The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I. Its current 11 full members are located in four Northeastern states: Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Maryland. It was announced on October 23, 2023 that Sacred Heart University and Merrimack College will join the conference beginning in the 2024-25 season.
The University of Hartford (UHart) is a private university in West Hartford, Connecticut. Its 350-acre (1.4 km2) main campus extends into neighboring Hartford and Bloomfield. The university is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education.
The America East Conference (AmEast) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of nine member schools across the states of California, Oregon, and Washington.
Scott David Burrell is an American basketball coach and former player who is currently the men's basketball head coach at Southern Connecticut State University. He has played internationally and was also a professional baseball player. In 1990, Burrell was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays of MLB. He played in Minor League Baseball during the 1990 and 1991 seasons. After ending his baseball career, he was drafted in 1993 by the Charlotte Hornets of the NBA. He was later traded to the Golden State Warriors and then the Chicago Bulls, where he won a championship ring. He next played with the New Jersey Nets and then finished his NBA career with the Hornets in 2000–01. He played in other professional basketball leagues through the 2005–06 season.
Dan Leibovitz is a former American basketball coach. He was an assistant coach for the Charlotte Bobcats of the NBA for the 2012-13 season, and previously a college head coach at Hartford from 2006–10, and an assistant coach at Temple (1996-2006) and Penn (2010-2012). Leibovitz worked as the Associate Commissioner for men’s basketball for the Southeastern Conference (2016-2023). He is currently the Senior Associate Commissioner for Men's Basketball for the Big East.
Pat Meiser is a college women's basketball coach. She is best known for her 6-year run as head coach of Penn State, in which she compiled a 92–52 record. Following that, she became the athletics director at the University of Hartford. She was named one of the nation's top 50 women's sports executives by Street and Smith's Sports Business Journal. She has also worked as the associate athletic director at the University of Connecticut.
The UConn Huskies men's basketball program is the NCAA Division I men's college basketball team of the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Connecticut. They currently play in the Big East Conference and are coached by Dan Hurley. With six national championships and 45 conference titles, the program is considered one of the blue bloods of college basketball.
Evansville, Indiana is the home to two minor league professional sports teams and one amateur sports team. The city is also the home to two NCAA collegiate teams, and nine high schools that participate in the Indiana High School Athletic Association. Evansville is also the host to the annual Hoosier Nationals and Demolition City Roller Derby.
Huskies of Honor is a recognition program sponsored by the University of Connecticut (UConn). Similar to a hall of fame, it honors the most significant figures in the history of the UConn Huskies—the university's athletic teams—especially the men's and women's basketball teams. The inaugural honorees, inducted in two separate ceremonies during the 2006–07 season, included thirteen men's basketball players, ten women's basketball players, and four head coaches, of whom two coaches—Jim Calhoun and Geno Auriemma—and two players—Ray Allen and Rebecca Lobo—are also enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Since that time, an additional nine women's basketball players, seven men's basketball players, five national championship teams, one women's basketball assistant coach, and one athletic director have been honored.
The Hartford Hawks baseball team is the varsity intercollegiate baseball program of the University of Hartford, located in West Hartford, Connecticut. The program is a member of the NCAA Division III Commonwealth Coast Conference. The program had been a member of the NCAA Division I America East Conference from 1985 to 2022. It has played home games at Fiondella Field since the venue opened at the start of the 2006 season.
The Northeast Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year is an annual award given to the Northeast Conference's (NEC) most outstanding player. The award was first given following the 1982–83 season, when the league was known as the ECAC Metro Conference.
The Hartford Hawks men's basketball team is the basketball team that represents University of Hartford in West Hartford, Connecticut. The school's team currently competes as a member of the NCAA Division III Commonwealth Coast Conference.
The Bryant Bulldogs baseball team is the NCAA division 1 varsity intercollegiate baseball team of Bryant University, located in Smithfield, Rhode Island. The program participates a member of the America East Conference. The Bulldogs previously participated as members of the Northeast Conference. It plays at Conaty Park on the northern edge of Bryant's campus. Ryan Klosterman has been the program's head coach since the 2020 season.
The Cal State Los Angeles Golden Eagles are the athletic teams that represent California State University, Los Angeles in NCAA Division II intercollegiate sports. The Golden Eagles compete as members of the California Collegiate Athletic Association for all 10 varsity sports. Cal State LA previously competed in Division I and was a founding member of the Pacific Coast Athletic Association in 1969, leaving in 1974 but not before winning the conference's basketball title and participating in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.
The Trevecca Trojans are the athletic teams that represent Trevecca Nazarene University, located in Nashville, Tennessee, in intercollegiate sports at the NCAA Division II ranks. The Trojans have primarily competed in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) since the 2012–13 academic year.
The Hartford Hawks women's basketball team is the basketball team that represents the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States. The school's team currently competes as in the NCAA Division III Commonwealth Coast Conference. The school began the women's basketball team in 1975 as a Division III school. The program moved to Division II and was a member of the Northeast-10 Conference between 1980 and 1984. The school transitioned to Division I in 1984, playing as an independent school in 1984–85, and then becoming part of the Seaboard Conference in 1985–86. The Seaboard Conference became the North Atlantic Conference in 1989, and changed their name to America East in 1996.
Mark Krikorian is an American sports executive and former soccer coach who is president of soccer operations and general manager of Washington Spirit.
Jim Bretz is an American baseball scout and former college baseball coach. He is the Northeast Scouting Director for the Detroit Tigers and was previously the head coach of UNC Asheville (1991–1994) and Hartford (1995–1997).
The Central Connecticut–Hartford rivalry refers to the American collegiate athletics rivalry between the Central Connecticut Blue Devils sports teams of Central Connecticut State University and Hartford Hawks sports teams of the University of Hartford. The two campuses are located 10 miles apart. Unlike most in-state rivalries Hartford and Central Connecticut compete in difference conferences. Hartford competes in the America East Conference and Central Connecticut competes in the Northeast Conference. On May 6, 2021 the University of Hartford board of regents voted to transition the university’s athletic program from Division I to Division III, putting the future of the rivalry in doubt.
