With its membership dwindling to five in the latest round of the Mid-Atlantic Shuffle, the North Eastern Athletic Conference has reached far afield to attempt to retain its automatic bid in men's basketball.

That's clearly the reason that the North Eastern Athletic Conference and the University of Dallas are joining up with each other, starting this season, 2008-09.

The University of Dallas is indeed located in Dallas, Texas. Both basketball teams, the men's soccer team, both cross country teams and men's golf will participate in the league as well, which consists primarily of schools in upstate New York and Pennsylvania. Women's volleyball will join in 2009-10.

The conference also announced Penn State-Abington would join for the 2009-10 season, which the school hopes to be accepted as a first-year provisional member of Division III. St. Elizabeth, a women's school in Morristown, N.J., will also join in 2009-10.

&&g-boxr&&No schedule details were given for integrating Dallas into the 2008-09 NEAC slate. However, sources tell D3sports.com that there will be no conference games in the NEAC 2008-09 and they will list only overall standings. It was not known how the conference intends to select its automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament.

"We're gaining two new full members and four new associate members, and we are expanding our conference into two additional states -- New Jersey and Texas," said Keuka president Joseph G. Burke, chair of the league's Presidents Council. "These new members will provide our NEAC student-athletes with greater opportunities to compete."