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Background
The Freedom Football Conference (FFC) was founded in 1992, consisting of the following schools:
- Coast Guard
- Massachusetts-Lowell
- Merchant Marine
- Norwich
- Plymouth State
- Stony Brook
- Western Connecticut
- WPI
Merchant Marine and Stony Brook moved over from the Liberty Football Conference. Plymouth State and Massachusetts-Lowell had been members of the New England Football Conference (NEFC). The remaining schools had been independent.
Scheduling was informal, the conference did not play a full round-robin until 1996. Springfield (an independent) was the only school to join the conference after its founding, in 1995. Massachusetts-Lowell and Stony Brook left after the 1995 season to play at the Division 2 level, which the schools were classified as at that time. Both are now at Division 1, but Massachusetts-Lowell no longer sponsors football.
The NCAA tournament expanded in 1999 and began awarding automatic qualification to conference champions in conferences with seven or more teams. The FFC, with seven teams, met the criteria and Western Connecticut, that season's champion, was the first to benefit from this change. But the automatic qualifier would end up being much more of a curse than a blessing. Full-sport conferences short on teams started hunting for schools to get their membership to seven.
The breakup of the FFC resulted from the Liberty League convincing Coast Guard, Merchant Marine and WPI and the Empire 8 convincing Norwich and Springfield to change conferences for the 2004 season, leaving only Western Connecticut and Plymouth State. Western Connecticut found a home in the NJAC. Plymouth State was left behind, having to play two years as an independent before joining the NEFC. Ironically, none of the teams currently play in the conferences they left the FFC for. The 2003 season was the last for the conference.
Timeline
| SEASON | EVENT(S) |
|---|---|
| 1992 | Freedom Football Conference (FFC) founded with Merchant Marine & Stony Brook (previously in the Liberty Football Conference), Plymouth State & Massachusetts-Lowell (previously in the New England Football Conference) and Coast Guard, Norwich, Western Connecticut & WPI (all previously independent). |
| 1995 | Springfield joined, previously an independent. Final season for Massachusetts-Lowell (moved to the first incarnation of the ECFC) & Stony Brook (independent for one season, then played in the Eastern Football Conference). |
| 1999 | Conference champion guaranteed an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with the expansion of the tournament to twenty-eight teams. |
| 2003 | Final season for the conference. The disposition of member schools:
|
Note on Nomenclature
For most of its history, the United States Merchant Marine Academy was referred to, athletically, as Kings Point. But that usage was not consistent, sometimes the school would use its full name or its initials (USMMA). The academy has shifted away from Kings Point and now prefers Merchant Marine. This site uses Merchant Marine, since Kings Point was never an official name for the school and to keep consistency.