By Braden Keith on SwimSwam
The VMI men’s and women’s swimming & diving teams will join the NEC next season as an affiliate member. The school will also host the 2027 NEC Swimming & Diving Championships at Goodall Pool in the VMI Aquatic Center in its inaugural season in the conference.
The 2027 NEC Swimming & Diving Championships will run from February 17-20.
The VMI men’s swimming and diving team first joined the NEC in 2003 after the school left the SoCon for the upstart Big South Conference, which doesn’t sponsor swimming. When the school added a women’s team in 2005, it also joined the NEC.
In 2007, both programs left to become charter members of the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association (now Coastal Collegiate Sports Association), a secondary conference designed to conglomerate east coast swimming & diving programs without large conference participation.
Then in the 2017-2018 season, the swimming & diving programs joined the America East Conference. Last season, the women’s program finished 7th out of 7 teams and the men’s program finished 4th out of 6 teams, though both finishes belied the progress the program has made in recent years.
Last season, the men’s team broke 10 school records and the women broke 20. Scott Thacker, who has spent the last four years with the program, was recently announced as the new head coach at Army. VMI has not yet announced his replacement.
Now they will join the NEC, where last year Howard University swept the team titles – including a first-ever win for the Howard women.
The NEC will now have 8 women’s teams and 6 men’s teams, including a new men’s program at Stonehill College expected to launch next season. Crucially, this now allows men’s champions from the NEC to earn automatic qualifications for the NCAA Championships – which requires a minimum of five programs to count.
The America East is generally a much faster, and deeper, conference than the NEC overall, though there are standout exceptions.
Both genders in the America East Championship will still have at least five teams.
VMI has hosted the last three editions of the America East Championships. The $44 million VMI Aquatic Center was dedicated on January 7, 2023. It includes an indoor 50-meter pool, 1-meter springboards, 3-meter springboards, and a 5-meter diving platform, plus seating for 570 spectators.
“We are excited to join the NEC as our swimming and diving programs continue to improve each year,” says VMI Director of Athletics Jamaal Walton. “As a cadet, I vividly remember our swimming and diving program capturing back-to-back NEC Invitationals in 2006 and 2007. These programs have a championship mindset, and I love our chances heading into the NEC this upcoming season.”
VMI is also an NEC affiliate member in men’s lacrosse. A spokesperson for the school cited this as a primary reason for the move.
“We also believe it will put us in a better position to have competitive success,” the spokesperson said, alluding to the relative quality of competition in the two conferences.
2026-2027 America East Field
Women (in order of last year’s conference finish):
Bryant – 775 New Hampshire – 660 Vermont – 613 UMBC – 446 Binghamton – 403 Maine – 314Men (in order of last year’s conference finish):
UMBC – 805.5 Binghamton – 748 Bryant – 572.5 NJIT – 353 Maine – 3472026-2026 NEC Field
Women (in order of last year’s conference finish):
Howard – 856 Central Connecticut State – 837 Wagner – 407 Saint Francis – 349 LIU – 334 Stonehill – 299 Le Moyne – 275 VMI – newMen (in order of last year’s conference finish):
Howard – 859 Wagner – 787.5 Le Moyne – 684.5 LIU – 576 VMI – new Stonehill College – new
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