Colonial Athletic Association

The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) is a NCAA conference that play in the NCAA Division I. The conference, formed in 1983, is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia and features universities and colleges from the Eastern United States.

Members

These colleges and universities are "full members" of the CAA, meaning that they play almost all of the sports that the CAA sponsors.

• University of Delaware
• Drexel University
• George Mason University
• Georgia State University
• Hofstra University
• James Madison University
• Northeastern University
• Old Dominion University
• Towson University
• University of North Carolina Wilmington ("UNC Wilmington")
• The College of William & Mary

Two schools will leave in July 2013. Georgia State will join the Sun Belt Conference, and Old Dominion will join Conference USA.

Football

The CAA has operated a football conference since the 2007 season. CAA football competes in Division I FCS (Football Championship Subdivision), the lower of two levels of NCAA Division I football. Although the CAA as a whole dates only to 1983, the football conference can trace its history to the late 1930s.

In 1938, five schools in New England formed the New England Conference, which played football along with other sports. When one of the schools left in 1945, the other schools joined with two other New England schools to form the Yankee Conference, which began play in 1947. In 1975, the Yankee Conference dropped all sports other than football, and over time many schools outside of New England joined the league. Due to changes in NCAA rules in 1997, the Yankee Conference merged into the Atlantic 10 Conference (A10). After the CAA announced plans to start a football league in 2007, all of the A10 football teams decided to join the CAA for that sport.

Of the full members of the CAA, Delaware, Georgia State, James Madison, Old Dominion, Towson, and William & Mary have football teams. As noted above, both Georgia State and Old Dominion will leave for other conferences in 2013. The other schools that play football in the CAA, sometimes called "associate members", are:

• University of Maine
• University of New Hampshire
• University of Rhode Island
• University of Richmond
• Villanova University

All of these schools are members of other conferences in most sports. Maine and New Hampshire are in the America East Conference. Rhode Island and Richmond are in the A10. Villanova is in the Big East Conference.

The CAA football conference will add two more members in July 2013. Albany will move from the Northeast Conference, and Stony Brook will move from the Big South Conference. Both schools will remain full members of the America East.

Other associate members

The CAA has many other associate members who play in one or two sports in the conference. Richmond plays women's golf in the CAA, as well as football.

These schools wrestle in the CAA:

• Binghamton University
• Boston University
• Campbell University
• Rider University
• Sacred Heart University

These schools play men's lacrosse in the CAA:

• University of Massachusetts Amherst ("Massachusetts" or "UMass")
• Pennsylvania State University ("Penn State")
• Saint Joseph's University

In addition to Richmond, these schools also play women's golf in the CAA:

• University of Dayton
• Xavier University

One school has its women's rowing team in the CAA:

• University at Buffalo

References

• "Colonial Athletic Association". caasports.com. http://www.caasports.com/. Retrieved 2011-03-06.