It was made up mostly of schools from the northeastern United States whose primary conferences did not sponsor wrestling as an NCAA-qualifying event.

After the 1991–92 season, Penn State left the league when the university joined the Big Ten Conference, which holds its own NCAA Division I Championships qualifying tournament.

In 2013, the league announced that George Mason and Rider had accepted invitations to join the conference beginning in the 2013–14 academic year.

Cleveland State, which had announced it would drop wrestling at the end of the 2015–16 school year, but later reinstated the program without interruption, is a member of the non-wrestling Horizon League.

[3][4] On March 5, 2019, the seven members of the EWL accepted affiliate membership to the Mid-American Conference starting in the 2019-2020 season.