New England Hockey Conference
New England Hockey Conference was a college athletic conference which operates in the northeastern United States. It participated in the NCAA's Division III as a hockey-only conference.
History
The New England Hockey Conference began as ECAC East in 1984 when ECAC 2 was split in two and both new conferences dropped down to Division III. The conference was fairly stable for the first decade but began to grow in the mid 1990s. In 1998 four teams left to become Division I programs in the new MAAC conference. A year later, nine more teams split off to join their primary athletic conference, NESCAC, followed by the women's programs in 2001. Membership numbers held steady over the succeeding 15 years, though several teams came and went. In 2015 the conference rebranded itself as the New England Hockey Conference, but no internal changes occurred. Two years later 6 women's and 2 men's programs left to join a variety of conferences, dropping league membership to 11 schools, the lowest number in conference history.Splintering and dissolution
In 2022, Johnson & Wales University announced that they would join Commonwealth Coast Conference as a full-member starting in 2024-25 and sponsor both men's ice hockey and women's ice hockey. In the summer of 2023, Keene State announced that they would begin sponsoring men's and women's ice hockey starting with the 2024–25 season. This gave the Little East Conference six member schools that supported men's ice hockey, the minimum number required for an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Shortly afterwards, the Little East announced that they would begin sponsoring men's ice hockey as a sport and begin play in the 2025-26 season. In early 2024, New England College was accepted by the Little East as an affiliate ice hockey member, enabling the conference to also support women's hockey. Less than a month later, two more NEHC teams announced that they would be joining the Little East as affiliate members and both Babson and Norwich would be leaving in 2025. The bleeding continued when, in April and May, Hobart, Skidmore and William Smith announced their move to the SUNYAC, while Albertus Magus and Elmira both announced that they would be leaving to join the UCHC, all in 2025. Salem State also announced that they will leave in 2025 to join their primary conference and will also start to sponsor women's ice hockey the same year. The final remaining school, Salve Regina, would ultimately play as an independent for the 2025-26 season before joining the Conference of New England as an affiliate ice hockey member in 2026, bringing an end to the NEHC after 40 seasons.Standings
From the time it formally split from ECAC 2 until 1992 all games played between members of ECAC East and ECAC West counted for conference standings. In 1992, after the ECAC West split into two conferences, ECAC East only counted games within their conference for the standings, but because a formal schedule was not yet in place all games between members were still counted. For the NCAA Division III men's ice hockey season|1993–94 season] ECAC East had its first official conference schedule with all 18 teams playing each other once. Teams could schedule additional inter-conference games but only one would count in the standings. In 1999, when 9 teams left to form the ice hockey division of the NESCAC, the two conferences continued to count games between one another in their respective standings. This arrangement continued even after the addition of more programs.Final members
In the NEHC's final season, there were 14 member schools; the men's and women's divisions each had eleven members.Former members
†Membership timeline
DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy
ImageSize = width:1200 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/2030
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5
AlignBars = late
Colors =
id:men value:rgb legend:men
id:women value:rgb legend:women
id:both value:rgb legend:both
id:line value:black
id:bg value:white
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:Mer color:men from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/1989 text:Merrimack
bar:WSU color:men from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/1989 text:Westfield State
bar:AIC color:men from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/1998 text:American International
