East Coast Conference (Division I)


The East Coast Conference was an NCAA Division I college athletic conference. It was founded as the university division of the Middle Atlantic Conferences in 1958. The MAC consisted of over 30 teams at that time, making it impossible to organize full league schedules in sports like football, basketball, and baseball. In 1958, the larger schools created their own mini-conference, consisting of 11 members.
In 1974, the larger schools in the MAC officially formed the East Coast Conference. During the 1974-75 through 1981-82 seasons, the ECC enjoyed a consistent membership of 12 teams. That stability was rocked when St. Joseph's, Temple, and West Chester departed in the summer of 1982, while Towson was added, trimming the league to 10 programs. Over the next two years, La Salle and American also said goodbye, cutting the roster to 8.
The winds of realignment would sweep across intercollegiate athletics in full force as the next decade dawned. Bucknell, Lafayette, and Lehigh left to help form the Patriot League in 1990, while Delaware and Drexel headed to the North Atlantic Conference in 1991. Attempting to stem the tide, the ECC added UMBC and Central Connecticut in 1990, followed by Division I newcomers Buffalo and Brooklyn in 1991.
More erosion ensued as Rider, Towson, and UMBC moved to other leagues after the 1991-92 campaign, while Brooklyn suspended its entire athletic department. This reduced the ECC to just 3 members -- Hofstra, Central Connecticut, and Buffalo—not enough to maintain official conference status under NCAA bylaws during the 1992-93 season. Unable to move elsewhere themselves, that trio made one last salvage effort.
Spreading far and wide, Chicago State, Northeastern Illinois, and Troy State were enlisted, doubling participation to 6 teams for the 1993-94 academic year. Finally, the ECC was absorbed by the Mid-Continent Conference in the summer of 1994, although Hofstra instead decided to join the North Atlantic Conference. None of the 5 ECC institutions which entered the Mid-Con at that time remain in the league today.
According to the Middle Atlantic States Collegiate Athletic Corporation's web site, the East Coast Conference was not a successor to the MAC. Instead, 11 of the 12 University Division members left to form the original ECC in 1974, but the primary organization continued as an NCAA Division III conference when the NCAA adopted a division structure.
"June 4–6, 1974 - The first major schism to be focused on this study occurs when the MAC University Division, with 12 members, loses 11 members, who leave to form their own conference. American, Bucknell, Delaware, Drexel, Lafayette, La Salle, Lehigh, Rider, St. Joseph's, Temple and West Chester all leave. Gettysburg, which opts to join the College Division, is the only University Division institution to remain."

Member schools

In all tables in this section, school names and nicknames reflect those in use in the last school year each institution was an ECC member. Conference names in the "Next Conference" columns reflect those in use during the first school year of membership in the new league.

Founding members

Subsequent members

Champions

Men's basketball

Regular season


DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:1200 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:1958 till:1996
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
id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
id:Full value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports
id:FullxF value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football
id:AssocF value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only
id:AssocOS value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all
id:OtherC1 value:rgb # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference
id:OtherC2 value:rgb # 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: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:Full from:1958 till:1962 text:Rutgers
bar:2 color:Full from:1958 till:1964 text:Muhlenberg
bar:3 color:Full from:1958 till:1974 text:Gettysburg
bar:4 color:Full from:1958 till:1982 text:St. Joseph's
bar:5 color:Full from:1958 till:1982 text:Temple
bar:6 color:Full from:1958 till:1983 text:La Salle
bar:7 color:Full from:1958 till:1990 text:Bucknell
bar:8 color:Full from:1958 till:1990 text:Lafayette
bar:9 color:Full from:1958 till:1990 text:Lehigh
bar:10 color:Full from:1958 till:1991 text:Delaware
bar:11 color:Full from:1958 till:1991 text:Drexel
bar:12 color:Full from:1965 till:1984 text:American
bar:13 color:Full from:1965 till:1992 text:Hofstra
bar:13 color:Full from:1993 till:1994 text:Hofstra
bar:14 color:Full from:1966 till:1992 text:Rider
bar:15 color:Full from:1969 till:1982 text:West Chester
bar:16 color:Full from:1982 till:1992 text:Towson
bar:17 color:Full from:1990 till:1992 text:UMBC
bar:18 color:Full from:1990 till:1992 text:CCSU
bar:18 color:Full from:1993 till:1994 text:CCSU
bar:19 color:Full from:1990 till:1992 text:Buffalo
bar:19 color:Full from:1993 till:1994 text:Buffalo
bar:20 color:Full from:1991 till:1992 text:Brooklyn
bar:21 color:Full from:1993 till:1994 text:CSU
bar:22 color:Full from:1993 till:1994 text:NEIU
bar:23 color:Full from:1993 till:1994 text:TSU
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:1958
TextData =
fontsize:L
textcolor:black
pos: tabs:
text:^"East Coast Conference Conference Membership History"
  1. > If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. <#