Fifty years since its founding, the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) has combined NCAA Division 3 athletic and academic excellence in way that conforms to an ideal of college sports that has been widely abandoned at higher levels. The 11 NESCAC member institutions are all among the most selective in America, and its athletic teams and individual performers reliably among the most successful. It is a place where "student-athlete" is neither an oxymoron nor a punchline. Our panel will examine how NESCAC has found the sweet spot between the classroom and the playing field, and also discuss the significant challenges that lie ahead, as college sports undergoes an historic transformation.
 

NESCAC schools

 
 

Amherst	Bates	Bowdoin	Colby
Connecticut	Hamilton	Middlebury	Trinity
Tufts	Wesleyan	Williams

 
Panelists Bios

Moderator, Tim Layden, a 1978 graduate of Williams College and former mediocre student-athlete, is an award- winning and nationally recognized sports journalist with more than four decades' experience. Layden is currently a Writer-at- Large for NBC Sports, following a 25-year career at Sports Illustrated. Before that, he worked at daily newspapers in Schenectady, NY; Albany, NY; and New York City.
 
Dr. Daniel Covell is author of The New England Small College Athletic Conference: A History, which was published in 2022 by McFarland & Company to mark NESCAC's 50th anniversary. Covell played football at Bowdoin and is Professor of Sport Management in the College of Business at Western New England University. Education: Ph.D., University of Massachusetts; M.S., University of Massachusetts; B.A., Bowdoin College (1986)
 
John Biddiscombe served on Wesleyan's athletic staff for 38 years, the final 24 as its director. He was named Division III Athletic Director of the Year for the Northeast Region by the National Association of College Athletic Directors in 1999-2000.
 
David Hixon is a legendary Amherst College head men's basketball coach, who holds the record for number of wins in a single sport while coaching at Amherst. During his storied 42- season career at his alma mater, Hixon '75, was the third coach in men's basketball history across all National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) divisions to surpass the 800-win mark.
 
Dr. Joanne Berger-Sweeney is Trinity College's President. An accomplished neuroscientist and experienced leader in higher education, she is the 22nd president of Trinity College. The first African American and the first woman to serve as president of the college, she received her undergraduate degree in Psychology from Wellesley College, her M.P.H. in environmental health sciences from the University of California, Berkeley, and her Ph.D. in neurotoxicology from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
 

A Williams Club program at
The Penn Club, 30 West 44th St, NY, NY
November 2, 2022

Reception at 6:00 pm  |  Program 6:30 - 8:00 pm