Participating schools are located principally in the Northeastern United States, from which the conference derives its name.

This was followed on May 10, 2023 by the announcement that Le Moyne College would begin a transition from Division II and join the NEC on July 1.

[8] Another recent change took place on July 1, 2020, when charter member Robert Morris left to join the Horizon League.

The departure of Monmouth and Quinnipiac to become all-sports members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) in July 2013 gave the MAAC four full members that sponsored the sport; the other two were NEC single-sport affiliates Rider and Siena.

The MAAC then decided to add field hockey as a sponsored sport for the 2013 season,[13] and all of the NEC's remaining field hockey programs eventually joined the MAAC except for Saint Francis (PA), which joined the Atlantic 10 Conference.

[18] Three of the remaining four NEC men's lacrosse programs became affiliate members of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

The other program, Merrimack, was in talks with several lacrosse-sponsoring conferences for affiliate membership,[19] and eventually joined the America East in time for the 2023 season.

[22] In March 2023, St. Francis College (Brooklyn) announced that it would discontinue its athletic programs at the end of the spring 2023 schedule.

The NEC announced in November 2023 that Cleveland State University and former full member Robert Morris were going to join the league as men's lacrosse associates.

[32] Soon after the start of the 2024–25 academic year, Manhattan University announced that it was going to add men's volleyball and become an NEC affiliate in 2025–26.

[34] A few months later, in April 2024, Mercyhurst University announced that it was going to transition from Division II and join the NEC, bringing the league to 9 members again, for the 2024-25 season.

The concept of playing back-to-back games against a local rival the same week is the only one of its kind among the nation's 31 NCAA Division I conferences.

Starting with the 2012–13 season, the Conference began awarding three bonus points to the NEC Tournament champion in those sports.