The conclusion of the 2019-20 academic year brought with it the close of CSI's play in the City University of New York Athletic Conference, and beginning in time for the 2020-21 sports year, the Dolphins will traverse NCAA Division II's East Coast Conference.  

Check out the story below on the East Coast Conference.

THE BIRTH OF THE ECC
Not to be confused with the ECC that was comprised of several Division I schools from the late 1950's into the 1980's, Division II's East Coast Conference was officially formed in 1989, at the time called the New York Collegiate Athletic Conference.  The NYCAC lasted until a re-brand in 2006, when the conference changed its name officially to the East Coast Conference.  Obviously one of the reasons why was because of the conference's expansion into regions outside New York and the metro area.

The NYCAC came to fruition as a derivative from several other single-sport conferences that were operating in Division II during the 1980's.  One of those conferences, the Big Apple Men's Basketball Conference, featured CW Post (soon after referred to as LIU Post), Queens College, LIU-Southampton, Mercy College, Concordia College, and Dowling - and those six schools, along with Adelphi University, Molloy College, New York Institute of Technology, and Pace University, became the charter members of the newly formed NYCAC, a single conference that would sponsor a multitude of sports, conforming with the NCAA's call for more organized, single conference play by their constituents.  Queens College and CW Post took the lead on the organization of those institutions.

At the time the NYCAC was formed the conference boasted a competitive conference schedule for men's basketball, softball, baseball and soccer with postseason play adopted for men's & women's tennis, men's and women's cross-country, and men's golf.  In the 30 years that have followed some of those offerings have changed.  The conference obviously now also supports postseason tournaments for basketball, baseball, and softball, and houses competition in sports like lacrosse, indoor and outdoor track & field, women's volleyball, bowling, and esports.

MEMBER SCHOOLS
As sports sponsorship has changed, so to have conference affiliations during the ECC's 30-year lifetime.  The College of St. Rose, and Philadelphia Textile (now Jefferson University), joined the conference in 1991 and when the NYCAC lost Pace University in 1997, they made up for it with the addition of New Jersey Institute of Technology that same year, at the time still a NCAA Division II institution (NJIT is now Division I).   Both NJIT and St. Rose did not last in the conference long, as they both left the conference in time for the 2000-01 season, but the ECC made up for the losses by adding The University of Bridgeport and St. Thomas Aquinas College that same year. Two years later, in 2002-03, The University of New Haven joined the NYCAC, putting membership up to 13 schools.

More changes came to the NYCAC in 2004-05.  Philadelphia Textile jumped out of the conference and LIU-Southampton folded their athletic program altogether that year, cutting the NYCAC membership to 11 schools.  A year later, the NYCAC officially underwent their branding change and changed their name to the East Coast Conference.  Despite the excitement associated with that, the newly named conference found itself in a jam when the departure of New Haven in 2008, and then Concordia and Adelphi in 2009, brought ECC membership down to just eight schools.

ECC then focused on expansion and member institutions voted in the University of the District of Columbia to become the ninth member of the conference effective in July of 2011.  That expansion continued to Roberts Wesleyan College in Rochester, N.Y., who became the tenth member in September of 2011 and officially began competition in the fall of 2012. Another Western New York institution, Daemen College, was officially accepted as the eleventh conference member in July of 2012 and began ECC play in the fall of 2013. 

For three years, the ECC remained unchanged, until Dowling College closed their doors in 2016, leaving the ECC with just five original members still left.  In the spring of 2019, the conference waved goodbye to one of the ECC's all-time winningest programs and charter members LIU Post, whose athletic programming was absorbed by LIU's Division I affiliate in Brooklyn.  At the same time, however, the ECC accepted the College of Staten Island into the fold, for entry in 2019-20, and with competition beginning in 2020.  

In their final move to this point, the ECC recently announced the addition of D'Youville College from Buffalo, N.Y., as its 11th member.  Like the Dolphins, they are going through their provisional period from Division III, and will fully integrate into conference play in Provisional Year Two (2021-22).

