<p>Yes, I agree that it’s confusing. It’s true that Bowdoin does compete in the same league (EISA) that Division I schools belong to, and could therefore be said to compete “at the Division I level”. Nonetheless, Bowdoin (and other LACs) remain DIII schools, and are bound to the regular DIII rules about academic standards, athletic scholarships, training, etc. They face much tougher restrictions in these regards than DI schools like UVM or UNH (Dartmouth is DI, but as an Ivy League school, has many of the same restrictions as NESCAC). </p>
<p>Union has a special dual NCAA classification: it is DI for ice hockey, and DIII for all other sports. True NCAA exemptions of this kind are actually quite rare (the best-known example is probably Johns Hopkins lacrosse).</p>
<p>Skiing is a special case because EISA is the only college ski league in the northeast. If a NESCAC school wants to sponsor an NCAA ski team, they have to compete in EISA, which includes DI schools. But ice hockey is different; there are both DI and DIII leagues (including DIII NESCAC itself). If Union were to return to NESCAC, they would presumably want to continue playing ice hockey in DI. It seems unlikely that the other NESCAC schools would accept this.</p>