America East Conference
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America East Conference

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America East Conference

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.

Founded in 1979, the conference has nine core members including eight public research universities, three of which - the University of Maine, the University of New Hampshire, and the University of Vermont - are the flagship universities of their states. Two non-flagship university centers of the State University of New York - the University at Albany and Binghamton University - are in the conference along with UMass Lowell, New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) and Bryant University. Bryant is the latest institution to join the conference in 2022, when Stony Brook University and the University of Hartford departed the conference. It is the only private university among the core members.

The America East Conference sponsors 18 sports (8 men's and 10 women's).

The America East Conference was founded as the Eastern College Athletic Conference-North, a men's basketball-only athletic conference, in 1979. The conference was known as the Eastern College Athletic Conference-North from 1979 to 1988 and the North Atlantic Conference from 1988 to 1996. The charter members were the University of Rhode Island, the College of the Holy Cross, Canisius College, Niagara University, Colgate University, Northeastern University, Boston University, the University of Maine, the University of New Hampshire and the University of Vermont. The America East Conference made history during the 2018 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament on March 16, 2018, when No. 16 seed UMBC defeated No. 1 seed Virginia, marking the first time in men's tournament history that a No. 1 seed had lost to a No. 16 seed.

Many other events have occurred since its formation:

On May 6, 2021, Hartford's governing board voted to begin the process of transitioning the school from Division I to NCAA Division III. Under the plan, Hartford would formally apply to the NCAA for reclassification in January 2022, stop awarding athletic scholarships to incoming students from 2022–23 forward, and join an as-yet-undetermined D-III conference in 2023 before becoming a full D-III member in 2025–26.

Several media reports indicated that Hartford's last year in the American East Conference would be the 2021–22 season. This was confirmed on June 21, 2022, when the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC; now known as the Conference of New England) announced that it would be Hartford's partner in the school's reclassification process, with the Hawks joining that league effective in 2023–24. Hartford played most of its sports in the 2022–23 season as a D-I independent.

At the time, Hartford was the only private university in the conference; this status transferred to Bryant when it joined in July 2022.

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