bar:UCt color:men from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/1998 text:Connecticut
bar:CHC color:men from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/1998 text:Holy Cross
bar:CHC color:women from:06/01/1999 till:06/01/2017 text:
bar:Col color:men from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/1999 text:Colby
bar:Bow color:both from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/1999 text:Bowdoin
bar:Bow color:women from:06/01/1999 till:06/01/2001 text:
bar:Mid color:both from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/1999 text:Middlebury
bar:Mid color:women from:06/01/1999 till:06/01/2001 text:
bar:Wil color:men from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/1994 text:Williams
bar:Wil color:both from:06/01/1994 till:06/01/1999 text:
bar:Wil color:women from:06/01/1999 till:06/01/2001 text:
bar:MLA color:men from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/2003 text:Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
bar:RIT color:women from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/2007 text:RIT
bar:MIT color:women from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/2009 text:MIT
bar:Sal color:men from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/2009 text:Salem State
bar:Sal color:women from:06/01/2018 till:06/01/2025 text:
bar:StA color:men from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/2004 text:Saint Anselm
bar:StA color:both from:06/01/2004 till:06/01/2017 text:
bar:Bab color:men from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/2025 text:Babson
bar:NEC color:men from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/2002 text:New England College
bar:NEC color:both from:06/01/2002 till:06/01/2025 text:
bar:UMB color:men from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/2003 text:Massachusetts–Boston
bar:UMB color:both from:06/01/2003 till:06/01/2025 text:
bar:Now color:men from:06/01/1984 till:06/01/2007 text:Norwich
bar:Now color:both from:06/01/2007 till:06/01/2025 text:
bar:CTC color:men from:06/01/1991 till:06/01/1997 text:Connecticut College
bar:CTC color:both from:06/01/1997 till:06/01/1999 text:
bar:CTC color:women from:06/01/1999 till:06/01/2001 text:
bar:Tri color:men from:06/01/1991 till:06/01/1998 text:Trinity
bar:Tri color:both from:06/01/1998 till:06/01/1999 text:
bar:Tri color:women from:06/01/1999 till:06/01/2001 text:
bar:Amh color:men from:06/01/1992 till:06/01/1995 text:Amherst
bar:Amh color:both from:06/01/1995 till:06/01/1999 text:
bar:Amh color:women from:06/01/1999 till:06/01/2001 text:
bar:Ham color:men from:06/01/1992 till:06/01/1996 text:Hamilton
bar:Ham color:both from:06/01/1996 till:06/01/1999 text:
bar:Ham color:women from:06/01/1999 till:06/01/2001 text:
bar:Wes color:men from:06/01/1995 till:06/01/1996 text:Wesleyan
bar:Wes color:both from:06/01/1996 till:06/01/1999 text:
bar:Wes color:women from:06/01/1999 till:06/01/2001 text:
bar:USM color:men from:06/01/1995 till:06/01/1998 text:Southern Maine
bar:USM color:both from:06/01/1998 till:06/01/2025 text:
bar:RPI color:women from:06/01/1995 till:06/01/2005 text:RPI
bar:Ski color:men from:06/01/1998 till:06/01/2025 text:Skidmore
bar:Uni color:women from:06/01/1999 till:06/01/2003 text:Union
bar:Man color:women from:06/01/1999 till:06/01/2017 text:Manvattanville
bar:StM color:both from:06/01/2001 till:06/01/2017 text:Saint Michael's
bar:Cas color:both from:06/01/2004 till:06/01/2025 text:Castleton/-Vermont State Castleton
bar:Nic color:women from:06/01/2008 till:06/01/2017 text:Nichols
bar:UNE color:both from:06/01/2009 till:06/01/2016 text:New England
bar:UNE color:women from:06/01/2016 till:06/01/2018 text:
bar:FPU color:women from:06/01/2014 till:06/01/2017 text:Franklin Pierce
bar:SRU color:women from:06/01/2015 till:06/01/2018 text:Salve Regina
bar:SRU color:both from:06/01/2024 till:06/01/2025 text:
bar:PSU color:women from:06/01/2015 till:06/01/2025 text:Plymouth State
bar:Hob color:men from:06/01/2017 till:06/01/2025 text:Hobart
bar:JWU color:both from:06/01/2018 till:06/01/2024 text:Johnson & Wales
bar:Suf color:both from:06/01/2018 till:10/01/2021 text:Suffolk
bar:Elm color:both from:06/01/2021 till:06/01/2025 text:Elmira
bar:WSC color:women from:06/01/2021 till:06/01/2025 text:William Smith
bar:AMC color:both from:06/01/2024 till:06/01/2025 text:Albertus Magnus
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:01/01/1985