10 Schools•Division III•Est. 1996
The North Atlantic Conference began in the 1996 and 1997 academic year, when a small group of New England colleges formed the North Atlantic Women's Conference to give their female student athletes a path to postseason competition. Basketball held its first championship in the spring of 1998. Men's programs were added in the fall of 1999 and the league took its present name, and it gained recognition as an NCAA Division III voting conference in 2004. The office sits in Waterville, Maine. Members are small colleges of northern New England and neighboring states, and the conference has organized itself around a stated commitment to excellence, integrity, equity, inclusion and well being.
Championship history built steadily as the league matured. The University of Maine at Farmington claimed the 2004 field hockey title and then upset Keene State in double overtime in the NCAA tournament, the first NAC school to advance past the opening round of national championship play. Elms ended a three year run by Lasell to win the 2005 men's basketball championship, and Maine Maritime beat intrastate rival Farmington that same winter for the women's title, both earning automatic bids for the first time. Mount Ida took the conference's first men's lacrosse automatic qualifier in 2007, and Castleton claimed the first in women's lacrosse in 2012. Husson and Castleton built long dynasties in baseball, trading regular season and tournament crowns across two decades.
The conference has drawn national notice away from competition as well. Castleton's Rachel Bombardier was named one of thirty top honorees for the NCAA Woman of the Year award, the first NAC athlete to reach that stage. The league earned the NCAA Division III Diversity Spotlight Initiative for a conference wide You Can Play video project, and its student athlete advisory committee has carried campaigns on consent and mental health across every campus.
Rivalry has followed geography. The two Vermont campuses at Johnson and Lyndon, separated by fifty six miles, have built one of the league's warmest intrastate series, and Maine Maritime and Farmington have met as in state rivals with conference titles on the line.
Official Website
The North Atlantic Conference began in the 1996 and 1997 academic year, when a small group of New England colleges formed the North Atlantic Women's Conference to give their female student athletes a path to postseason competition. Basketball held its first championship in the spring of 1998. Men's programs were added in the fall of 1999 and the league took its present name, and it gained recognition as an NCAA Division III voting conference in 2004. The office sits in Waterville, Maine. Members are small colleges of northern New England and neighboring states, and the conference has organized itself around a stated commitment to excellence, integrity, equity, inclusion and well being.
Championship history built steadily as the league matured. The University of Maine at Farmington claimed the 2004 field hockey title and then upset Keene State in double overtime in the NCAA tournament, the first NAC school to advance past the opening round of national championship play. Elms ended a three year run by Lasell to win the 2005 men's basketball championship, and Maine Maritime beat intrastate rival Farmington that same winter for the women's title, both earning automatic bids for the first time. Mount Ida took the conference's first men's lacrosse automatic qualifier in 2007, and Castleton claimed the first in women's lacrosse in 2012. Husson and Castleton built long dynasties in baseball, trading regular season and tournament crowns across two decades.
The conference has drawn national notice away from competition as well. Castleton's Rachel Bombardier was named one of thirty top honorees for the NCAA Woman of the Year award, the first NAC athlete to reach that stage. The league earned the NCAA Division III Diversity Spotlight Initiative for a conference wide You Can Play video project, and its student athlete advisory committee has carried campaigns on consent and mental health across every campus.
Rivalry has followed geography. The two Vermont campuses at Johnson and Lyndon, separated by fifty six miles, have built one of the league's warmest intrastate series, and Maine Maritime and Farmington have met as in state rivals with conference titles on the line.
Official Website