College Football - Northeast Conference
History - Important facts - Teams - Winners
The Northeast Conference Football League started on September 14, 1996 and was hosted by St. Francis in the inaugural game against Monmouth. Both teams were joined by Central Connecticut State, Robert Morris and Wagner as charter members of the football league.
Robert Morris went on to capture the ECAC-IFC I-AA title win in the bowl game and repeated it in 1997, both as Northeast Conference champions and ECAC-IFC I-AA champions. Later the Colonials head coach Joe Walton was honored for the second straight year as the Northeast Conference Coach of the Year. In 1999 the team won its fourth repeated Northeast Conference title and the Colonials ended the season as the #1 ranked team among I-AA non-scholarship schools.
In 1998 Sacred Heart joined the Northeast Conference Football League a year in which Monmouth and Robert Morris once again shared the conference title. Stony Brook and Albany were admitted as associate members to the conference in 1999, and St. John’s was added in 2000.
The Pioneers went one step further in 2001 by winning its first Northeast Conference title and finishing with an unblemished 11-0 record, including a 31-15 triumph over Duquesne in the resurrected ECAC Football Classic. Albany shared the league crown with Monmouth in 2003.
In 2004, Monmouth was again crowned Northeast Conference co-champion, this time with Central Connecticut State, which earned a share of its first-ever league title in the sport.
In 2005, St. Francis Michael Caputo earned the Associated Press and Sports Network Third Team All-America honors. St. Francis Luke Palko (first team) and Robert Morris' Ray Gensler (second team) were named by ESPN Magazine the Academic All-Americans.
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