The Northeast Conference is in a bit of a state of flux right now, but you should see some familiar school names atop the league. Robert Morris is back home in the league after a short stay with the Big South-OVC.
Merrimack and Sacred Heart have departed the league and will be independent this year, but still will play a majority of the NEC in 2024. LIU and Stonehill continue to improve as recently added programs.
While there are new faces in the NEC, this will continue to be the stout and scrappy league it always has been.
Teams Bringing In The Most D1 Transfers
FBS-to-FCS Transfers & FCS-to-FCS Transfers
Robert Morris — 16 (9 FBS, 7 FCS)
Duquesne — 13 (7 FBS, 6 FCS)
CCSU — 9 (4 FBS, 5 FCS)
LIU — 9 (4 FBS, 5 FCS)
Wagner — 8 (4 FBS, 4 FCS)
Names To Know
TOP OFFENSIVE PLAYER: Tyvon Edmonds, Robert Morris RB — Big things are expected this year out of this transfer. Edmonds was a First Team All-NEC selection last year and was a contributor at Merrimack for the past three seasons. He comes to RMU after he rushed for 1,247 yards and 10 TDs at his former school, and he’ll be a big part of Robert Morris’ success this fall.
TOP DEFENSIVE PLAYER: Kimal Clark, Central Connecticut State LB — Clark was a First Team All-NEC selection last year as a sophomore and is expected to explode from here in the next two seasons he has left. The New York state native tied for the NEC lead in tackles with 89 and will be leaned on heavily this fall at CCSU. He also posted 3 INTs and had 3 TFLs.
TOP NFL PROSPECT: C.J. Barnes, Duquesne DB — Barnes has played at free safety for three years at Duquesne but was considered a cornerback prospect coming out of Lake Gibson HS in Florida when he was a recruit. He is considered a pro prospect at cornerback by some outlets and a free safety by others. Last year he started 11 games and helped his team reach the FCS playoffs – registering 10 tackles against Youngstown State in the first round. He finished 2023 with 60 tackles and 3 passes defensed last year.
HERO Sports’ Predicted Order of Finish
1. Robert Morris
2. Duquesne
3. Saint Francis (PA)
4. Wagner
5. Stonehill
6. LIU
7. CCSU
8. Mercyhurst
As mentioned above, after four challenging seasons in the Big South-OVC, Robert Morris is “back home” in the NEC, playing its old Pittsburgh-area rivals like defending NEC champion Duquesne and St. Francis (Pa.). The schedule opens at FBS Utah State, but after that, there’s not a game on the schedule that the Colonials shouldn’t have a shot to win. The toughest game against an FCS opponent is either the road trip to the UAC’s Eastern Kentucky or away against Duquesne.
The RMU program started playing football in 1994 and its best season was 8-3 in 2010 when it won the NEC and faced North Dakota State in its lone trip to the FCS playoffs. Could this be another season like that? It is possible considering the talent returning – specifically on offense. This clearly should be the best season the program has had since leaving the NEC after 2019.
Duquesne, under legendary head coach Jerry Schmitt, has dominated the NEC in the past decade-plus, relying on a black-and-blue style of play that fits the narrative of a Pittsburgh-area college program. The Dukes have finished with at least a share of six NEC titles since 2011 – tops in the league. The program’s monumental win was the NEC’s first FCS playoff victory – coming in the first round of 2018 when Duquesne stunned Towson en route to a 9-win season, before falling to FCS superpower South Dakota State in the 2nd round.
There’s no reason to believe that Duquesne’s success won’t continue in ’24, but readmitted NEC foe Robert Morris comes back into the fold and will be tough. The Colonials were 4-7 last year but retain just about every key contributor from what is a tougher conference (Big South-OVC) than the NEC, and they’ve added several key transfers. The Duquesne-Robert Morris battle of Greater Pittsburgh rivals on Nov. 9 in Pittsburgh should settle the conference and the league’s automatic playoff bid.
Duquesne is a proud program that actually defeated Miami (Fla.) and Mississippi State in south Florida bowl games during the Great Depression era of the 1930s but opted not to go the “big college” football route when it became big business a decade or so later, opting to shut down the program for a number of years before restarting as a club team – slowly making its way back to being a conference power in the Division I/FCS ranks.
There’s no reason to believe – minus injury issues with a program that doesn’t have the luxury of depth – that this won’t be another winning season for the Dukes, though the non-conference slate of Boston College, Toledo, and a rematch of last year’s FCS playoff game with nearby Youngstown State won’t be padding the record. The Dukes will be well-seasoned by the time they hit the meat of the NEC schedule.
St. Francis (PA) had a solid season last year but was hit hard by graduation and transfers and will be in a bit of a rebuilding mode this year, but typically this program finishes in about the top half of the league.
Wagner has seen some tough times in recent years but showed improvement in ’23 and has the tools to show even more in ’24. If the QB position is as stable as it was last year with a new full-time player under center, and the offense stabilizes behind a bevy of returning starters and produces much better than 17.5 ppg this year, the Seahawks will be in the upper tier of the NEC.
Look for all of that to happen, but will they be able to consistently contend with the Duquesne and Robert Morris-type teams – that remains to be seen. While improvement seems very possible, playing two FBS teams (FAU and UMass) and the Ivy League’s Columbia and Patriot League’s Lehigh present challenges, along with Duquesne and Robert Morris both being on the road – but the other games aren’t insurmountable. The last winning season was 6-5 in 2016, and there is a chance that could be matched in ’24.
Stonehill is intriguing because it has arguably one of the top talents in the league in QB, Ashur Carraha. LIU, Central Connecticut State, and the new team Mercyhurst all have some strengths and will try to overcome weaknesses to be upper-half teams.
