 | |
| Association | NCAA |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1938 |
| Commissioner | Dan Coonan (since 2017) |
| Sports fielded |
|
| Division | I,II,III |
| No. of teams | 220 |
| Headquarters | Danbury, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Region | East Coast |
| Official website | ecacsports |
| Locations | |
 | |
TheEastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) is acollege athletic conference comprising schools that compete in 15sports (13 men's and 12 women's). It has 220 member institutions inNCAADivisions I,II, andIII, ranging in location from Maine to South Carolina and west to Missouri.[1] Most or all members belong to at least one otherathletic conference.
The ECAC was founded as the Central Office for Eastern Intercollegiate Athletics in 1938, largely through the efforts ofJames Lynah ofCornell University. 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 inDanbury, Connecticut. The ECAC also now offersesports competitions to its member schools.
As of fall 2023, there are 78 Division I members.[2]
As of fall 2023, there are 7 Division II members.[3]
As of spring 2018, there are 79 Division III members.[4]
The ECAC has several affiliated single-sport leagues:[5]
Two other formerly affiliated conferences are defunct:
Two existing conferences were affiliated in the past, but have since become independent.
| ECAC SPORTS | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | DI-M | DI-W | DII-M | DII-W | DIII-M | DIII-W | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baseball |  Y | |||||||||||||
| Basketball | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||||||||||
| Cross Country | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||||||||||
| Equestrian | Y | Y | Y | |||||||||||
| Field hockey | Y | |||||||||||||
| Football | Y | Y | ||||||||||||
| Golf | Y | Y | Y | |||||||||||
| Gymnastics | Y | |||||||||||||
| Ice Hockey | ||||||||||||||
| Lacrosse | Y | Y | Y | |||||||||||
| Soccer | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||||||||||
| Softball | Y | Y | ||||||||||||
| Swimming &Diving | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||||||||
| Tennis | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||||||||||
| Track & Field (Indoor) | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||||||||||
| Track & Field (Outdoor) | Y | Y | Y | Y | ||||||||||
| Volleyball | Y | Y | Y | |||||||||||
At various times, the ECAC has organized regionalcollege basketball championship tournaments at the end of the regular season for teams playing at the NCAADivision I,Division II, andDivision III 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 theNCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, 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.[6][7]
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.[6]
Infootball, the ECAC organizes fourNCAA Division IIIbowl games each year. The bowl games are as follow:
41°38′34″N70°20′47.48″W / 41.64278°N 70.3465222°W /41.64278; -70.3465222