Sunrise Athletic Conference


The Sunrise Athletic Conference was a college athletic conference founded in 2002 and affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Its member institutions were in Maine, Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont.

History

The SAC was founded when both the Maine Athletic Conference and the Mayflower Conference disbanded in the spring of 2002. Both of these conferences were NAIA conferences of long standing. The conference formed with eight inaugural members: the College of St. Joseph, Fisher College, Lyndon State College, University of Maine at Fort Kent, University of Maine at Machias, University of Maine at Presque Isle, Paul Smith's College, Vermont Technical College. Royal Goheen became the commissioner of the Sunrise Conference and continued to serve as the only commissioner in the history of the SAC until it disbanded. In 1997, Goheen took on the role as the commissioner of the Maine Athletic Conference before its disbandment. In 2010 he was elected to the NAIA Hall of Fame.
In 2004, the Sunrise Conference added State University of New York at Canton after the university joined the NAIA as part of a transition from two-year to four-year institution. The conference held steady with nine members until Paul Smith's College and Lyndon State College left in 2010, dropping SAC membership to seven.
The conference disbanded in 2011 when the College of St. Joseph, Vermont Technical College and University of Maine at Machias left the conference and NAIA for the United States Collegiate Athletic Association and the Yankee Small College Conference. The University of Maine at Fort Kent, University of Maine at Presque Isle, and SUNY-Canton then left with no regional NAIA competition to become independents in the USCAA. In addition, UM-Presque Isle is transitioning to an independent member of NCAA Division III, while SUNY Canton was accepted into the transition process to move from NAIA to NCAA DIII. Fisher College joined the American Mideast Conference.

Former members

Membership timeline


DateFormat = yyyy
ImageSize = width:750 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:2002 till:2011
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5
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id:line value:orange
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width:15 textcolor:white shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:blue from:2002 till:2010 text:Paul Smith's College
bar:2 color:blue from:2002 till:2006 text:Lyndon State College
bar:3 color:blue from:2002 till:end text:College of St. Joseph
bar:4 color:blue from:2002 till:end text:Fisher College
bar:5 color:blue from:2002 till:end text:University of Maine at Fort Kent
bar:6 color:blue from:2002 till:end text:University of Maine at Machias
bar:7 color:blue from:2002 till:end text:University of Maine at Presque Isle
bar:8 color:blue from:2002 till:end text:Vermont Technical College
bar:9 color:blue from:2004 till:end text:State University of New York at Canton
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:2002

Conference sports

Conference championships

Women Volleyball
Men Cross Country
Women Cross Country
Men Soccer
Women Soccer
Men Basketball
Women Basketball
Men Golf
Baseball
Softball