In a move that has been expected since December 3, the MAAC will make it official on Friday in adding Quinnipiac and Monmouth. Wagner was expected to join but supposedly backed off due to fear of the financial commitments. The schools will replace the departed Loyola (joining the Patriot League) and further expand the conference to 11 members.

The loss of the two schools from the Northeast Conference will drop their membership from 12 to 10 members. They will likely opt to remain at 10 unless an attractive pair were available. N.J.I.T. is the only current Division 1 candidate that could instantly fill that position. The NEC might also consider potential regional Division 2 upgrades as candidates.

For the MAAC, the move to 11 should provide some security in the even that through conference realignment in other conferences, that they would lose too many future members. MAAC schools could always be future A10 replacements depending on what happens with the Big East non-football schools.

For the NEC, at their current 10 or with a new addition like NJIT at 11 members, their likely only fear would come if the America East conference were to opt to expand. But unless that were to happen with more than 2 schools leaving the NEC, the conference would likely be able to remain stable.

Monmouth is expected to remain in the NEC for football as associate member. The NEC already includes associate member Duquesne, which is in the Atlantic 10 for other sports. With the loss of Albany football to the CAA and with Rhode Island opting to remain in the CAA rather than join the NEC, NEC football would still remain at 9 members.