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS
Not all member schools within the conference support the championship sports that the ECC houses, and conversely, there are several other area Division II schools that do not belong to a conference or whose conference does not support certain sports on their campuses.  Thus, affiliate or associate members are also a part of the ECC dependent on sport.

Frostburg State, another provisional institution making their way from Division III is an affiliate member of the ECC for Men's Lacrosse.  Georgian Court University (NJ), Holy Family University (PA), and Post University (CT) a trio of schools from the nearby Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC), are affiliate members in both Men's & Women's Track & Field, as is .  Pennsylvania's Lincoln University is an affiliate member for the sports of Baseball and Women's Soccer, while Adelphi University, Felician College, Bloomfield College, Caldwell College, Chestnut Hill College, Wilmington University, Kutztown University, Tusculum University, Mercyhurst University and Lincoln Memorial, are all affiliate members in Women's Bowling.

CSI is affiliated with the ECC in every sport the College sponsors minus Men's & Women's Swimming & Diving, which the ECC does not currently support.  Hence, CSI's affiliation with swimming will be with the Metropolitan Swimming Conference, which boasts swimming programs from all three NCAA Divisions.

SPORTS HISTORY
The ECC currently sponsors 19 sports: Men's & Women's Soccer, Men's & Women's Basketball, Men's & Women's Tennis, Men's & Women's Lacrosse, Men's & Women's Cross-Country, Men's & Women's Indoor & Outdoor Track & Field, Baseball, Softball, Women's Bowling, Women's Volleyball, and coed Esports.

Many ECC schools have enjoyed a host of successes beyond the respective conference tournaments.  Each year the ECC sends a host of teams to NCAA Division II National Championship Tournaments, and the conference has impressed great lengths at the national stage.  To date, ECC schools have collected a total of 23 national team championship, six in the last decade alone for lacrosse and women's soccer.

Below is a snapshot of ECC's most recent sports seasons and Champions:

Sport	ECC Champion	Record ^	NCAA Tournament Qualifiers	Results
Baseball*	LIU-Post	38-16	2 - LIU Post, NYIT	World Series - NYIT; Regional - Post
Men's Basketball	St. Thomas Aquinas	25-5	3 - Bridgeport, STAC, Daemen	No Result (COVID)
Men's Cross-Country	Roberts Wesleyan	n/a	4 (Regionals)	East Region Champs; 31st Nationally
Men's Indoor Track & Field	Georgian Court	n/a	No Result (COVID)	No Result (COVID)
Men's Lacrosse*	Mercy	18-2	1 - Mercy	Regional Quarterfinals
Men's Outdoor Track & Field*	St. Thomas Aquinas	n/a	1 - STAC	n/a
Men's Soccer	Mercy	14-4-3	1 - Mercy	Regional 2nd Round
Men's Tennis*	Queens	14-8	1 - Queens	Regional Quarterfinals
Softball*	Bridgeport	33-16	2 - LIU Post, Bridgeport	Regional Champs (LIU Post)
Women's Basketball	Daemen	23-5	2 - Molloy, Daemen	No result (COVID)
Women's Bowling	Caldwell	46-43	n/a	n/a
Women's Cross-Country	Roberts Wesleyan	n/a	4 (Regionals)	2nd Place - East; 28th Nationally
Women's Indoor Track & Field*	Georgian Court	n/a	No Result (COVID)	No Result (COVID)
Women's Lacrosse	Mercy	15-5	2 - LIU Post, Mercy	Regional Quarterfinals
Women's Outdoor Track & Field*	Roberts Wesleyan	n/a	n/a	n/a
Women's Soccer	Molloy	15-5-3	3 - Mercy, Molloy, Daemen	East Regional Finalist
Women's Tennis	Queens	10-1	No Result (COVID)	No Result (COVID)
Women's Volleyball	Molloy	28-5	2 - Molloy, Bridgeport	National Quarterfinals (Molloy)
Esports	SNHU - Overwatch, Rocket League Daemen - League of Legends	n/a	n/a	n/a

^ - No W/L records available in these sports
* - Results based on 2018-19 due to insufficient spring data in 2019-20 due to COVID closures.