Salve Regina University in Newport, Rhode Island competes in DIII football from a campus of Gilded Age mansions — Ochre Court, Wakehurst, Vinland — perched above the Cliff Walk and the Atlantic Ocean. The Seahawks recruit from Southern New England and the tri-state corridor, drawing student-athletes to a campus environment that no other DIII program can offer and no campus tour can adequately prepare a prospective student-athlete for. Salve Regina has won CCC titles and appeared in the DIII bracket with a program that understands its recruiting pitch is the most unique in the conference.

Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts recruits from the North Shore of Boston in one of New England's most productive DIII football pipelines, competing in the CCC with a program that draws from the same Essex County and Middlesex County corridors as the Boston-area FCS programs. The Gulls have won CCC titles and appeared in the DIII bracket, competing with a physical style that North Shore football demands. When Endicott's roster is deep and their defense is dominant, they are the CCC's most complete program and the primary obstacle between Salve Regina and the conference's automatic bid.

Western New England University in Springfield, Massachusetts recruits from the Pioneer Valley and the Connecticut River corridor — a market distinct from the coastal programs that define the CCC's upper tier. The Golden Bears draw from Springfield's working-class football culture and the same western Massachusetts corridor that produced coaches and players who went on to NFL careers. In a year when Salve Regina and Endicott are both rebuilding through roster transitions, Western New England is the program most capable of claiming the CCC's automatic bracket bid.