A compromise has been reached between America East administrators that will allow the four departing schools to leave the conference a year early without penalty while also admitting two institutions for next season.

Delaware, Hofstra, Drexel, and Towson will join the Colonial Athletic Association for the 2002-2003 season instead of the 2003-2004 season and they won’t each have to pay the $250,000 penalty to America East they could have been assessed by America East bylaws for leaving early.

Meanwhile, New York institutions Albany and Stony Brook will begin conference play in all sports beginning this fall.

A task force composed of four athletic directors was established by the league to develop a compromise that would satisfy both the departing schools and the remaining ones.

The task force involved two athletic directors from institutions which are remaining in America East and two from among the departing schools: Northeastern’s Ian McCaw, New Hampshire’s Martin Scarano, Towson’s Wayne Edwards, and Hofstra’s Harry Royle.

They contacted representatives at the other institutions and met on Monday in Hartford.

“We have worked through some difficult issues. There has been a great deal of compromise. There has been give and take and we feel we have a very fair and workable plan for next year,” said McCaw. “The schools have agreed to it in principle.”

He added that he expects everything to be finalized “pretty quickly.”

There will be several changes next season.

For example, there will be northern and southern divisions next season in men’s and women’s basketball, according to McCaw.

Maine, Northeastern, New Hampshire, Vermont, Boston University, and Hofstra will be in the northern division with Stony Brook, Hartford, Albany, Drexel, Delaware, and Towson in the south.

“We will play home-and-home within the division and we will play everybody in the other division once,” explained McCaw.

There will be 10 teams in baseball in the spring of 2002 – New Hampshire and Boston University dropped their programs in the 1990s – but they won’t divide into two divisions.

“It will be a round robin, but instead of four-game series like we play now, we will play three-game series,” said McCaw.

University of Maine baseball coach Paul Kostacopoulos likes the baseball setup for 2002 and added that he feels the task force and all the America East schools should be commended for reaching a compromise that will set the stage for the future.

“The one thing that has really pleased me is that even though all the parties have a different perspective, they all came together and developed a good compromise. They did the right thing for the departing programs as well as for the core group,” said Kostacopoulos.

He said for Maine and the other remaining institutions, “This enables us to buy some time to search for some more members.”

In order to receive an automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament, a conference must have at least six members.

Baseball will be assured of having six now that Albany and Stony Brook have been added.

“I also like the idea of having associate memberships,” said Kostacopoulos referring to the fact schools can be added for specific sports.

He pointed out that New York schools Pace University, New York Tech, and C.W. Post do not have conference affiliations in baseball and could be attractive additions.

HE tickets on sale Friday

Tickets for the Hockey East semifinals and championship game at the FleetCenter in Boston will go on sale Friday at 11 a.m.

The tourney semifinal games will be at 5 and 8 p.m. on March 16, and the title game will be March 17 at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $15 and $25 for each night, including both games Friday.

Tickets can be obtained at the FleetCenter box office or by calling Ticketmaster at 617-931-2000.

Last year’s semifinals and final sold out, making the tourney among the top 10 best-attended sporting events of the year, according to the Dec. 22 issue of The Boston Business Journal.

Maine is the defending tournament champ by virtue of its last-second 2-1 win over Boston College a year ago.