Yankee Conference
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Yankee Conference was a collegiate sports conference in the eastern United States. It once sponsored competition in many sports, but eventually became a football-only league.
The Yankee Conference was formed in 1938 as the New England Conference and became the Yankee Conference in 1947. It dropped support of all sports except football in 1975. Over the years, many schools outside its original New England base joined the league.
It existed until 1997, when NCAA legislation limiting the influence of single-sport conferences over policy became effective, and then merged with the Atlantic Ten Conference.
Institutions which were members of the conference at the time of its merger with the Atlantic 10 were:
- Boston University
- University of Connecticut†
- University of Delaware
- James Madison University
- University of Maine†
- University of Massachusetts†
- University of New Hampshire†
- Northeastern University
- University of Rhode Island†
- University of Richmond
- Villanova University
- College of William and Mary
and former member
- University of Vermont† (left after the 1974 football season)
† Denotes a charter member of the conference which joined at its formation in 1938 and remained until its 1997 demise.
Of the 12 final members of the Yankee Conference, two no longer play Division I-AA football:
- Boston University dropped football after the 1997 season.
- UConn, which was a member of the Big East Conference for other sports, moved to Division I-A after the 1999 season. The Huskies played as a I-A independent starting in 2000, and were included in I-A statistics for the first time in 2002. In 2004, UConn became a football member of the Big East, and earned its first-ever bowl bid.
As of 2005, all of the remaining schools still play in the A-10 football conference. However, the A-10 will disband its football section following the 2006 season, with all of its members joining the new football conference to be sponsored by the Colonial Athletic Association.
