WOAY – The Mountain East Conference announced Thursday that Davis & Elkins College will join the conference as a full member on July 1, 2019. The University of North Carolina at Pembroke will also join the MEC as an associate member in football, men’s and women’s indoor track & field, women’s swimming and wrestling.
This news follows announcements earlier this year that Shepherd and UVa-Wise would both be leaving the Mountain East at the end of the 2018-19 school year, and that Frostburg State would be joining the conference depending on their acceptance into Division II.
Davis & Elkins currently sponsors 19 of the MEC’s 20 championship sports, the one exception being football. The Senators were part of the old West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference – competing against most of the current MEC schools – but joined the Great Midwest Athletic Conference in 2013 when the WVIAC broke up.
UNC Pembroke has been a member of the Peach Belt Conference since 1992, but are a Division II independent in football, as that sport is sponsored by the PBC. Their first football season with the Mountain East will be in 2020, while the three additional sports will begin competition in the league in 2019.
The MEC also plans to add conference championships soon in wrestling and men’s and women’s indoor track.
