ECAC Timeline

The Eastern College Athletic Conference is an athletic conference that offers 19 sports (15 of them for men and 17 for women) that play under the sanctioning of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Many of the schools are members of other conferences; but are members of the ECAC for sports that their primary conference does not offer.

From its' formation as a hockey conference in 1961 just about every team that has played in New England or New York since that time has played in the ECAC at one point in their history or play in a conference that has split off from the ECAC.

1938
The all-sport conference is formed.

1961
ECAC starts sponsoring men's ice hockey on a non-divisional basis.

1964
Men's ice hockey is split into Division I and Division II.

1971
Men's Division III is formed, with teams coming from Division II.

1983
The Eastern Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women is consolidated into the conference.

1984
Hockey East is formed when the members withdraw from the ECAC in response to what is perceived to be the Ivy League members trying to reduce the amount of games being played to allow student athletes to focus on academics.

1985
Division III is split into ECAC North, ECAC South, and ECAC West.

1992
ECAC Central is created with some teams from ECAC North and ECAC South. The State University of New York Athletic Conference begins formal conference play when members join from the ECAC West.

1997
ECAC East forms a women's hockey conference with an informal schedule, a full league schedule starts with the 1999-2000 season.

1998
The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference is formed from from Division I and III members of the ECAC after the NCAA passed a regulation requiring all schools classified as Division I to play all of the sports at the Division I level. ECAC East is formed from parts of ECAC Central, ECAC North, and ECAC South.

1999
The men's New England Small College Athletic Conference is formed when all of the members withdraw from the ECAC.

2001
The ECAC West and New England Small College Athletic Conference both form a women's hockey conference.

2003
The Division II Northeast-10 conference begins play.

2004
ECAC Hockey becomes independent of the ECAC; but retains the name under a licensing agreement.

2008
The Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference is reformed with members re-joining from the ECAC Northeast and ECAC East.

2015
ECAC East men's and women's conferences are renamed the New England Hockey Conference when the league's affiliation agreement ends with the ECAC.

2016
The Commonwealth Coast Conference is formed from the ECAC Northeast when the league's affiliation agreement ends with the ECAC.

2017
The United Collegiate Hockey Conference (UCHC) begins play with most members joining from ECAC West. The Middle Atlantic Conferences (MAC) will also sponsor ice hockey as its members will all play in the UCHC. Games between MAC members during the UCHC regular season will be used to determine a MAC champion.

Ivy League
The six hockey playing members of the Ivy League all play in the ECAC in both the men's and women's leagues. The Ivy League uses the ECAC games between the Ivy League members to determine an Ivy League champion each year.

State University of New York Athletic Conference
The SUNYAC had been playing as a sub-conference within the ECAC West from 1977 to 1992. The SUNYAC had held a post season tournament from 1985 to 1992. The SUNYAC started play as its' own conference for the 1992-93 season.