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Mountain East Conference

U.S. college athletic conference From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mountain East Conference
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The Mountain East Conference (MEC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level and officially began competition on September 1, 2013. It consists of 11 schools, mostly in West Virginia with other members in Maryland and Pennsylvania.

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Formation and history

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Mountain East Conference
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60km
37miles
Charleston
Shawnee State
Davis & Elkins
Frostburg State
W.V. Wesleyan
West Virginia State
Wheeling
West Liberty
Point Park
Glenville State
Fairmont State
Concord
Location of MEC members: current, future

The conference is an offshoot of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC), another Division II conference that had operated primarily in West Virginia since 1924. In June 2012, the nine football-playing schools in that conference announced plans to break away and form a new all-sports conference. The schools that made the initial announcement were the University of Charleston, Concord University, Fairmont State University, Glenville State College (now a university), Seton Hill University, Shepherd University, West Liberty University, West Virginia State University, and West Virginia Wesleyan College.[1] All of these schools were in West Virginia, except for Seton Hill, located in Pennsylvania. According to regional media, the split was "supposedly rooted in different philosophies of progressivism",[2] and also was partially driven by a desire to expand the new conference's footprint outside West Virginia.[3] The divisions in the WVIAC were also rooted in the split between public and private schools, although the departing schools included institutions of both types.[4]

At the time of the original announcement, the nine schools planned to expand to at least 12 members.[2] Before the official launch of the conference on August 20, 2012,[5] the MEC sought to add the WVIAC's other Pennsylvania member, the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; however, both Seton Hill and Pittsburgh–Johnstown chose to join the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC).[3] The MEC filled out its charter membership with another West Virginia school, Wheeling Jesuit University, today known as Wheeling University; two Ohio schools, Notre Dame College and Urbana University; and the University of Virginia's College at Wise (UVA Wise), located in Southwest Virginia.[5] Wheeling Jesuit was a WVIAC member that had been left out of the original WVIAC split.[3] Urbana and UVA Wise were members of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) in 2012–13, while Notre Dame was a Division II independent that had housed five of its 22 sports in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.[5] UVA Wise, which had previously been turned down for WVIAC membership,[3] was transitioning from the NAIA and did not officially become an active D-II member until 2015-16; all of the other charter members were already full D-II members.[5]

At its launch, the MEC had 11 football members, with Wheeling (then known as Wheeling Jesuit) being the only non-football school.[3] On February 15, 2013, the NCAA accepted the MEC as its 25th D2 conference.[6] The 2015–16 school year was the first in which MEC teams were eligible for automatic bids to NCAA Division II championships; before then, they were eligible only for at-large bids.[6]

In 2018, UVA Wise and the South Atlantic Conference (SAC) jointly announced on April 13 that UVA Wise would leave the MEC to join the SAC for 2019–20 and beyond.[7] Next, Shepherd and the PSAC jointly announced on June 7 that Shepherd would join the PSAC in 2019, becoming that league's first full member outside of Pennsylvania.[8] The MEC would replace both members in the ensuing months. On July 5, the Mountain East Conference announced that Frostburg State University had accepted an offer of membership beginning with the 2019–20 academic year, contingent upon Frostburg State achieving active membership status in NCAA Division II (which would occur on the announced schedule).[9] Finally, on August 30, the MEC announced two additional new members effective in 2019–20. Davis & Elkins College would become a full member, and the University of North Carolina at Pembroke (UNC Pembroke) would join in five sports. UNC Pembroke began MEC competition in men's and women's indoor track & field, women's swimming & diving, and wrestling in 2019, with football following in 2020.[10]

Multiple MEC membership changes were announced in 2020. On April 16, multi-sport associate member UNC Pembroke announced it would join Conference Carolinas (CC) effective in 2021–22. Because CC sponsors all of the non-football sports that UNCP housed in the MEC, UNCP is now an MEC member only in football.[11] Five days later, charter member Urbana announced it would close at the end of the 2019–20 school year.[12] Finally, on June 5, Alderson Broaddus University, a West Virginia school left out of the WVIAC split, announced that it would leave the G-MAC to join the MEC the following month.[13] However, their tenure in the MEC was short-lived, as on July 31, 2023, Alderson Broaddus' authorization to grant degrees was revoked, resulting in the immediate suspension of all athletics.[14]

In 2024, charter member Notre Dame College announced it would shut down.[15] That same year, it was announced that Point Park University would join the conference from the NAIA River States Conference. This marked the MEC’s first member in Pennsylvania.[16]

Chronological timeline

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Member schools

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Current members

The Mountain East currently has 11 full members, with five being private and six being public schools. Reclassifying members listed in yellow.

