SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Le Moyne College only joined Division I in 2023 . Its athletic programs are eligible to compete in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 2026-27 . The Dolphins announced on Thursday that they'd be leaving the NEC and joining the Metro Conference (formerly known as MAAC) after for the 2027-28 academic year.
Le Moyne is set to replace Fairfield, which is departing the Metro for the CAA at the same time. The Metro has made a habit out of taking teams from the NEC. Merrimack, Sacred Heart, and Mount St. Mary's have all made the jump in the last five years, while Monmouth, Quinnipiac, Marist, and Rider all did so beforehand. The Dolphins will be the 13th member of the conference.
Over its first three Division-I seasons, Le Moyne has had two winning campaigns in NEC play but has a losing record overall. The Dolphins finished 299th in KenPom last year and earned the No. 3 seed in the NEC Tournament before losing to Stonehill in the quarterfinals.
Outside of men's basketball, Le Moyne will bring a successful lacrosse program into the Metro. The Dolphins recently hired Syracuse legend Casey Powell to coach the six-time Division-II national champion men's program. Additionally, Le Moyne women's lacrosse won the NEC regular season title in 2026. Le Moyne was previously an associate member of the MAAC in baseball (1990-2007) and women's lacrosse (1999-2007).
Le Moyne is located in Syracuse, N.Y., and sponsors 22 varsity sports, 21 of which are sponsored by the Metro. Only women's bowling is not.
"In terms of conference realignment, in my opinion, it's something that will never stand still," Metro Conference Commissioner Travis Tellitocci told Mid-Major Madness after Fairfield's announcement in June . "I think you always have to be ready. I equate it to a coaching search as you're in the same realm of always looking at what options are and trying to be strategic as well. So, I don't think it's something that will ever stop, to be honest with you. We will continue to have conversations with our membership about what the next steps look like going forward in terms of membership. Those are conversations that we have all the time. It's not when somebody comes or goes, it's a constant conversation."
Tellitocci did not immediately respond to an interview request in the wake of Le Moyne's addition. This story will be updated with more information as it comes along.
"We are excited to welcome Le Moyne College back to the Metro Conference," Tellitocci said in the conference's press release . "Le Moyne's leadership has taken an aggressive approach to building its Division-I athletics program and demonstrated a strong commitment to investing in its future success. With significant economic development and investment taking place throughout Central New York, this is an exciting time for Le Moyne and the Syracuse region. We believe Le Moyne has tremendous potential and is well positioned to capitalize on this momentum. We look forward to working together to build a successful future with Le Moyne in the Metro Conference."
Athletic director Phil Brown, who replaced Bob Beretta at the beginning of 2025, says that finding a new conference home for Le Moyne was not on his "bingo card" when he took the job, instead focusing on completing the transition to full Division-I member status. But he says that the Metro Conference reached out some time in the late summer after Fairfield announced its departure to plant the seeds of the relationship.
In September, Brown says, the offer was officially extended.
"They didn't really give a strong pitch, per se," Brown told Mid-Major Madness. "It was a very nice slide deck reminding us what schools are involved, and a map that showed me geographically where they fit. And for us, it was just a little self-reflection. The geography: everybody's pretty close. The Catholic identity: we'll be the 10th school that's a Catholic school, and so that resonates and matters to us."
Brown also says that in speaking to longtime Le Moyne fans, they fondly remember the Dolphins playing against some of the schools in the Metro.
He pushed back on the idea that the Metro is reaching down by adding Le Moyne.
"Fans are entitled to their own thoughts," he said. "We did our analysis across the board, academically, financially; we're in just as good a shape as anybody else of the schools. We've made some tremendous investments in our reclassification process. Highly competitive from a budget standpoint."
"I was happy in the NEC," he continued. "They were great colleagues. We're all playing tremendous basketball here in the northeast. The NEC does have to focus on football, and for me, the Metro is a basketball league. Clearly, we're a basketball-only institution, so it seems like a more natural fit for us."
Head men's basketball coach Nate Champion says that he was not involved in the decision-making process but was keyed into the idea.
"One of the things that I really enjoy about Le Moyne is that we have an administration that is aggressive and changing with the times," Champion told Mid-Major Madness. "I think that is what I want. We didn't look at the Metro Conference and say, 'oh man, that's too big of a jump' or 'we're not ready.' We're going to jump in and be competitive. I trust my administration to put us in a position to be competitive."
Listen to Metro and NEC men's conference preview podcast episode:
Listen to Metro and NEC women's conference preview podcast episode:
Champion shares a lot of similarities with Merrimack head coach Joe Gallo. The two are both coaching at their alma maters and competed against each other as head coaches in the Division-II NE10 conference before the Warriors jumped to Division I in the NEC. Then, when Le Moyne joined the NEC, Champion and Gallo once again shared conferences for a year.
