Get To Know a College Basketball Mid-Major: NEC

You know all about the Power 5 conferences in college basketball. You hear about those more than any other, and those groups often dominate the March Madness conversation. There are 26 other conferences out there, however, and our goal is to get you up to speed on the teams, players and fights in the standings to know before the conference tournaments, Selection Sunday and the official start of March Madness.

It’s time for you to get to know a mid-major: this time, it’s the NEC.

Formerly the Northeast Conference until this season — and before that, the ECAC Metro Conference — the NEC formed in 1981. While the membership has fluctuated quite a bit, especially in recent years, the NEC currently has 10 members, but not all of them are eligible for March Madness thanks to transitions from Division II. This has created the need for alternative options for the automatic bid, should the NEC conference tournament finals feature ineligible teams. To further complicate matters — though, this is a 2026-2027 situation — last year’s tournament winner, St. Francis, is currently transitioning to Division III but participating in D-I for the last time, and New Haven isn’t even eligible for the NEC tourney since it hasn’t been three years since it arrived from D-II.

As you can imagine with all this transition and small membership even with the additions, there is just the automatic bid to go around for the NEC, for both the men and the women.

NEC — Men’s College Basketball

Leaders:

Points Per Game: Darin Smith, Central Connecticut, 20.2
Rebounds Per Game: Taeshaud Jackson, FDU, 8.4
Assists Per Game: Jay Rodgers, Central Connecticut, 7.0 (9th in D-I)
Steals Per Game: Malek Robinson, Chicago State, 1.9
Blocks Per Game: Qadir Martin, Mercyhurst, 2.4

A couple of things need explanation right out of the gate. First, LIU has already secured the top seed in the NEC, as it’s 13-3 through Feb. 24, with Central Connecticut in second at 10-6. Second, Le Moyne, Mercyhurst and New Haven are not eligible for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament due to still being in their respective transitions from Division II, and New Haven isn’t even eligible for the NEC tournament since there is also a waiting period for that. Which means it’s not really the top eight teams making the NEC tournament, but the top eight besides New Haven, leaving just one team out in the northeastern cold. Or is it NEC cold?

This truly does complicate matters, as the next three teams in the standings behind LIU and Central Connecticut are, in fact, Le Moyne, Mercyhurst and New Haven — the first two are 9-7 through Feb. 24, the latter 8-8, in a tie with FDU. Stonehill is 7-9, Wagner 6-10, while both Chicago State and St. Francis (PA) are 5-11.

To recap: three of the top-5 teams in the NEC are not eligible for March Madness, and one of them can’t even participate in the NEC tournament. Should the conference finals somehow end up being Mercyhurst vs. Le Moyne, there will be an auto-bid qualifier played between the two losing teams from the semifinals. Like a bronze medal game, except you are technically the gold medalist for winning it.

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LIU is the lone NEC team to crack the top 200 in NET, at exactly 200. Mercyhurst comes next, at 282, with Central Connecticut and Le Moyne also top-300. The rest of the bunch is in the bottom 50 of Division I, which means chances are actually pretty good that even if LIU does somehow not win the NEC tournament, it is still going to end up with the automatic bid since it would very likely get a second chance in that automatic qualifier game to determine the March Madness representative. LIU’s three losses this year in conference play, by the way, came at the hands of Le Moyne, New Haven and Mercyhurst.

Of course, LIU only gets that second chance if Central Connecticut (and every other tourney-eligible team) loses, leaving the finals as Mercyhurst vs. New Haven. Still, if you like your chaos funny and your college sports nonsensical, well. There is your outcome to root for.

NEC - Women’s College Basketball

Leaders:

Points Per Game: Kadidia Toure, LIU, 18.9
Rebounds Per Game: Kadidia Toure, LIU, 10.2
Assists Per Game: Ava Renninger, FDU, 5.2
Steals Per Game: Aniya McDonald-Perry, New Haven, 2.6
Blocks Per Game: Kadidia Toure, LIU, 1.5

The women’s side of the NEC has all of the same complications as the men’s in terms of which teams are eligible and which are not, but at least the chances that the conference tournament ends with two ineligibles facing each other is a bit lessened. New Haven is also just 5-10, eighth in the conference, so its absence from the NEC tournament will not be quite as pronounced as it will be on the men’s side.

FDU is undefeated in conference play, 15-0 against NEC competition and 24-4 overall. LIU is a top contender in women’s basketball, as well, coming in at 12-3. Ineligible for March Madness Mercyhurst is third, at 11-4, followed by 8-7 Wagner and Le Moyne. Chicago State is 7-8, Stonehill 6-9, St. Francis 2-13 and Central Connecticut 1-14 — the Blue Devils had been one of three remaining teams without a single win in 2025-2026, but finally picked up a W on Feb. 21, defeating Chicago State. What is incredible is that Central Connecticut might end up NEC-tournament eligible despite not getting its first win until mere days before this article originally published, thanks to the New Haven quirk as well as what is left to play: the Blue Devils face St. Francis in one of its three remaining games, while the Red Flash have to also take on FDU and Stonehill while carrying a nine-game losing streak.

It’s important to recognize just how far ahead of the rest of the conference FDU is. While not a NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament-level team without an automatic bid, the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights are still 135th in NET 76th in Wins Above Bubble, with a score of -2.52. Their most significant issue might very well be the schedule that they have played: not to say that this would be a bubble team in a better conference, necessarily, but tougher competition would have likely helped more than it hurt when it came to evaluating its tournament qualifications.

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As is, FDU is the only top-250 team in NET in the NEC. LIU is next, at 272. Every other team sits between 325th and 362nd, out of 363. It’s difficult to bring up a WAB score when the next-best team is one that 75% of Division I is ranked ahead of, never mind how many bubble teams are supposed to get the W in that matchup.

What makes FDU’s dominance intriguing is that the best player in the conference, hands down, plays for LIU. Kadidia Toure is a junior forward who transferred from Arizona State, and the former Big 12 player, who had been a bench player and redshirt junior, has exploded in the NEC for a conference-leading 18.9 points per game, while averaging a double-double thanks to another NEC-best in rebounds, 10.2. Toure’s Player Efficiency Rating (PER) is 32.6; no one else in the NEC is over 30, or even up to 26. She has the best Defensive Rating in the conference, at 73.6, and is also eighth in Offensive Rating.

FDU has four of the top eight in PER, however, as well as the 17th-ranked player. LIU doesn’t have the same level of depth, and it’s why there is such a gap between the two. That being said, FDU only beat LIU head-to-head by a single point, and Toure had 22 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal in that matchup. The two have a rematch on Feb. 28; if FDU can’t stop Toure, and she has an even better game either there or in the NEC tournament, maybe it won’t be FDU playing in March Madness this time.