By Pat Coleman and Dave McHugh
D3sports.com

Once upon a time in the colonial states of America, a wise man was reported to have said, "We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately."

It's not known whether Benjamin Franklin actually said this prior to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and it's not clear whether the presidents and athletic directors of 17 Division III schools in the same part of the country have this phrase in mind at the moment, but it certainly seems appropriate as the United East Conference and the Colonial States Athletic Conference prepare to announce a merger. 

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Hoopsville and D3sports.com have learned that the two conferences, which total 17 schools, will be announcing that they are merging, and may play in north and south divisions as the number of sports warrants. That merger could happen as soon as the fall of 2023.

This was later confirmed by the conference offices, which included the following as part of their statement: "The merger is intended to address the evolving landscape of higher education by stabilizing conference membership and solidifying the sport sponsorship currently offered by the existing conferences. This merger will also provide member institutions an opportunity to decrease the number of associate memberships necessary to support the current sport offerings on each respective campus."

This year, Centenary (N.J.) left the CSAC for the Atlantic East. Next year, Wells and Morrisville State leave the UEC for the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference and North Atlantic Conference, respectively.

The conference would be large, but the coming demographic fall-off of college-age students which will start in 2026 has higher education, and by extension, small college athletics, looking to firm up their enrollment, which is why a number of schools have recently announced that they are adding football. Elsewhere, moves like this will ensure that, even though 17 schools is more than is needed for an automatic bid, conferences will still have bids available not just in basketball, but sports such as men's volleyball, field hockey, men's lacrosse and others.

Gallaudet and Lancaster Bible of the UEC are already associate members in the CSAC for track and field, and field hockey and men's volleyball respectively. The CSAC relies on associate members to maintain its automatic bid in field hockey, and will do so this year in women's lacrosse.

The geographic span of this conference would extend from St. Mary's (Md.) in the south, to Keystone in the northeast. Keystone is north of Wilkes-Barre. The northwest corner of the conference extends to Penn College, which is in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

This story will be updated.