NJIT Joins America East Conference
The America East Conference and New Jersey Institute of Technology announced that the Highlanders will become the 10th full member institution of the America East, effective for the 2020-21 academic year.
NJIT will officially join the league July 1, 2020.
“We are thrilled to welcome NJIT as America East’s 10th member institution,” said Amy Huchthausen, commissioner of the America East Conference. “They will be a great addition to our league and strengthen the academic and athletic profile of our conference.”
NJIT will compete for the America East Championships in a total of 14 sports including baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, men’s lacrosse, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's indoor and outdoor track & field, men’s swimming & diving and women’s volleyball.
“NJIT is a great fit for the America East Conference,” said UAlbany President and America East Board of Presidents Chair Havidán Rodríguez. “Its reputation as an elite public research institution and its commitment to academic excellence perfectly matches the profile of the conference’s institutions. That status combined with its geographic location and athletic aspirations made this an obvious decision. We all look forward to collaborating with and competing against NJIT for years to come.”
The current members of the America East Conference are: University at Albany, Binghamton University, University of Hartford, University of Maine, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, University of Massachusetts Lowell, University of New Hampshire, Stony Brook University and University of Vermont.
The Highlanders will be the first addition to the America East Conference since UMass Lowell joined in 2013.
Located in Newark, N.J., NJIT is particularly a great fit for the America East Conference, both academically and geographically. With an enrollment of 11,518, NJIT has been recognized as a Top 100 University by U.S. News & World Report, top 2% nationwide in Payscale’s college salary report, a top school with best ROI according to Princeton Review, No. 1 nationally on upward economic mobility for its lowest income students by Forbes and 74th nationally in QS World University USA 2020 rankings.
NJIT joins two America East Conference Institutions in the U.S. News & World Report Top 100 Universities and four Carnegie Classification R1 research universities.
"NJIT looks forward to joining our new athletic home, the America East Conference,” said NJIT President Joel S. Bloom. “The America East is comprised of both peer and aspirant universities, similar to NJIT are classified as among the highest national research universities - R1, nationally ranked in the top 100 of U.S. News and in the top 50 of the public universities. For our student-athletes, they will be playing closer to home, traveling less during this COVID-19 pandemic, and thereby producing cost savings for the university. It is with mixed emotions that we depart the ASUN conference who, like NJIT and the America East, focus on the success of our students academically and athletically. I want to thank our students-athletes, coaching and athletic staff, and AD Lenny Kaplan who contributed mightily to enable this timely move to the America East Conference.”
NJIT departs the ASUN Conference after five seasons as a member (first season 2015-16), which marked the first time that the Highlanders had been a full member of an automatic qualifying NCAA Division I multisport conference.
“We are very excited to begin this next chapter of NJIT athletics as a member of the America East Conference,” said Associate Vice President/Director of Athletics Lenny Kaplan. “Since the beginning of our Division I journey 15 years ago, the goal has always been to be in a regional conference and aligned with like-minded institutions. The America East provides us with an exceptional opportunity and we are happy to call the America East our new athletics home.”
The efforts of the NJIT administration, Highlanders athletic department and coaching staff have paid off as the Highlanders have achieved national, regional, and local recognition for their accomplishments on the playing field, including honors, titles and awards earned as a member of the ASUN Conference.
The Highlanders’ crowning achievement in the ASUN Conference came this year with a historical run by the men’s soccer team that included capturing the ASUN Conference regular season and tournament titles, advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the first time at the Division I level, becoming the first NJIT team to earn an ASUN title in any sport and picking up four end of the year individual awards: Coach of the
Year (Fernando Barboto), Player of the Year (Rene White), Goalkeeper of the Year (Samuel Reisgys) and Freshman of the Year (Alejandro Rabell).
In 2018-19, men's basketball set new program records for wins (22), non-conference victories (13) and road wins (11), including the program's first ASUN Championship win at Florida Gulf Coast, qualifying for the CollegeInsider.com Tournament and earning a vote in the AP Poll for the first time in school-history under head coach Brian Kennedy. Rising senior Zach Cooks led the ASUN Conference in scoring in 2019-20, finishing atop the points per game leader board (19.7ppg), ranking 35th in the nation.
“I want to thank Commissioner Gumbart and the ASUN leadership for their understanding and support in making this happen,” Kaplan added. “We have enjoyed our time as a member of the ASUN and it will always have a special place in the history of NJIT Athletics.”
NJIT's journey officially began in February 2003, when the Board of Trustees unanimously approved a plan to reclassify men's soccer to Division I from Division II. Within two years, the NCAA approved NJIT's request to begin the reclassification process for its entire athletics program.
Men's soccer began Division I competition in 2004 and the remaining programs began Division I competition in 2006-07. Men's soccer became Division I championship-eligible in 2005 and women's soccer followed in 2007.
The remaining programs, operating under a longer NCAA-mandated reclassification process, became championship-eligible as of September 1, 2009.
NJIT was briefly part of the Great West Conference (2008-13), but the league did not have an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament and subsequently disbanded in 2013.
Most Highlander teams competed without conference affiliation (2013-15) and for the most part were the only teams in Division I to do so in their respective sports. For example, NJIT men's basketball was the only Independent among 351 Division I teams nationwide.
On the campus of NJIT, there are three major athletic facilities: Wellness & Events Center ($110 million multipurpose venue, featuring a 3,500-seat basketball arena); Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium (an all-weather SprinTurf-covered soccer/lacrosse facility, which includes lights, seating for over 800 spectators, a press box and video
board); and the Naimoli Family Athletic and Recreation Facility (a 25,600-square-foot indoor recreation center.)
NJIT also sponsors men’s and women’s fencing, which saw the Highlander men capture back-to-back MACFA Championship titles in 2019 and 2020, men’s and women’s tennis and men’s volleyball, which competes in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. Both fencing and men’s volleyball teams combined for five All-American accolades in 2020.
