April 22, 2003
Boston, Mass. -
The America East Conference will add University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) to its membership, it was announced today by commissioner Chris Monasch. UMBC will join the conference in all sports for the 2003-04 academic year. The addition of UMBC brings the America East membership to 10 institutions.
"The America East Conference is very excited about the addition of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County," said Monasch. "The institution is a natural fit for the conference with an academic and athletics mission similar to our current members. The Mid-Atlantic location of UMBC, combined with our present membership in New York and New England, positions America East as a significant mid-major conference in this part of the country."
America East Conference presently consists of nine institutions - University at Albany, Binghamton University, Boston University, University of Hartford, University of Maine, University of New Hampshire, Northeastern University, Stony Brook University, and University of Vermont. In addition, America East has associate membership with Quinnipiac University in the sport of men's lacrosse.
UMBC, a member of the University System of Maryland, has a total enrollment of 11,711, with 9,549 undergraduate students. The campus is located on 500 suburban acres in Baltimore, just 15 minutes from the Inner Harbor and 30 minutes from Washington, D.C.
UMBC has won the Northeast Conference Commissioner's Cup as the top overall athletics program in the conference each of the last four years. Student-athletes from six Retriever teams participated in NCAA Championships in 2001-02 alone.
UMBC's more than 400 student-athletes will compete in 20 of the 21 sports in which America East sponsors championship competition - baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, field hockey, men's and women's lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, softball, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's indoor track and field, men's and women's outdoor track and field, and women's volleyball. In addition, America East sponsors a men's golf championship.
"It is an honor for UMBC to join the America East Conference," said UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III. "We are delighted to be in the company of outstanding schools such as Boston University, Northeastern, Vermont, Albany, Binghamton, and several other universities that enjoy national reputations for academic and athletic excellence. Our campus community, particularly our student-athletes and athletics staff, looks forward to competing on the field, on the court, and in the classroom with our sister institutions in America East."
The expansion is the first for America East since 2001 when Binghamton was added to membership on April 18 following the admission of Albany and Stony Brook on January 31.
America East champions earn automatic qualification to 12 NCAA Championships in 2002-03 - baseball, men's basketball, women's basketball, field hockey, men's lacrosse, women's lacrosse, men's soccer, women's soccer, softball, men's tennis, women's tennis, and volleyball. Individual champions at the America East Outdoor Track and Field Championship also receive bids to that NCAA Championship.
The conference was established in 1979 as the ECAC North, at that time consisting of 10 institutions sponsoring league competition only in men's basketball, with the champion receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. Men's basketball remained the lone league sport until the 1988-89 academic year. At that time, the Board of Directors made a new commitment to an all-sports league, creating the North Atlantic Conference by establishing an office and hiring a full-time commissioner.
The North Atlantic Conference merged with the Seaboard Conference (the league in which Boston University, Hartford, Maine, New Hampshire, Northeastern and Vermont, among others, competed in women's basketball) in 1989, and established conference championships in several men's and women's sports.
The conference changed its name to America East prior to the 1996-97 academic year. Later that year America East hired Monasch as its second full-time commissioner and moved the conference headquarters to its present location in downtown Boston.
