Mountain East Conference

Mountain East Conference (MEC)
Established	2012
Association	NCAA
Division	Division II
Members	12
Sports fielded	17 (men's: 8; women's: 9)
Region	West Virginia, Virginia, and Ohio
Headquarters	Bridgeport, West Virginia
Commissioner	Reid Amos (since 2012)
Website	www.mountaineast.org
Locations

The Mountain East Conference (MEC) is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II level and officially began competition on September 1, 2013. It consists of 12 schools, mostly in West Virginia with other charter members in Ohio and Virginia.

Formation

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, 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.^[3] The MEC filled out its charter membership with another West Virginia school, Wheeling Jesuit 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 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 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]

Members

Current members

Membership timeline

 Full member (all sports)   Full member (non-football)   Associate member (football-only)   Associate member (sport) 

Sports

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).

Conference sports

Sport	Men's	Women's
Baseball	Y
Basketball	Y	Y
Cross Country	Y	Y
Football	Y
Golf	Y	Y
Lacrosse		Y
Soccer	Y	Y
Softball		Y
Tennis	Y	Y
Track & Field Outdoor	Y	Y
Volleyball		Y

Men's sponsored sports by school

School	Baseball	Basketball	Cross Country	Football	Golf	Soccer	Tennis	Track & Field Outdoor	Total MEC Sports
Charleston	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	8
Concord	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	8
Fairmont State	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y		Y		6
Glenville State	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y			Y	6
Notre Dame	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y		Y	7
Shepherd	Y	Y		Y	Y	Y	Y		6
Urbana	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y			6
Virginia–Wise	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y		Y		6
West Liberty	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y		Y	Y	7
West Virginia State	Y	Y		Y	Y		Y		5
West Virginia Wesleyan	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	8
Wheeling Jesuit	Y	Y	Y		Y	Y		Y	6
Totals	12	12	10	11	12	7	8	7	79

Women's sponsored sports by school

School	Basketball	Cross Country	Golf	Lacrosse	Soccer	Softball	Tennis	Track & Field Outdoor	Volleyball	Total MEC Sports
Charleston	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
Concord	Y	Y	Y		Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	8
Fairmont State	Y	Y	Y		Y	Y	Y		Y	7
Glenville State	Y	Y	Y			Y		Y	Y	6
Notre Dame	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y		Y	Y	8
Shepherd	Y			Y	Y	Y	Y		Y	6
Urbana	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y			Y	7
Virginia–Wise	Y	Y	Y	Y		Y	Y		Y	7
West Liberty	Y	Y	Y		Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	8
West Virginia State	Y	Y				Y	Y		Y	5
West Virginia Wesleyan	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	9
Wheeling Jesuit	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y		Y	Y	8
Totals	12	11	10	7	9	12	8	7	12	88

Other sponsored sports by school

• ^‡ — D-I sport

References

External links

• Official website

NCAA Division II
Atlantic	Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Mountain East Conference Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Independent — Bluefield State College
Central	Great American Conference Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference
East	Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference East Coast Conference Northeast-10 Conference
Midwest	Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Great Lakes Valley Conference Great Midwest Athletic Conference Independent — Oakland City University Salem International University
South	Gulf South Conference Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Sunshine State Conference Independent — Auburn University at Montgomery
South Central	Heartland Conference Lone Star Conference Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
Southeast	Conference Carolinas Peach Belt Conference South Atlantic Conference
West	California Collegiate Athletic Association Great Northwest Athletic Conference Pacific West Conference
Division II	Independents ECAC Division II Lacrosse League
NCAA	Conferences Institutions Baseball (Championship) Basketball (Men, Women) Cross Country (Men, Women) Field Hockey (Championship) Football (Championship) Golf (Men, Women) Lacrosse (Men, Women) Rowing (Championship) Soccer (Men, Women) Softball (Championship) Swimming & Diving (Men, Women) Tennis (Men, Women) Track & Field (Men's indoor and outdoor, Women's indoor and outdoor) Volleyball (Championship) Wrestling (Championship) Discontinued — Ice Hockey (Championship)

NCAA Division II football conferences
Super Region 1	Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Mountain East Conference Northeast-10 Conference Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference
Super Region 2	Gulf South Conference South Atlantic Conference Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Independent — Limestone College University of North Carolina at Pembroke North Greenville University
Super Region 3	Great American Conference Great Northwest Athletic Conference Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference
Super Region 4	Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Great Lakes Valley Conference Lone Star Conference Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference
Division II	Great Midwest Athletic Conference Independents
NCAA	Conferences Institutions Football (Championship)