April 2018, the financially struggling Mount Ida announced that it would close at the end of the 2017–18 school year, with the campus to be purchased by the University of Massachusetts Amherst.[8] The following month, however, saw the announcement of a future member, as Keystone College, set to add football as a club sport in 2019 before upgrading to full varsity status in 2020, would join the ECFC upon reaching varsity status.[9]

Current members
Institution Location Nickname Founded Type Enrollment Joined Primary
Conference
Alfred State College Alfred, New York Pioneers 1908 Public 3,500 2017 ACAA
(AMCC in 2019)
Anna Maria College Paxton, Massachusetts AMCats 1946 Private 820 2009 GNAC
Castleton University Castleton, Vermont Spartans 1787 Public
(VSC)		 2,130 2009 LEC
Dean College[lower-alpha 1] Franklin, Massachusetts Bulldogs 1865 Private 1,055 2017 NECC
Gallaudet University Washington, D.C. Bison 1864 Quasi-Private/Governmental 1,274 2009 NEAC
SUNY Maritime Throggs Neck, New York Privateers 1874 Public
(SUNY)		 1,289 2009 Skyline
  1. Provisional Division III member.

Future member
Institution Location Nickname Founded Type Enrollment Joining Primary
Conference
Keystone College La Plume, Pennsylvania Giants 1868 Private 1,600 2020 CSAC

Former members

Because NCAA football is a fall sport, the year of departure is the calendar year after each school's final season of competition.

Institution Location Nickname Founded Type Enrollment Joined Left Primary
Conference		 Current Football
Conference
Becker College Leicester, Massachusetts Hawks 1784 Private 1,739 2009 2017 NECC CCC Football
Husson University Bangor, Maine Eagles 1898 Private 2,600 2009 2019 NAC CCC Football
Mount Ida College Newton, Massachusetts Mustangs 1899 Private 1,300 2009 2018 N/A – closed in 2018
Norwich University Northfield, Vermont Cadets 1819 Private
(Military)		 2,200+ 2009 2017 GNAC NEWMAC

Champions
  • 2009 Norwich (6–0)
  • 2010 SUNY Maritime (7–0)
  • 2011 Norwich (7–0)
  • 2012 Mount Ida (6–1)
  • 2013 Gallaudet (6–1)
  • 2014 Husson (7–0)
  • 2015 Norwich (6–1)
  • 2016 Husson (6–0)
  • 2017 Husson (7–0)
  • 2018 Husson (6–0)
  • 2019 Dean (4-1)

NCAA Division III playoff performance

The ECFC is generally regarded as one of the weakest conferences in the country.[10] The ECFC's only Division III playoff win came in 2017. As of the 2018 season, the conference is 1–9 in the playoffs, with its member schools' games decided by an average score of 45–13. The single win was by two points, and one loss was in overtime; every other loss has been by more than two touchdowns.

YearECFC
champion		Playoff
opponent		ResultScore
2010SUNY MaritimeAlfredLoss60–0
2011NorwichDelaware ValleyLoss62–10
2012Mount IdaWesleyLoss73–14
2013GallaudetHobartLoss34–7
2014HussonMITLoss27–20 (OT)
2015NorwichAlbrightLoss49–0
2016HussonWestern New EnglandLoss44–27
2017HussonSpringfieldWin23–21
2017HussonDelaware ValleyLoss37–15
2018HussonRPILoss38–14
gollark: Like Macron.
gollark: Undo it.
gollark: firecubez and Heav, the TRUE Macron team.
gollark: As in, it implicitly uses Coerce, and implicitly writes Coerce implementations.
gollark: Macron idea: implicit Coerce in all situations.

References
  1. "Norwich Defeats Mount Ida, 49-14, to Win ECFC Championship". Eastern Collegiate Football Conference.
  2. "Perfection! Football Ends 2010 Regular Season with 21-14 Win over Gallaudet in D.C." Joe Guster, SUNY Maritime Sports Information Director.
  3. 2010 NCAA Division III football season#Postseason
  4. "New shuffle begins as NEWMAC adds football". Pat Coleman, D3Sports.com.
  5. "CCC finds its seventh team". D3Football.com.
  6. "ECFC gains two members". D3Football.com. Retrieved 13 February 2016.
  7. "Husson To Become Eighth Commonwealth Coast Football Member in 2019" (Press release). Commonwealth Coast Football. June 5, 2017. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  8. DeCosta-Klipa, Nik (April 12, 2018). "Why is everyone mad about the UMass-Mount Ida deal?". The Boston Globe. Retrieved April 21, 2018.
  9. "Keystone College Named as ECFC's Newest Member" (Press release). Eastern Collegiate Football Conference. May 8, 2018. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  10. "Re-ranking the conferences for 2015". D3Football.com.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.