Mercyhurst University Athletics is moving to NCAA Division I for all sports beginning for the 2024-25 academic year.  Mercyhurst will join the Northeast Conference with a few sports joining as associate members in other conferences. 

"Obviously the PSAC was a great fit for us and a great relationship and fond memories, but we are always looking at where do we fit and we have done some studies and we started asking questions about what is the next move for us," said Director of Athletics Joe Spano. "The more we got into the studies and working with consultants and working with some conferences and having these discussions, we started to feel Division I is the right move for us."

All 27 programs will remain in the transition to Division I. Mercyhurst currently has 13 men's and 14 women's programs. Men's rowing and Stunt are the only two programs not recognized by the NCAA. The two hockey programs will remain in their current conference with no changes to who they play as they were already playing at the Division I level.

Mercyhurst will not be eligible for the NCAA postseason for four years as part of the move. Men's and women's hockey postseason eligibility is not expected to be affected by the move along with some of the multi-divisional sports according to Spano. Teams will have an NEC schedule beginning in the fall, however, they will not be permitted to participate in the conference playoffs for the first year and possibly year two, Spano said.

Mercyhurst will pay an unspecified exit fee to depart the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. The move to join the NEC will cost Mercyhurst 1.8 million dollars.

"We're very fortunate to have a very loyal base of donors and alums to help us with this cost and transition," said Spano.

The move to Division I also brings with it additional revenue from the NCAA that was not available at the Division II level such as money from broadcast rights and sponsorships. 

During the NEC's vetting period, they were pleased with the current facility improvements Mercyhurst has made over the past few years as part of their Laker for Life campaign. According to Spano, a few minor upgrades will need to be added such as the ability for instant replay at the scorer's table

"The membership committee was very impressed and felt like we have more than adequate facilities compared to competition in the league," said Spano.

Spano said the university had been performing studies and has been talking to consultants over the last decade to see if moving up would be good for Mercyhurst.

Spano said the discussions started to advance while former Director of Athletics Brad Davis was at the school. He added the recent realignment of the Power 5 conferences at the Division I level started to provide more of a likelihood of Mercyhurst making this move. 

"You can see all the movement that has been happening at the Power 5 level and the conference changing and in a way that trickles down to the smaller conferences and this opportunity presented itself and it was something we felt as a university was the right move for us," said Spano.

Universities must be invited to join a conference. Spano said that it was not until late March that the path for the move began to take shape. 

"We really didn't know until a week ago if we were going to able to get an invitation," said Spano.

The Northeast Conference currently has nine full-time members. Mercyhurst will join Chicago State as teams set to arrive to the conference next year. The NEC added Stonehill and Le Moyne in recent years. Spano said the expansion of the footprint of the conference made this an attractive move.

"it strategically put them in three of the major media markets of the United States, having New York, Boston and Chicago," said Spano. "It kind of opened up the door for a school that is somewhat west of them. We do have St Francis (PA) right down the road. There are some associate members like Robert Morris and Duquesne that are close by and more and more this looked like it was going to be a really great fit." 

While the move will see the departure of historic rivalries formed in the PSAC and other previous conferences, Spano and the university are confident new ones will emerge.

"I think we are going to pick up some really great rivalries, some new rivalries," Spano said. "We are going to be the only Division I within a 90-mile radius which fits really well if you look geographically.