ECAC Northeast was a league in NCAA Men's Division III. The conference indirectly dates back to 1961 when the ECAC started sponsoring men's ice hockey. It was split into Division I and II in 1964 and was further split in 1971 to include Division III. The league was generically known as ECAC Division III from 1971 to 1985, ECAC North and ECAC South from 1985 to 1998 and ECAC Central was added from 1992 to 1998. The conference took the ECAC Northeast name for the 1998-99 season with many teams joining from the three leagues when many programs either joined one of the new Division I conferences or the school discontinued the men's ice hockey program.