The New Jersey Athletic Conference added another member institution Tuesday, its first in 43 years.
The NJAC Presidents Council and Board of Athletic Administrators accepted The State University of New York New Paltz as its newest member starting in the 2026-27 academic year. New Paltz will become the first full-member institution in the history of the NJAC to be located outside of New Jersey.
The addition will increase the conference to 11 institutions.
“I was all for bringing SUNY New Paltz into the conference,” Stockton University’s director of athletics and recreation Tony Berich said in an email to The Press. “I think in this day and age of conference movement, NCAA Division III is not immune, and I believe in being proactive rather than reacting if something were to happen.”
SUNY New Paltz, which has about 6,100 undergraduate students, sponsors 16 varsity sports and is close enough geographically so most NJAC schools will have “little or no overnight travel,” the conference release said.
People are also reading…
“We are excited to welcome New Paltz to the NJAC family and we’re looking forward to all of the various developments that will occur with the addition of another outstanding full-member institution,” NJAC Commissioner Terry Small said. “In studying SUNY New Paltz, it was evident that it is an outstanding institution with a strong history of athletic success. I am confident that SUNY New Paltz will be a good fit for the NJAC, and the NJAC will be a good home for SUNY New Paltz.”
SUNY New Paltz being the first non-New Jersey school to join the conference is not an issue, Berich said.
“As I stated earlier, the landscape of the NCAA is changing rapidly on so many fronts and our job, as administrators and leaders, is to put our institution and conference in the best possible situation to survive and thrive,” he said. “I believe that welcoming SUNY New Paltz was the responsible decision in that regard.”
Future impact
Some positive consequences with adding New Paltz include maintaining the NJAC’s NCAA automatic qualification in women’s tennis, the addition of men’s lacrosse as the newest NJAC-sponsored sport and the league’s men’s volleyball membership expanding to five programs. The NJAC was scheduled to lose its women’s tennis automatic qualifier in the 2026-27 academic year due to the league’s women’s tennis sponsorship falling below the minimum of six institutions (Ramapo is dropping the sport).
The New Paltz men’s lacrosse program will be the fourth in the NJAC, elevating the sport to a conference-sponsored sport. The conference will be able to crown a champion each spring. The New Paltz men’s volleyball program will be the fifth in the conference, one short of NCAA automatic qualification status.
The move to bring in New Paltz benefits Stockton as well as the NJAC, Berich said.
“First and foremost, it brings a high-quality athletic program to the NJAC that will enhance our national conference profile,” he said. “Secondly, the addition strengthened some of our conference sport offerings including saving the automatic qualifier for women’s tennis while giving a buffer to women’s lacrosse and even field hockey.”
The Ospreys’ men’s lacrosse team competes in the Coastal Lacrosse Conference. “It also gets us one step closer to having six (NJAC) schools sponsoring men’s lacrosse with the ultimate goal of securing an (automatic qualifier),” Berich said.
The last time the NJAC expanded its full membership was in the 1983-84 academic year, when Rutgers-Camden and Rutgers-Newark joined.
The conference was founded in 1957-58 with six members, including Glassboro State College (now Rowan University), Montclair State College (now Montclair State University), Jersey City State College (now New Jersey City University), Newark State College (now Kean University), Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey) and Paterson State College (now William Paterson University). Ramapo College also is also an NJAC member.
“We are excited to enter a new era of Hawks athletics, and I am grateful to NJAC leadership for their support throughout this process,” SUNY New Paltz :resident Darrell P. Wheeler said in a release. “I also want to thank the SUNY Athletic Conference, their members and their leadership for their stewardship of the DIII athletics experience in New York State and their support of our institution.”
SUNY New Paltz currently competes in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) and will continue to do for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons.
Over the course of the next academic year, NJAC membership will engage in a sport-by-sport study concerning the addition of New Paltz. A specific regular season and postseason competition plan for each sport will be adopted and implemented in preparation for the 2026-27 academic year, the release said.
“Moving to the New Jersey Athletic Conference presents opportunities to enhance the profile and competitiveness of Hawks athletics programs at a time when our varsity teams are performing at historic levels,” SUNY New Paltz director of athletics and wellness & recreation Renee Bostic said in the release. “Coordinating this transition along a two-year timeline will also help us provide a smooth experience for our current student athletes, particularly juniors and seniors who are focused on building on last year’s record-breaking season.”
Welcome to the discussion.
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person.
Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.