2009 - Collegefootballdatadvds.com

NORTHEAST CONFERENCE
FOOTBALL
MEMBERS
Albany
(Albany, N.Y.)
Central Conn. State
(New Britain, Conn.)
Duquesne
(Pittsburgh, Pa.)
Monmouth
(West Long Branch, N.J.)
Robert Morris
(Moon Township, Pa.)
Sacred Heart
(Fairfield, Conn.)
St. Francis, Pa.
(Loretto, Pa.)
Wagner
(Staten Island, N.Y.)
Bryant - 2012
(Smithfield, R.I.)
STAFF DIRECTORY
Interim Commissioner/
Communications & TV:
Ron Ratner
Asst. Comm./Services:
Michelle Boone
Asst. Comm./Marketing:
Andrew Alia
Asst. Comm./Compliance:
Joyce Bell
Director/Sports Services:
Benjamin Shove
Asst. Dir./Communications:
Ralph Ventre
Coordinator of Officials:
Milton Halstead
CONTACTING
THE CONFERENCE
Mailing Address:
399 Campus Drive
Vantage Court North
Somerset, N.J. 08873
Phone Number:
(732) 469-0440
Fax Number:
(732) 469-0744
Ratner's E-Mail:
rratner@northeast
conference.org
Ventre's E-Mail:
rventre@northeast
conference.org
Web Site Address:
www.northeast
conference.org
www.ualbanysports.com
NEC History
As it strives toward becoming a NCAA Division I
leader for athletic achievement, academic integrity, and
sportsmanship, the Northeast Conference continues to
ensure that the personal development of its studentathletes
is its highest priority. Now in its 29th year of
service, the NEC aims for a greater national presence
while remaining committed to the local communities of
its member institutions.
The NEC can trace its roots back to 1981, when the
league was first established as the men's basketballonly
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 a
transformation into a burgeoning 12-member, 22-sport
conference. The remarkable success story of the
conference began to unfold in 1985, when the league
began sponsoring additional sports. Three years later, a
change of name was in order and the Northeast Conference
as we know it today was born. With membership
and sport sponsorship continuing to grow over the next
decade and beyond, the NEC now 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 (NY), 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 now 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 become the league's 23rd sport in 2010-11.
NEC Website/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.
The Conference began by fulfilling its strategic plandriven
new media initiatives in 2008-09 when it 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.
To supplement one of the premier regional basketball
television packages in the country, the conference also
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 40
million homes plus coverage internationally. Along with
flagship station MSG Network, other regional television
partners include MSG Plus (formerly FSN-New York),
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,
marking the second time in as
many years that the women's
contest reached a nationwide audience.
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.
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. NEC student-athletes graduated at an 83.8
percent rate, which is well above the national average of 78
percent according to NCAA Graduation Success Rate (GSR)
data. Likewise, a total of 19 NEC teams garnered public
recognition from the NCAA for their latest Academic Progress
Rate (APR) scores. The league placed 42 representatives
on ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District teams, five
of whom went on to garner Academic All-America Honors.
The first team honorees were Fairleigh Dickinson's Matt
Maher (baseball), who was a third team recipient in 2008,
and Wagner's Andrea Lazzari (softball). Saint Francis (PA)'s
Eric Reifsteck (field hockey, second team), Monmouth's Ben
Evenden (tennis, third team) and CCSU's Yan Klukowski
(soccer, third team) were also honored for their academic
and athletic performance. Evenden was a nominee for the
prestigious Rhodes Scholar Award, while Wagner swimmer
Alexandra Tomlinson was awarded an NCAA Postgraduate
Scholarship. On a conference-wide level, there were over
2,000 student-athletes who qualified for the NEC Academic
Honor Roll, nearly a 25 percent increase from the previous
year. Saint Francis (PA) posted the highest GPA in the
conference to claim the NEC Institutional Academic Award
for the first time ever.
Athletic Success
Reinforcing its presence on a national stage, the Northeast
Conference sent representatives to NCAA Championship
events in 14 different team sports while NEC studentathletes
individually qualified to compete for an NCAA title
in men's outdoor track & field and women's swimming. In
its longstanding effort to increase student-athlete opportunities,
the Conference began sponsoring women's bowling
as a championship sport and immediately grabbed national
headlines for its successful inaugural season. Five of the
league's seven bowling members occupied a spot in the
final regular season edition of the NTCA Top-20 Poll with
No. 2 Fairleigh Dickinson defeating top-seeded Nebraska
to advance all the way to the semifinal round of the NCAA
Women's Bowling Championship. Lock Haven found itself
ranked amongst the nation's Top-25 as it marched toward
its third consecutive NEC field hockey title.
In football, Albany became the first NEC team in nearly
a decade to post back-to-back undefeated seasons within
league play. In a game televised nationally on the YES
Network, the Great Danes blanked Pioneer Football League
champion Jacksonville, 28-0, to win the third annual Gridiron
Classic. Robert Morris men's basketball, which has won 50
games and two NEC regular season crowns in two years
under head coach Mike Rice, 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 and
a school-record crowd at the Charles L. Sewall Center. On
the heels of its perfect (18-0) run through the NEC women's
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