Northeast Conference History By providing opportunities for studentathletes to achieve their fullest potential both in athletic competition and in the classroom, the Northeast Conference has charted a course of steady growth since its inception in 1981. Now in its 29th year of service, the NEC’s Strategic Plan has established a blueprint for the future as the conference strives toward becoming an NCAA Division I leader for athletic success, academic achievement and integrity, sportsmanship, equity and diversity, community partnership and national engagement. The NEC can trace its roots to 1981, when the league was first established as the men’s basketball-only ECAC-Metro Conference. A single-sport entity at its inception, even the league’s most ardent supporters during its formative years could not have envisioned the transformation into a 12-member, 22sport conference. The success story began to unfold in 1985, when the league began sponsoring additional sports. Three years later the Northeast Conference as we know it today was born. With membership and sport sponsorship continuing to grow, the NEC 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 tennis and women’s volleyball). Though the NEC has featured various looks since its inception, charter members Fairleigh Dickinson, Long Island, Robert Morris, St. Francis (N.Y.), Saint Francis (Pa.) and Wagner remain part of the current 12-school alignment. They are joined by Monmouth (admitted in 1985), Mount St. Mary’s (1989), Central Connecticut State (1997), Quinnipiac (1998) and Sacred Heart (1999). NEC expansion continues with the addition of Bryant University in 2012 as the league’s 12th member, which will give the league a six-state geographic footprint with access to such major media markets as New York City, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Hartford and Providence. NEC member institutions compete in 22 championship sports: baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, women’s bowling, men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, football, men’s and women’s 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 soccer, softball, women’s swimming, men’s and women’s tennis, and women’s volleyball. Men’s lacrosse will begin competition in 2009-10 and officially become the league’s 23rd sport in 2010-11.
Academic Success The Northeast Conference’s commitment to academic excellence translated into national recognition for both individual student-athletes and the league’s member institutions as a whole in 2008-09. NEC studentathletes graduated at an 83.8 percent rate - well above the national average of 78 percent according to NCAA Graduation Success Rate data. A total
Athletic Achievement Reinforcing its presence on a national stage, the Northeast Conference sent representatives to NCAA Championship events in 14 team sports in 2008-09, while NEC student-athletes individually qualified to compete for an NCAA title in men’s outdoor track & field. In its longstanding effort to increase student-athlete opportunities, the conference began sponsoring women’s bowling as a championship sport and had five of the league’s seven bowling members occupy a spot in the final regular season edition of the NTCA Top-20 Poll. No. 2 Fairleigh Dickinson defeated top-seeded Nebraska to advance to the semifinal round of the NCAA Championship. In football, Albany posted back-to-back undefeated seasons within league play and blanked Pioneer Football League champion Jacksonville, 28-0, in the third annual Gridiron Classic. Robert Morris men’s basketball captured its league-best sixth NEC title with a 48-46 last-second victory over Mount St. Mary’s before a nationwide ESPN2 television audience. On the heels of its perfect (18-0) run through the NEC women’s basketball schedule and second NEC Tournament title in four years, Sacred Heart gave third-seeded Ohio State all it could handle in NCAA first round play. Individually, 13 NEC student-athletes received All-America honors in their respective sports. Lock Haven’s Blair Wynne, the only three-time Player of the Year in NEC field hockey history, was named to the Longstreth/NFHCA Division I All-America Second Team for the second consecutive season. NEC men’s soccer had three players acknowledged at season’s end. Quinnipiac’s Graciano Brito NSCAA/adidas All-America honors, and was joined by FDU junior forward Samson Malijani on the third team. Brito and Monmouth’s Angelo Amato were third team College Soccer News honorees. In addition to five football All-Americans, Monmouth’s John Nalbone became the latest NEC player to reach the NFL when he was selected by the Miami Dolphins in the fifth round of the 2009 Draft. Former Wagner pitcher Andrew Bailey, a 2006 draft pick, broke into the big leagues in 2009 and won a place in Oakland’s bullpen before earning a spot in the MLB All-Star Game. Five of the NEC’s finest were taken in the 2009 MLB Draft including Long Island’s James Jones (Mariners) in the fourth round. For the second straight year, Sacred Heart captured the Northeast Conference Commissioner’s Cup, recently renamed in honor of NEC Commissioner Brenda Weare, who passed away in June. LIU finished third overall - its best finish since 1987-88 - and was second on the women’s side. In The Community The NEC, its member institutions and student-athletes have made community involvement an important piece of its mission. In 2008-09, the NEC Student-Athlete Advisory Committee made its annual visit to the Cancer Recovery Foundation in Hershey, Pa., and conference members participated in “Think Pink” Day, a global effort organized by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association to assist in raising breast cancer awareness. The NEC also received $75,000 from the NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Grant Program last season. Expanding its base deeper into local communities, the conference saw its women’s basketball attendance increase by 20 percent to establish a new league record. Evolving and Expanding In recent years, the Northeast Conference has taken aim at upgrading the caliber of the league’s championship sports and enhancing the opportunities and experiences for more than 4,000 student-athletes that compete in the conference. The conference has secured automatic access to the NCAA Division I Football Championship playoffs beginning in 2010 and new sport sponsorship in women’s bowling and men’s lacrosse will create further opportunities for NEC student-athletes. Set to embark on a number of branding, sportsmanship and community initiatives as part of the league’s Strategic Plan, the NEC and its member institutions are committed to the future growth of the conference.
Long Island Blackbirds • 2009-10 Basketball • www.liuathletics.com
2009-10 Long Island University Basketball
New Media/Television More widely-recognized than ever, the NEC is providing a number of new ways in which its growing fan base can follow the action. In 2008-09 the conference launched its own YouTube channel, created NEC On The Run podcast segments, and added NEC Flashbacks, a video on-demand archive, to its website. More recently, the league dove into the social media arena by launching a Facebook page and offering periodic news updates via Twitter. Further enhancing its multimedia efforts, the league will begin webstreaming a women’s basketball game of the week in 2009-10, and raise the number of NEC championship webcasts from five to eight. To supplement one of the premier regional basketball television packages in the country, the conference produces a football package and a preseason basketball show entitled NEC Countdown to Tipoff. Over the last five years, the conference has televised nearly 150 events, as the league’s coverage area expanded to over 50 million homes. Along with flagship station MSG Network, other regional television partners include MSG Plus, FSN-Pittsburgh, MASN, Fox College Sports, Cox Cable and the Connecticut Sports Network. In 2009, ESPN broadcast the men’s basketball championship game for the 22nd straight year, while ESPNU carried the women’s championship game.
of 19 NEC teams garnered public recognition from the NCAA for their latest Academic Progress Rate scores. The league placed 42 representatives on ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District teams, five of whom went onto garner CoSIDA Academic All-America honors. On a conference-wide level, more than 2,000 student-athletes qualified for the NEC Academic Honor Roll, nearly a 25 percent increase from the previous year.
91