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Notes
  1. Represents the calendar year when fall sports competition begins.

Future member

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Notes
  1. Represents the calendar year when fall sports competition begins.
  2. Currently an NAIA conference.

Associate members

The Mountain East currently has three associate members, one public school and two private schools:

More information Institution, Location ...
Notes
  1. Represents the calendar year when fall sports competition begins.
  2. Salem also has a non-conference scheduling agreement with the MEC for baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, and women’s volleyball.[19]


Former members

The Mountain East had five former full members; three are private schools which left the MEC when the schools closed, while two are public schools that remain in operation.

More information Institution, Location ...
Notes
  1. Represents the calendar year when fall sports competition begins.
  2. Represents the calendar year when spring sports competition ends.

Former associate member

Current Mountain East football associate UNC Pembroke had housed four sports in the MEC before it joined a conference that sponsored all of those sports.

More information Institution, Location ...
Notes
  1. Represents the calendar year when fall sports competition begins.
  2. Represents the calendar year when spring sports competition ends.
  3. UNC Pembroke remains in the Mountain East as an associate member for football.

Membership timeline

Shawnee State UniversityKutztown University of PennsylvaniaSalem UniversityDominican University of CaliforniaPoint Park UniversityAlderson Broaddus UniversityUniversity of North Carolina at PembrokeFrostburg State UniversityDavis %26 Elkins CollegeWheeling UniversityWest Virginia Wesleyan CollegeWest Virginia State UniversityWest Liberty UniversitySouth Atlantic ConferenceUniversity of Virginia's College at WiseUrbana UniversityPennsylvania State Athletic ConferenceShepherd UniversityNotre Dame CollegeGlenville State UniversityFairmont State UniversityConcord UniversityUniversity of Charleston

 Full members (all sports)   Full members (non-football)   Associate members (football-only)   Associate members (other)  Other Conference Other Conference

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Sports

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The MEC sponsored 16 sports in all, eight each for men and women, at its formation.[3] Women's lacrosse became the 17th conference sport for the 2014–15 school year (2015 season). Men's and women's swimming and diving were added as the 18th and 19th conference sports for 2017–18, with the MEC and Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) forming a swimming and diving alliance that conducts a joint conference championship meet.[33] The following school year saw the MEC add acrobatics & tumbling as an official sport, two years before it was added to the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program.[34] The MEC was the first NCAA conference to establish acrobatics & tumbling as an official sport.[35] The most recently added sports are men's and women's indoor track & field and wrestling, which debuted in 2019–20.[10]

A divisional format is used for basketball (M/W), baseball, soccer (W), softball and volleyball (W).
North
  • Fairmont State
  • Frostburg State
  • Point Park
  • West Liberty
  • Wheeling
South
  • Charleston
  • Concord
  • Davis & Elkins
  • Glenville State
  • West Virginia State
  • West Virginia Wesleyan
More information Sport, Men's ...


Men's sponsored sports by school

Departing member in pink.

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Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the Mountain East Conference which are played by MEC schools:

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  1. Effective Division I sport; the NCAA's top-level championship is open to members of Divisions I and II.

Women's sponsored sports by school

More information School, Acrobatics & Tumbling ...

Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Mountain East Conference which are played by MEC schools:

More information School, Field Hockey ...
  1. Included in the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program.
  2. Point Park has not yet announced an affiliation for its women's wrestling team.

In addition to the above:

  • Charleston considers its female cheerleaders (but not its male cheerleaders) to be varsity athletes.
  • Glenville State considers its female cheerleaders (but not its male cheerleaders) to be varsity athletes. It also fields men's and women's teams in the non-NCAA sport of boxing.
  • Wheeling fields a varsity team in the non-NCAA sport of men's rugby.
  • Future member Point Park considers its cheerleaders, both male and female, and its all-female dance team to be varsity athletes. It also sponsors a varsity esports program, with men and women competing alongside and against one another.
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National Championships

Since the founding of the conference in 2013, member institutions of the Mountain East Conference have won six NCAA national championships.

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Conference facilities

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More information School, Football ...

Note: Shawnee State is set to join the conference in the 2026–27 academic year and is scheduled to begin sponsoring football in 2028.[55]

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References

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