The MASCAC (Massachusetts State College Athletic Conference), with little to no notice, voted out the four football affiliates which house their main Olympic sports in the Little East, as of the 2025 season: Plymouth State, Castleton, UMass-Dartmouth, and Western Connecticut.

Affiliate members Anna Maria (GNAC) and Dean (GNAC) will apparently continue in the MASCAC along with core members Bridgewater State, Fitchburg State, Framingham State, Mass. Maritime, Worcester State and Westfield State, leaving an eight team conference.

Word is, the MASCAC was worried that the Little East was going to start football and leave them high and dry, so decided to act first. Curiously, those are the only four Little East schools with football so it's unclear what conference they would start. The only regional independent is Gallaudet, which is only regional if you squint. There are a number of Little East schools without football, but there haven't been strong rumors around any of them starting (or re-starting) a program.

For the "were they just too good?" crowd, there was a three way tie this year atop the standings at 7-1: UMass-Dartmouth (Little East), Bridgewater State (MASCAC), and Western Connecticut (Little East). WestConn got the NCAA bid. In 2022, UMass-Dartmouth (LEC) went 8-0. Plymouth State (LEC) and WestConn (LEC) tied with Bridgewater (MASCAC) for second at 6-2. Framingham State (MASCAC) was 8-0 in 2021. The Little East teams were certainly very good, compared to the average MASCAC team (Castleton is bad but they don't actually start MASCAC play until 2024).

Sources:

https://twitter.com/d3football/status/17...1767026149

https://twitter.com/FrankRossi/status/17...40260?s=20

Those 4 teams could do a scheduling/conference affiliate with the ASC. They are also down to 4 teams.

Conference affiliation agreements need to be better, then.

Big Sky has three affiliates in two sports (UC-Davis and Cal Poly in Football, Binghampton in Men's Golf). They are considered full members for that sport, and can't be just kicked out like what MASCAC did.

Could those schools from the Little East Conference upgrade to go D2 and join the Northeast 10 Conference? They need replacements after losing Merrimack and Stonehill. Some of them could upgrade their facilities since they are big enough for D1. UMass.-Boston, UMass.-Dartmouth, Southern Maine and Rhode Island College are big enough to be D1. Those northern Little East public schools could get better exposure if they moved up to D2. May help those Vermont schools.

(11-29-2023 04:11 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Could those schools from the Little East Conference upgrade to go D2 and join the Northeast 10 Conference? They need replacements after losing Merrimack and Stonehill. Some of them could upgrade their facilities since they are big enough for D1. UMass.-Boston, UMass.-Dartmouth, Southern Maine and Rhode Island College are big enough to be D1. Those northern Little East public schools could get better exposure if they moved up to D2. May help those Vermont schools.

Wonder if that was a concern for the MASCAC schools that produced the eviction notice?

(11-29-2023 04:11 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Could those schools from the Little East Conference upgrade to go D2 and join the Northeast 10 Conference? They need replacements after losing Merrimack and Stonehill. Some of them could upgrade their facilities since they are big enough for D1. UMass.-Boston, UMass.-Dartmouth, Southern Maine and Rhode Island College are big enough to be D1. Those northern Little East public schools could get better exposure if they moved up to D2. May help those Vermont schools.

Northeast 10 is one of the worst D2 football conferences. They are down to 8 teams but Post University in Waterbury, CT is joining next year so that brings them back up to 9. I wouldnt go beyond 10 if I were them. No need. Any conference that has non football members its going to be complicated who they add. So I have no idea if they are looking for a 10th football only associate member like Post or a all sports member. Of course if and when they lose New Haven its gonna be even worse of a football conference since they are the premier program.

(11-29-2023 04:11 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Could those schools from the Little East Conference upgrade to go D2 and join the Northeast 10 Conference? They need replacements after losing Merrimack and Stonehill. Some of them could upgrade their facilities since they are big enough for D1. UMass.-Boston, UMass.-Dartmouth, Southern Maine and Rhode Island College are big enough to be D1. Those northern Little East public schools could get better exposure if they moved up to D2. May help those Vermont schools.

No.

-D3 is seen as more prestigious in New England than D2. You play the NESCAC schools, MIT, etc. D2 is for private diploma mills like Southern New Hampshire or New Haven. There is no "better exposure" because you are in the Northeast-10. Heck, UMass sports don't even get covered on local news!

