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2009 Field Hockey
Northeast Conference
As it strives toward becoming a NCAA Division I leader for athletic
achievement, academic integrity, and sportsmanship, the Northeast
Conference continues to ensure that the personal development of
its student-athletes is its highest priority. Now in its 29th year of
service, the NEC aims for a greater national presence while remain-
ing committed to the local communities of its member institutions.
The NEC can trace its roots back to 1981, when the league was
first established as the men’s basketball-only ECAC-Metro Confer -
ence. A single-sport entity at its inception, even the league’s most
ardent supporters during its formative years could not have envisioned
a transformation into a burgeoning 12-member, 22-sport conference.
The remarkable success story of the conference began to unfold
in 1985, when the league began sponsoring additional sports.
Three years later, a change of name was in order and the Northeast
Conference as we know it today was born. With membership and
sport sponsorship continuing to grow over the next decade and
beyond, the NEC now enjoys qualification or play-in access to 13
different NCAA Championships (baseball, men’s and women’s
basketball, field hockey, men’s and women’s golf, women’s
lacrosse, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, men’s and women’s To supplement one of the premier regional basketball television
tennis and women’s volleyball). packages in the country, the conference also produces a football
package and a preseason basketball show entitled NEC Countdown
Though the NEC has featured various looks since its inception, to Tipoff. Over the last five years, the Conference has televised
charter members Fairleigh Dickinson, Long Island, Robert Morris, nearly 150 events, as the league’s coverage area expanded to
St. Francis (NY), Saint Francis (PA) and Wagner remain part of 40 million homes plus coverage internationally. Along with flagship
the current 12-school alignment. They are joined by Monmouth station MSG Network, other regional television partners include
(admitted in 1985), Mount St. Mary’s (1989), Central Connecticut MSG Plus (formerly FSN-New York), FSN-Pittsburgh, MASN, Fox
State (1997), Quinnipiac (1998) and Sacred Heart (1999). NEC College Sports, Cox Cable and the Connecticut Sports Network.
expansion continues with the addition of Bryant University in 2012 In 2009, ESPN broadcast the men’s basketball championship game
as the league’s 12th member, which will give the league a six-state for the 22nd straight year, while ESPNU carried the women’s
geographic footprint with access to such major media markets as championship game, marking the second time in as many years
New York City, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Hartford and Providence. that the women’s contest reached a nationwide audience.
NEC member institutions now compete in 22 championship sports: Further enhancing its multimedia efforts, the league will begin web-
baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, women’s bowling, men’s streaming a women’s basketball game of the week in 2009-10, and
and women’s cross country, field hockey, football, men’s and women’s raise the number of NEC championship webcasts from five to eight.
golf, men’s and women’s indoor track and field, women’s lacrosse,
men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, men’s and women’s
Academic Success
soccer, softball, women’s swimming, men’s and women’s tennis,
and women’s volleyball. Men’s lacrosse will become the league’
The Northeast Conference’s commitment to academic excellence
s
23rd sport in 2010-11.
translated into national recognition for both individual student-athletes
and the league’s member institutions as a whole. NEC student-
NEC Website/Television
athletes graduated at an 83.8 percent rate, which is well above
the national average of 78 percent according to NCAA Graduation
More widely-recognized than ever, the NEC is providing a number Success Rate (GSR) data. Likewise, a total of 19 NEC teams
of new ways in which its growing fan base can follow the action. garnered public recognition from the NCAA for their latest Academic
Progress Rate (APR) scores. The league placed 42 representatives
The Conference began by fulfilling its strategic plan-driven new on ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District teams, five of whom
media initiatives in 2008-09 when it launched its own YouTube went onto garner Academic All-America Honors. The first team
channel, created NEC On The Run podcast segments, and added honorees were Fairleigh Dickinson’s Matt Maher (baseball), who
NEC Flashbacks, a video on-demand archive, to its website. More was a third team recipient in 2008, and Wagner’s Andrea Lazzari
recently, the league dove into the social media arena by launching (softball). Saint Francis (PA)’s Eric Reifsteck (field hockey, second
a Facebook page and offering periodic news updates via Twitter. team), Monmouth’s Ben Evenden (tennis, third team) and CCSU’s
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