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The New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) is an athletic conference consisting of highly selective liberal arts colleges located in New England and New York. The colleges in this conference are often referred to as the "Little Ivies".
According to the NESCAC, "The formation of NESCAC originated with an agreement among Amherst College, Bowdoin College, Wesleyan University and Williams College first drafted in 1955. Along with these four institutions, Bates College, Colby College, Hamilton College, Middlebury College, Trinity College and Tufts University are sustaining charter members. Connecticut College was added in 1982, bringing the Conference's membership to its current total of 11 institutions."
Union College was an original charter member, but left the NESCAC in 1977 after an incident with ice hockey recruiting.
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The NESCAC holds conference championships in
Prior to 1993, NESCAC generally did not allow its member schools to send teams to NCAA championships. Since then, all sports except football have had this freedom, and have excelled in the NCAA Division III championships. For example, the Division III NACDA Director's Cup, awarded since 1996 to the college or university that wins the most college championships, has been awarded to Williams College every year except 1998, and Williams is currently in first place for the 2004-05 academic year.
Amherst, Wesleyan, and Williams are also members of the "Little Three" conference. Bates, Bowdoin, and Colby are also members of the CBB conference of Maine.
These NESCAC schools have produced a number of rock bands and folk singers, including Guster (Tufts), Dispatch (Middlebury), Tracy Chapman (Tufts), The Highwaymen (Wesleyan), and Dar Williams (Wesleyan).