Mountain East Conference

Mountain East Conference (MEC)
Mountain East Conference logo
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. 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", and also was partially driven by a desire to expand the new conference's footprint outside West Virginia. 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.

At the time of the original announcement, the nine schools planned to expand to at least 12 members. Before the official launch of the conference on August 20, 2012, 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. 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. Wheeling Jesuit was a WVIAC member that had been left out of the original WVIAC split. 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. UVa–Wise, which had previously been turned down for WVIAC membership, 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.

At its launch, the MEC had 11 football members, with Wheeling Jesuit being the only non-football school. On February 15, 2013, the NCAA accepted the MEC as its 25th D2 conference. The 2015–16 school year is the first in which MEC teams are eligible for automatic bids to NCAA Division II championships; before then, they were eligible only for at-large bids.

Members

Current members

Institution	Location	Founded	Enrollment	Nickname	Colors	Joined
University of Charleston	Charleston, West Virginia	1888	1,350	Golden Eagles		2013
Concord University	Athens, West Virginia	1872	2,850	Mountain Lions		2013
Fairmont State University	Fairmont, West Virginia	1865	4,600	Falcons		2013
Glenville State College	Glenville, West Virginia	1872	2,000	Pioneers		2013
Notre Dame College	South Euclid, Ohio	1922	2,200	Falcons		2013
Shepherd University	Shepherdstown, West Virginia	1871	4,400	Rams		2013
Urbana University	Urbana, Ohio	1850	1,500	Blue Knights		2013
University of Virginia's College at Wise	Wise, Virginia	1954	2,000	Highland Cavaliers		2013
West Liberty University	West Liberty, West Virginia	1837	2,500	Hilltoppers		2013
West Virginia State University	Institute, West Virginia	1891	3,100	Yellow Jackets		2013
West Virginia Wesleyan College	Buckhannon, West Virginia	1890	1,452	Bobcats		2013
Wheeling Jesuit University	Wheeling, West Virginia	1954	1,600	Cardinals		2013

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. 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

School		Men						Women
		Lacrosse	Swimming & Diving	Track & Field Indoor	Volleyball ‡	Wrestling		Rowing	Swimming & Diving	Track & Field Indoor
Charleston					EIVA			IND
Concord				IND						IND
Fairmont State			BMC						BMC
Notre Dame			ASC	IND		IND			ASC	IND
Urbana			ASC						ASC
West Liberty				IND		IND				IND
West Virginia Wesleyan			BMC	IND					BMC	IND
Wheeling Jesuit		ECAC	ASC	IND		IND			ASC	IND

• ^‡ — D-I sport

External links

• Official website