Stonehill College Moving Up to Join Northeast Conference

The Northeast Conference will be adding a current NCAA Division II team beginning with the 2022-23 academic year as Stonehill College has accepted an invitation to become a member. The Skyhawks will have a 4-year transition period as part of the move up to Division I and will become fully eligible beginning with the 2026-27 season.

The NEC recently lost Bryant to the America East Conference (football will be in the Big South) and has decided to pursue the Division II Northeast-10 path again. The NEC added Merrimack from the NE-10 starting in the 2019 season. The Warriors have gone 11-14 over the last 3 seasons as a Division I team. The addition of Stonehill will put the NEC at 8 members starting in 2022.

Stonehill is a relatively new football program having been established in 1988 as a Division III independent for the first season and then joined the now-defunct ECFC in 1989 until 1996. The Skyhawks won 3 conference titles as an ECFC member. They moved up to Division II in 1997 as a member of the Eastern Football Conference where they played 4 seasons before that conference ceased to exist. In 2001, they joined with some of the remnants from the EFC in the Northeast-10. They spent two decades in the NE-10 but did not make any appearances in the D-II playoffs.

With Stonehill joining the fray, the FCS will feature 130 teams for the 2022 season, assuming there are no more additions or departures.

Photo courtesy of Stonehill College Athletics