MARSHFIELD, Mass. – Earlier this month the Eastern Collegiate Football Conference announced that Keystone College is set to join the league and scheduled to begin playing a full slate of conference games beginning in the 2020 football season.
 
Keystone College announced the addition of football as its 22nd varsity sport on January 3, and plans to begin its first season of games in 2019 before joining the ECFC in 2020.
 
"The ECFC is thrilled to welcome the Giants to the fold in 2020," stated ECFC Commissioner, Katie Boldvich. "We were very impressed during the league's site visit to campus and hearing about all the plans Keystone has in store for the future of not only the football program, but the institution as a whole. They will be a great fit for our league and we look forward to our first ECFC contests in La Plume in 2020."
 
Keystone's addition to the league continues to alter the landscape of the conference over the past several seasons. While the original eight members, including Maritime, had remained intact from 2009 through 2016, the league saw the departures of Becker to the Commonwealth Coast Conference and Norwich to the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference beginning this past season in 2017. Becker and Norwich were replaced this past season by Alfred State and Dean.
 
As the landscape continues to shift, Mount Ida College recently announced that it will cease operations following the spring 2017 semester, thus reducing the ECFC's members to seven colleges and universities. Husson University will be departing the league following the 2018 campaign and join Becker in the Commonwealth Coast Conference for the 2019 season. The addition of Keystone will bring the league's membership back to seven for the 2020 campaign.
 
Located in La Plume, Pennsylvania, the trip to Keystone is just over 140 miles from the Maritime College campus and will be Maritime's closest conference opponent in league history in regards to proximity. The Giants will play on the college's synthetic turf facility, which opened in time for the fall 2014 season.
 
Keystone plays in the Colonial States Athletic Conference as its primary conference, and is athletically recognized for its perennial power baseball program. Maritime is no stranger to Keystone, with both of the Privateer soccer teams having competed against the Giants in recorded program history. The men's and women's soccer teams last played Keystone during the 2013 season.