Endicott is the most recent Commonwealth Coast Conference school to advance to the playoffs, winning the NEFC in 2013. Endicott athletics photo

The Commonwealth Coast Conference board of directors has announced that the CCC will begin to oversee football as a championship sport beginning in 2017-18.  The CCC will assume operation of the New England Football Conference.

The move follows on two related announcements from last week, that Catholic University was joining the NEWMAC in 2017, and that the CCC was bringing its men’s hockey teams under the CCC banner as well rather than have them participate in ECAC hockey leagues.

"As the CCC chair, I am delighted that we are adding football as well as men's hockey as varsity sports.' Stated Zorica Pantić, president of Wentworth Institute of Technology and chair of the CCC Board of Directors.  "The addition of these sports will make our conference even stronger."

The CCC will inherit five NEFC members and the University of New England will become the conference’s sixth football-playing member when it begins varsity play in the fall of 2018. After losing Coast Guard, Maine Maritime and MIT in 2017, the conference will have a two-year grace period to get back to seven teams in order to retain the football automatic bid in 2019. Current CCC football-playing institutions include Curry, Endicott, Nichols, Salve Regina and Western New England.

"I am proud to announce that the sport of football will become the 17th championship to be administered by the Commonwealth Coast Conference," stated CCC Commissioner Gregg M. Kaye. "I am confident that the proud tradition that CCC institutions have helped build in the New England Football Conference will continue to grow as football moves under the CCC umbrella.

“Coupled with the recent addition of men's ice hockey, I am very proud to state that the CCC becomes just the second Division III multi-sport conference in New England comprised entirely of private colleges and universities to oversee championships in men's ice hockey and football.  Our growth is a direct result of leadership at the conference level exhibited by the presidents at each of our member institutions, each of whom considers intercollegiate athletics to play a vitally important role in the undergraduate experience."

Here's how the various conferences affected by the addition of NEWMAC football would shake out in 2017.

The five current CCC football-playing institutions have combined to make nine NCAA Division III football postseason appearances.  Curry tops all CCC football programs with six NCAA playoff appearances (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008). Endicott has advanced to NCAA championship play twice times (2010, 2013), while Western New England has earned one NCAA postseason berth (2011).