Jul 8, 2010 8:51:57 AM

The North Atlantic Conference will add Colby-Sawyer College and New England College as full members beginning with the 2011-12 academic year.  Both schools accepted invitations on Tuesday.

The additions will make the NAC a 10-member league. It also marks the first change in membership for the NAC since the addition of Green Mountain College and Lyndon State College in the fall of 2008.

Colby-Sawyer and New England College are two New Hampshire schools centrally located within the NAC footprint that includes four institutions in Maine and four in Vermont.

The NAC currently sponsors 13 championships. Beginning in the fall of 2011, both schools will take part in nine of them: men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, field hockey, men's and women's soccer, and women's lacrosse. Colby-Sawyer will also compete in women's volleyball and men's tennis, while New England College will compete in men's lacrosse and softball.

North Atlantic Conference members sponsoring baseball and women's tennis currently compete in the North Eastern Athletic Conference for those sports. Both New England College and Colby-Sawyer will join this existing partnership in baseball. Colby-Sawyer will also compete with the NEAC as an associate member in women's tennis.

Colby-Sawyer, currently a member of The Commonwealth Coast Conference, offers 18 varsity athletics programs and will add field hockey to that total in 2011. New England College, also a member of the TCCC, sponsors 13 varsity sports.

Founded in the fall of 1999, the North Atlantic Conference is currently composed of Castleton State College; Green Mountain College; Husson University; Johnson State College; Lyndon State College; the University of Maine, Farmington; Maine Maritime Academy; and Thomas College.