-No state legislature is going to allocate money to upgrade athletic facilities at any of these schools. Even asking would probably get the president of the school fired. Unless some alumni member I don't know about won Powerball, private donations aren't there in the millions to make that happen, either.

-Scholarships cost money. Why would you switch to a scholarship model instead of a D3 model wherein every athlete you bring in pays tuition (in many cases full tuition)???

(11-29-2023 04:18 PM)darkdragon99 Wrote:  

(11-29-2023 04:11 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Could those schools from the Little East Conference upgrade to go D2 and join the Northeast 10 Conference? They need replacements after losing Merrimack and Stonehill. Some of them could upgrade their facilities since they are big enough for D1. UMass.-Boston, UMass.-Dartmouth, Southern Maine and Rhode Island College are big enough to be D1. Those northern Little East public schools could get better exposure if they moved up to D2. May help those Vermont schools.

Northeast 10 is one of the worst D2 football conferences. They are down to 8 teams but Post University in Waterbury, CT is joining next year so that brings them back up to 9. I wouldnt go beyond 10 if I were them. No need. Any conference that has non football members its going to be complicated who they add. So I have no idea if they are looking for a 10th football only associate member like Post or a all sports member. Of course if and when they lose New Haven its gonna be even worse of a football conference since they are the premier program.

They have 4 members without football. New Haven, Bentley and Southern New Hampshire are rumored to go D1. Post could go as well, but they will be faced with issues since they are for-profit school. I forgot Lemoyne also left for D1 as well.

(11-29-2023 04:41 PM)ccd494 Wrote:  

(11-29-2023 04:11 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Could those schools from the Little East Conference upgrade to go D2 and join the Northeast 10 Conference? They need replacements after losing Merrimack and Stonehill. Some of them could upgrade their facilities since they are big enough for D1. UMass.-Boston, UMass.-Dartmouth, Southern Maine and Rhode Island College are big enough to be D1. Those northern Little East public schools could get better exposure if they moved up to D2. May help those Vermont schools.

No.

-D3 is seen as more prestigious in New England than D2. You play the NESCAC schools, MIT, etc. D2 is for private diploma mills like Southern New Hampshire or New Haven. There is no "better exposure" because you are in the Northeast-10. Heck, UMass sports don't even get covered on local news!

-No state legislature is going to allocate money to upgrade athletic facilities at any of these schools. Even asking would probably get the president of the school fired. Unless some alumni member I don't know about won Powerball, private donations aren't there in the millions to make that happen, either.

-Scholarships cost money. Why would you switch to a scholarship model instead of a D3 model wherein every athlete you bring in pays tuition (in many cases full tuition)???

UMass.-Lowell upgraded from D3 to D1, and it was fine for them to move up.
Southern New Hampshire is a non-profit school now, and is being recognized as that by the higher ed. New Haven is more a Religious school. I think you are thinking of Post which is a for-profit school.

(11-29-2023 04:48 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(11-29-2023 04:41 PM)ccd494 Wrote:  

(11-29-2023 04:11 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Could those schools from the Little East Conference upgrade to go D2 and join the Northeast 10 Conference? They need replacements after losing Merrimack and Stonehill. Some of them could upgrade their facilities since they are big enough for D1. UMass.-Boston, UMass.-Dartmouth, Southern Maine and Rhode Island College are big enough to be D1. Those northern Little East public schools could get better exposure if they moved up to D2. May help those Vermont schools.

No.

-D3 is seen as more prestigious in New England than D2. You play the NESCAC schools, MIT, etc. D2 is for private diploma mills like Southern New Hampshire or New Haven. There is no "better exposure" because you are in the Northeast-10. Heck, UMass sports don't even get covered on local news!

-No state legislature is going to allocate money to upgrade athletic facilities at any of these schools. Even asking would probably get the president of the school fired. Unless some alumni member I don't know about won Powerball, private donations aren't there in the millions to make that happen, either.

-Scholarships cost money. Why would you switch to a scholarship model instead of a D3 model wherein every athlete you bring in pays tuition (in many cases full tuition)???

UMass.-Lowell upgraded from D3 to D1, and it was fine for them to move up.
Southern New Hampshire is a non-profit school now, and is being recognized as that by the higher ed. New Haven is more a Religious school. I think you are thinking of Post which is a for-profit school.

UMass Lowell moved from D2 to D1 and already had a D1 level facility for their hockey program.

I didn’t say anything about for profit vs non-profit, I said private. The schools in the NE-10, I guess excepting Bentley, are very poorly regarded academically in the region.