Mountain East Conference

Mountain East Conference
MEC
Established	2012
Association	NCAA
Division	Division II
Members	12
Sports fielded	19 men's: 9 women's: 10
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

Mountain East Conference

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Location of MEC members: current, future, and departing

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

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). Men's and women's swimming and diving were added as the 18th and 19th conference sports for 2017–18, with the MEC and Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) forming a swimming and diving alliance that conducts a joint conference championship meet.^[12] The MEC will add men's and women's indoor track & field and wrestling to its sports roster in 2019–20.^[11]

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
Swimming & Diving	Y	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	Swimming & Diving	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	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		6
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	[lower-alpha 1]	Y	Y			Y	6
Totals	12	12	10	11	12	8	4	8	7	84
Future Members
Davis & Elkins	Y	Y	Y		Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	8
Frostburg State	Y	Y	Y	Y		Y	Y	Y	Y	8

1. ↑ Wheeling Jesuit will add football in 2019.^[13]

Women's sponsored sports by school

School	Basketball	Cross Country	Golf	Lacrosse	Soccer	Softball	Swimming & Diving	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		Y	8
Glenville State	Y	Y	Y			Y			Y	Y	6
Notre Dame	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y		Y	Y	9
Shepherd	Y		Y	Y	Y	Y		Y		Y	7
Urbana	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y			Y	8
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	Y	10
Wheeling Jesuit	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y			Y	Y	8
Totals	12	11	11	7	9	12	4	8	7	12	93
Future Members
Davis & Elkins	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y		9
Frostburg State	Y	Y		Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	9

References

External links

• Official website