Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia has won nine Mountain East Conference titles and made four Super Region championship game appearances. Their program — built in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, an hour from Washington D.C. — draws from both the Appalachian pipeline and the DMV corridor, combining physical West Virginia players with suburban Maryland skill players. Head Coach Ernie McCook has built the MEC's dominant program from a regional university that nobody outside the conference knew about a decade ago.

West Virginia State University is an HBCU in Institute, West Virginia — the state capital's neighbor — and the Mountain East's cultural anchor for historically Black universities in Appalachia. Their football program draws from central West Virginia and the Charleston corridor, producing players with the physical toughness that the Mountain East's identity requires. They are Shepherd's most consistent challenger and the program with the deepest HBCU tradition in the Appalachian DII landscape.

Fairmont State in Fairmont, West Virginia draws from the north-central West Virginia corridor — the same geographic region that produced some of the NFL's most physical linebackers in the 1970s and 80s. Their program competes with the physical, hard- running style that the Mountain East demands and has won conference titles when their offensive line has been the conference's best. In 2026, a healthy Fairmont roster challenges for the conference title and a Super Region appearance.