Framingham will be joined in the MASCAC by current NEFC members Bridgewater State, Fitchburg State, Massachusetts Maritime, Plymouth State, Westfield State, Worcester State, and UMass-Dartmouth, along with Western Connecticut (from the New Jersey Athletic Conference).
The NEFC, which will retain its automatic NCAA playoff berth, will field eight teams: charter members Curry and Maine Maritime, along with Coast Guard, Endicott, MIT, Nichols, Salve Regina, and defending Boyd Division champion Western New England.
The MASCAC champion will receive an automatic NCAA playoff spot starting in 2015; members will be eligible for at-large berths in 2013 and ’14.
“I have mixed emotions about it, I cut my teeth in the NEFC,’’ said Kelley. “But we’re looking out for the best interests of the student-athlete, with like budgets, like schools, and mission statements . . . We first talked about this 10 years ago. It gives us a lot of flexibility. There will still be crossover games between the two conferences.
Hires at Harvard
Tim Murphy made quick work of rebuilding his staff at Harvard.
Less than three weeks after three assistants departed to join new Yale coach Tony Reno, Murphy’s former special teams coordinator/defensive backs coach, the Crimson have made four hires and one promotion.
Jeremy Bandy, a six-year assistant on Tom Gilmore’s staff at Holy Cross, the last four working with the offensive line, will assume the same position at Harvard. He joins former Northwestern assistant Chris Batti (running backs); Ryan Crawford (defensive backs), formerly at Rhode Island; and Ron DiGravio (defensive line assistant), from New Haven. Three-year assistant Michael Horan was promoted to defensive line coach.
“It’s never easy having to hire new coaches,’’ said Murphy, who led the Crimson to a 9-1 season and the program’s 14th Ivy League title last fall.
“As our program has become more and more successful it’s become more challenging to hold on to our coaching staff as some lucrative opportunities have come their way. Having said that, we hired four new coaches in 2011 and still managed an undefeated Ivy championship . . . Our players have already responded to the leadership and enthusiasm’’ of the new coaches.
Former UMass coach Kevin Morris will be hired as Yale’s offensive coordinator, according to multiple reports. Morris was 16-17 in three seasons in Amherst; prior to that, he was the offensive coordinator at UMass for five years.
