Yankee Conference


The Yankee Conference was a collegiate sports conference in the eastern United States. It once sponsored competition in many sports, but eventually became a football-only league. Although not under the same charter, it is essentially an ancestor of today's Colonial Athletic Association football conference.
The Yankee Conference essentially was formed in 1938 as the New England Conference. The NCAA however considers the Yankee Conference and New England Conference to be two separate conferences, as they were formed under different charters.

Formation

In 1945, Northeastern University, the only private school in the New England Conference, announced its departure. This led the remaining four members, all land-grant colleges and universities in New England, to form a committee to explore the formation of a new conference. The committee recommended that the four current members join with two New England land-grant institutions, the University of Massachusetts and the University of Vermont. This led to the formation of the Yankee Conference in December 1946, with athletic competition beginning in the 1947–48 school year.

Charter members

In 1971, the College of the Holy Cross joined the conference in football for only a year, and in 1974, Vermont dropped its football program. In 1975 the conference allowed its members to choose conference participation on a sport-by-sport basis. Later in the year, it opted to end sponsorship of all sports except football. Starting in the 1980s, a number of schools from outside New England joined the conference.
It existed until 1997, when NCAA legislation limiting the influence of single-sport conferences over policy became effective. Facing extinction, the conference merged with the Atlantic 10 Conference on November 13, 1996. After membership changes in the Colonial Athletic Association over the following 10 years, management of the A-10 football conference passed to the CAA in 2007.

Modern club football conference

The phrase "Yankee Conference" is alluded to in the modern , which fields teams at the club football level. Three of the schools in the original Yankee Conference, Boston University, Maine and Vermont, field teams in the modern Yankee Conference; neither Boston nor Vermont has a varsity team, and thus the club football team is the highest ranking football team representing the school in both cases.

Member institutions

InstitutionLocationFoundedTypeJoinedNicknameColors
Boston UniversityBoston, MA1839Private1973TerriersScarlet & White
University of ConnecticutStorrs, CT1881Public1946HuskiesNational Flag Blue & White
University of DelawareNewark, DE1743Private and Public1986Fightin' Blue HensBlue & Yellow-Gold
College of the Holy CrossWorcester, MA1843Private1971CrusadersPurple & White
James Madison UniversityHarrisonburg, VA1908Public1993DukesPurple & Gold
University of MaineOrono, ME1865Public1946Black BearsDark Blue, Light Blue, & White
University of Massachusetts AmherstAmherst, MA1863Public1946Aggies/Redmen/MinutemenMaroon & White
University of New HampshireDurham, NH1866Public1946WildcatsUNH Blue & White
Northeastern UniversityBoston, MA1898Private1993HuskiesBlack & Red
University of Rhode IslandKingston, RI1892Public1946RamsKeaney blue, White, & Navy Blue
University of RichmondRichmond, VA1830Private1986SpidersUR Blue & UR Red
University of VermontBurlington, VT1791Public1946CatamountsGreen & Gold
Villanova UniversityVillanova, PA1842Private1988WildcatsBlue & White
The College of William & MaryWilliamsburg, VA1693Public1993TribeGreen & Gold

Membership timeline


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Period = from:1947 till:2002
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bar:1 color:powderblue from:1947 till:1996 text:Connecticut
bar:2 color:powderblue from:1947 till:1996 text:Maine
bar:3 color:powderblue from:1947 till:1996 text:Massachusetts
bar:4 color:powderblue from:1947 till:1996 text:New Hampshire
bar:5 color:powderblue from:1947 till:1996 text:Rhode Island
bar:6 color:powderblue from:1947 till:1976 text:Vermont
bar:7 color:powderblue from:1971 till:1972 text:Holy Cross
bar:8 color:powderblue from:1973 till:1996 text:Boston
bar:9 color:powderblue from:1986 till:1996 text:Delaware
bar:10 color:powderblue from:1986 till:1996 text:Richmond
bar:11 color:powderblue from:1988 till:1996 text:Villanova
bar:12 color:powderblue from:1993 till:1996 text:James Madison
bar:13 color:powderblue from:1993 till:1996 text:Northeastern
bar:14 color:powderblue from:1993 till:1996 text:William & Mary
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text:"Yankee Conference membership history"

Overtime rule

The Yankee Conference was the first college football conference to implement college football's current overtime rules. The overtime rules known as the "Kansas Playoff" or "Kansas Plan" where each team is given a possession at the 25 yard line was used by the Yankee Conference to determine the end to tie games well before it was adopted by the rest of the NCAA in 1996.

Conference champions

Football

Source

Men's basketball