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 | http://www.ecacsports.com |
Locations | |
The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) is a college athletic conference comprising schools that compete in 15 sports (13 men's and 13 women's). It has 220 member institutions in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III, ranging in location from Maine to South Carolina and west to Missouri. [1] Most or all members belong to at least one other athletic conference.
The ECAC was founded as the Central Office for Eastern Intercollegiate Athletics in 1938, largely through the efforts of James Lynah of Cornell 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 in Danbury, Connecticut. The ECAC also now offers esports 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]
ECAC SPORTS | ||||||||||||||
Sport | DI-M | DI-W | DII-M | DII-W | DIII-M | DIII-W | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Baseball | ||||||||||||||
Basketball | ||||||||||||||
Cross Country | ||||||||||||||
Equestrian | ||||||||||||||
Field Hockey | ||||||||||||||
Football | ||||||||||||||
Golf | ||||||||||||||
Gymnastics | ||||||||||||||
Ice Hockey | ||||||||||||||
Lacrosse | ||||||||||||||
Soccer | ||||||||||||||
Softball | ||||||||||||||
Swimming & Diving | ||||||||||||||
Tennis | ||||||||||||||
Track & Field (Indoor) | ||||||||||||||
Track & Field (Outdoor) | ||||||||||||||
Volleyball |
At various times, the ECAC has organized regional college basketball championship tournaments at the end of the regular season for teams playing at the NCAA Division I, Division II, and Division 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 the NCAA 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]
In football, the ECAC organizes four NCAA Division III bowl games each year. The bowl games are as follow:
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and one in Canada. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and helps over 500,000 college student athletes who compete annually in college sports. The organization is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana.
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The Rutgers Scarlet Knights are the athletic teams that represent Rutgers University's New Brunswick campus. In sports, Rutgers is famously known for being the "Birthplace of College Football", hosting the first ever intercollegiate football game on November 6, 1869, in which Rutgers defeated a team from the College of New Jersey with a score of 6 runs to 4.
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The UC Santa Barbara Gauchos are the intercollegiate athletic teams who represent the University of California, Santa Barbara. Referred to in athletic competition as UC Santa Barbara or UCSB, the Gauchos participate in 19 NCAA Division I intercollegiate sports with the majority competing in the Big West Conference. UCSB currently fields varsity teams in 10 men's sports and 9 women's sports.
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The FIU Panthers are the athletic teams representing Florida International University, an American public university located in Miami, Florida. The Panthers currently compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I athletics as members of Conference USA. The men's soccer and swimming & diving teams compete in the American Athletic Conference. Until 2011, they were known as the FIU Golden Panthers.
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