Hartford huddles before this spring's American East semifinal game. (China Wong)
As a region, New England is home to 23 schools that sponsor Division I soccer.
That figure is due to decrease by September 2025, with the University of Hartford’s Board of Regents announcing last Thursday that the school intends to reclassify into Division III. They’d formally file for a change by January 2022, creating a multi-year pathway that’d involve departing the America East Conference and entering a to-be-determined D-III conference.
Specifics aren’t entirely concrete, but the university’s intentions were clearly laid out after an athletics feasibility study, as prepared by CarrSports Consulting, stated Hartford would save $9.2 million per year by dropping down to D-III.