Gallo has had success bringing Merrimack from the NE-10 to the NEC now to the Metro. The Warriors won the MAAC regular-season title last year. Mid-Major Madness ranked Merrimack No. 1 in Metro Conference preseason power rankings as well . Champion says that he hopes to talk to Gallo in the near future about the transition.
"He'll definitely be on my list to call," Champion said. "I'm definitely interested in hearing what he thinks of the Metro."
Champion said that the biggest difference to him between the two conferences is size.
"When you look at some of the Metro teams," he said. "The size across the board, it's just a little bigger than the NEC. Look at teams like Siena and Fairfield, and we played Niagara the last two years, and Manhattan as well; I think they're just a little bit bigger. Definitely, I think that will be an adjustment as we continue to move forward, just looking for more size overall, but I don't think there's a crazy amount of difference (in play style)."
Le Moyne has played against multiple Metro Conference schools in recent years. This season, the Dolphins will take on Niagara, Manhattan, Fairfield and Saint Peter's. Le Moyne defeated Canisius 90-84 in an exhibition matchup on Saturday.
Aside from Merrimack, Mount St. Mary's has also had success moving from the NEC to the Metro, winning the 2025 MAAC Tournament in year three in the league. Meanwhile, Sacred Heart has hovered around .500 in its first two seasons.
Le Moyne has not opted into the House vs. NCAA Settlement, and thus is not permitted to share revenue with student-athletes. Brown said that the Metro was not looking for a firm commitment on whether the Dolphins would opt in.
"They want us to be aware that it is something that we need to be cognizant of," Brown said. "And we reminded them that we do have a collective out there, and we are participating already."
In terms of potentially opting in in the future, Brown left the door open.
"I never say never," Brown said. "We're going to study it. That's something we're known for at Le Moyne. We do deep discernment on anything that we do. We want to know what it looks like, how it impacts rosters. But we have a collective. We're already participating in NIL. This isn't new for us. We didn't just wake up and say 'hey, we're going to do this basketball thing today.' We've been involved since we decided to go Division I."
Champion trusts that his administration will support his program whether they opt in or not.
"I think our conversation about all that stuff will be happening throughout the year," Champion said. "I don't think our administration would lead us down a path where we don't want to be competitive. I know that we have competitive people from the top down. Linda Lemura, Jim Joseph and Phil Brown are extremely competitive, and so are we."
Le Moyne athletics recently received a $1 million gift from the Lobdell family, also a major donor to Syracuse University athletics. The department also received a $1 million gift in January from Joseph M. Savage, as well as signing a jersey sponsorship deal with a locally-based education AI platform.
"We understand that our basketball budget today isn't what some of the Metro schools are at, and that's okay," Brown said. "We know we can get there. We have tremendous support from our donors. When we look at our other sports in the Metro, we're at median or above from a budget standpoint."
Data from the 2024-25 athletic year shows that Le Moyne's men's basketball had operating expenses totalling $307,678, which would rank ahead of only Rider in the Metro Conference.
However, Le Moyne is in the middle of the pack for baseball, men's lacrosse, men's soccer, volleyball and softball operating expenses. The Dolphins also trailed only Quinnipiac, Fairfield and Sacred Heart in women's soccer operating expenses.
Despite landing those big donations, Le Moyne has struggled to get fans in the door for men's basketball games. The Dolphins averaged just 560 fans per home game last year, ranking 6th in the NEC. That tally would rank dead last in the Metro. The 2,000-seat Ted Grant Court saw its biggest crowd of last season, though, for a home game against Metro Conference member and upstate New York rival Niagara with 1,048 in attendance that day. Brown hopes that welcoming more traditional rivals could boost attendance and interest.
He also said that Le Moyne is doing its due diligence on potential facilities upgrades.
"Before I got here and the announcement was made, Le Moyne made a commitment to facilities," Brown said. "We have architects. We're in the fundraising phase now. So we'll see what happens down the road, but I'm excited about the direction we're headed. No projects to announce, but definitely always in conversations about how we can move forward."
There are rumors circulating that the Metro may be looking to add more schools as well.
"I believe [this] not the last realignment move for The Metro," Matt Brown, a leading voice in realignment, budget, and other college sports business reporting, tweeted on Wednesday night.
At Le Moyne, Phil Brown says that he didn't discuss potential other additions with the league.
"That's not a conversation that we had," Brown said. "Being selfish, I like to be courted. I don't want to be somebody else's date too. So we focused on our relationship with the Metro and what they're doing. They have a membership committee. When we become full members, I'm sure we'll be involved with that, but to date, it was really a focus on us."
