{"id":142055,"date":"2023-07-24T13:39:52","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T18:39:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/?p=142055"},"modified":"2023-07-24T13:39:52","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T18:39:52","slug":"little-east-conference-to-join-ncaa-mens-division-iii-hockey-ranks-in-2025-26-eyeing-womens-hockey-membership-as-well","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2023\/07\/24\/little-east-conference-to-join-ncaa-mens-division-iii-hockey-ranks-in-2025-26-eyeing-womens-hockey-membership-as-well\/","title":{"rendered":"Little East Conference to join NCAA men&#8217;s Division III hockey ranks in 2025-26, eyeing women&#8217;s hockey membership as well"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/lec_logo.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-142056\" src=\"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/lec_logo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"683\" height=\"358\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/lec_logo.jpg 683w, https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/lec_logo-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/lec_logo-150x79.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 683px) 100vw, 683px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Little East Conference announced Monday that the league will begin sponsoring men\u2019s hockey as a championship sport beginning with the 2025-26 academic year.<\/p>\n<p>The addition of men\u2019s hockey raises the LEC\u2019s championship offerings to 22 sports.<\/p>\n<p>The conference\u2019s ability to sponsor men\u2019s hockey follows Keene State\u2019s addition of men\u2019s and women\u2019s hockey as varsity programs. LEC bylaws require sport sponsorship once six programs are offered by its primary membership, which allows the LEC to secure an immediate automatic berth in the NCAA Division III championship tournament.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are very excited to begin offering men\u2019s ice hockey as a LEC championship and hope to soon be able to offer a women\u2019s ice hockey championship as well,\u201d said LEC commissioner Pamela S. Samuelson in a statement. \u201cBeing able to bring additional sports offered by our primary members into the LEC strengthens our conference as a whole, allowing us to provide more student-athletes the same highly competitive experiences as their peers in existing LEC sports.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The inaugural season of LEC men\u2019s hockey will be played between Keene State, UMass Boston, UMass Dartmouth, Plymouth State, Southern Maine and Vermont State Castleton. The triple-round robin schedule will fill 15 games of each team\u2019s 25-game regular-season slate.<\/p>\n<p>The 2025-26 launch of LEC men\u2019s hockey will allow existing programs to fulfill obligations to their current affiliate conferences. This marks the third expansion of sport offerings by the LEC in recent years, following the addition of men\u2019s golf and men\u2019s swimming and diving for the 2021-22 academic year.<\/p>\n<p>Keene State will sponsor the fifth women\u2019s hockey program among the LEC\u2019s current primary membership, joining established programs at UMass Boston, Plymouth State, Southern Maine and VTSU Castleton. The process to add women\u2019s hockey as an LEC championship sport will begin if a sixth program emerges from within or outside of the LEC\u2019s primary membership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Little East Conference announced Monday that the league will begin sponsoring men\u2019s hockey as a championship sport beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. The addition of men\u2019s hockey raises the LEC\u2019s championship offerings to 22 sports. The conference\u2019s ability to sponsor men\u2019s hockey follows Keene State\u2019s addition of men\u2019s and women\u2019s hockey as varsity [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":142056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[820,825],"coauthors":[901],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Little East Conference to join NCAA men&#039;s Division III hockey ranks in 2025-26, eyeing women&#039;s hockey membership as well - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Little East Conference announced Monday that the league will begin sponsoring men\u2019s hockey as a championship sport beginning with the 2025-26 academic\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142055\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Little East Conference to join NCAA men&#039;s Division III hockey ranks in 2025-26, eyeing women&#039;s hockey membership as well - College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Little East Conference announced Monday that the league will begin sponsoring men\u2019s hockey as a championship sport beginning with the 2025-26 academic\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142055\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College Hockey | USCHO.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/OfficialUSCHO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-07-24T18:39:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/lec_logo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"358\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"USCHO Staff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uscho\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@USCHO\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"USCHO Staff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2023\/07\/24\/little-east-conference-to-join-ncaa-mens-division-iii-hockey-ranks-in-2025-26-eyeing-womens-hockey-membership-as-well\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wwwproxy.uscho.com\/2023\/07\/24\/little-east-conference-to-join-ncaa-mens-division-iii-hockey-ranks-in-2025-26-eyeing-womens-hockey-membership-as-well\/\",\"name\":\"Little East Conference to join NCAA men's Division III hockey ranks in 2025-26, eyeing women's hockey membership as well - 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