MAINE MARITME RELEASE

BIDDEFORD, Maine – The Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) is happy to announce the addition of Maine Maritime Academy as a football associate member. The Mariners announced they were reinstating their program on Monday (Jan. 9) morning and and are scheduled to begin competing in 2025.

“This is a wonderful day for the Commonwealth Coast Conference and Division III football in New England,” said CCC Commissioner Gregg M. Kaye.

Maine Maritime, which suspended its football program in August 2020 because of financial challenges faced by the Academy resulting from the pandemic, will be returning to the conference it called home for decades. In 1965, the Mariners were charter members of the New England Football Conference (NEFC) and remained in the league until 2016. THE NEFC was brought under the CCC umbrella and rebranded in 2017.

“For more than 50 years, the New England Football Conference was special, groundbreaking and unique, said Kaye. “Maine Maritime was a founding member of the NEFC, a football conference that lives on in today’s Commonwealth Coast Conference. The CCC is ecstatic to be the new football home for Maine Maritime, an institution that played such an important role in the NEFC for more than half a century.”

Maine Maritime Athletic Director Steve Peed also expressed his excitement with the renewed partnership.

“We are incredibly excited to get back to our football roots, including the conference we spent so many years as a member of when it was the NEFC,” said Peed. “We are grateful for the opportunity extended to us to compete in the CCC and we cannot wait to begin competing in 2025.”

The Mariners will begin competition as a sub-varsity program in 2023 and continue to replenish the roster through a sub-varsity 2024 season. The Academy also announced that it has opened a search for its next head coach, which will be followed by a search for two coordinator-level positions.

Maine Maritime is the first football associate member added since 2019 when Husson was welcomed into the league. The league’s football sponsorship also includes CCC core members Curry, Endicott, Nichols, University of New England, and Western New England.

 

ABOUT MAINE MARITIME ACADEMY

Maine Maritime Academy is a co-educational, public college on the coast of Maine offering 22 programs of study in engineering, management, science, and transportation to promote the maritime interests of the United States. The college serves approximately 950 undergraduate and graduate students in career-oriented degree programs. The job placement rate for MMA graduates is approximately 90 percent within 90 days of graduation with very high paying jobs. The college is consistently recognized for providing a high-value education by organizations such as the Brookings Institution, U.S. News and World Report, and Money Magazine. The 2022 Report by Georgetown University ranked MMA #1 among all public colleges for return on investment for low-income students at public bachelor's degree institutions.

ABOUT THE COMMONWEALTH COAST CONFERENCE

The Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC), founded in 1984, is an NCAA Division III athletic conference comprised of 10 full member and one associate member institutions throughout the New England region. Its membership aims to provide student-athletes with a positive experience in their pursuit of excellence through high academic standards, quality competition, and a meaningful student life. The conference administers championships in 20 intercollegiate sports.

 

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