The Conference of New England (CNE), formerly known as the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC), is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in New England in the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

Overview

The CCC and Commonwealth Coast Football unveiled a new family of logos during a June 2019 visual rebrand.

History

Recent events

On June 21, 2022, the University of Hartford announced that it would join the CCC, starting the 2023–24 academic year; while Salve Regina announced it would leave both the CCC and CCC Football to join the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC), once concluding the 2022–23 school year. On December 8, 2022, Johnson & Wales (RI) announced it would join the CCC as soon as the 2024–25 academic year. In 2023, two schools announced they would be reinstating their varsity football programs and joining the CCC for football, starting the 2025 fall season (2025–26 academic year); first Maine Maritime Academy on January 9, then New England College followed suit on November 14. On August 1st, 2024, 40 years after it was founded, the conference announced that it would be rebranding as the Conference of New England (CNE), effective with the 2024-25 season.

Chronological timeline

Member schools

Current members

The CNE currently has 11 full members, all private schools.

Associate members

The CNE currently has three associate members, all private schools:

Future associate members

The CNE will have two future associate members, one private and the other public.

Former members

The CNE had nine former full members, with all but one being private schools.

Former associate members

The CNE had three former associate members, all private schools.

Membership timeline

Sports

The CNE sponsors intercollegiate athletic competition in 20 sports. The conference started sponsoring football in the 2017-18 season, absorbing the former football-only New England Football Conference. From 2017 to 2021 football was operated as a single-sport conference branded Commonwealth Coast Football. Due to changes in NCAA legislation regarding the number of members required for a for a conference to receive and automatic qualifier (AQ), football was fully incorporated into the multi-sport conference in 2022, eliminating the need for the football-only league. Women's ice hockey was added as a conference sport in 2020-21 when the CNE took over operations of the Colonial Hockey Conference.