The University of Hartford Board of Regents’ decision in May 2021 to transition the school’s athletics program from NCAA Division I to Division III made statewide news and drew the ire and outrage of some students, alum and sports fans. It even led to a student-led lawsuit claiming UHart...
www.hartfordbusiness.com
This might be the most telling line in the whole thing:
"Meantime, Woodward said over the next two years, UHart will be adding field hockey,
men’s and women’s ice hockey, and will be bringing back men’s and women’s tennis."
Nothing about what conference they're actually going to go into...my guess is ideally Hartford wants the NEWMAC, since those are schools they'd feel they are most closely aligned with, but I'm not sure if that interest is reciprocated or not.
Outside of that, the Commonwealth Coast Conference sponsors men's and women's hockey. In this region of the country, it's the CCC, SUNYAC and NESCAC that fully sponsor men's and women's hockey as all sports conferences. The rest its either men's only (MASCAC) or it's the New England Hockey Conference, which houses all the others who are in various D3 leagues. There's like 5-6 independent teams out there too. Maybe they form a league with them. We all know Hartford isn't going to the NESCAC or SUNYAC.
Last I talked to someone they said CCC was the probable option but who knows if that's even progressed anywhere. The CCC already has 10 members. But, New England College is looking for a home after the collapse of the NECC. Maybe them + Hartford is what the CCC does for 12...NEC would have to move its hockey over from NEHC, but that'd give them 10 men's and and 9 women's programs if it was NEC and Hartford.
That being said, Hartford admins probably don't view the CCC as peers...but what choice do they have with the way they went about it? We don't even know if the CCC actually wants them either.