Colonial Athletic Association
|
|
The Colonial Athletic Association, also known as the CAA, is a NCAA Division I college athletic conference whose members are located in East Coast states from New York to North Carolina. Most of its members are public universities, with five in Virginia alone, and the conference is headquartered near Richmond, Virginia.
The CAA, which was founded in 1985 from the short-lived ECAC South basketball league, currently organizes championships in 21 men's and women's sports. It does not sponsor football, although five current members have football programs that compete in Division I-AA. However, the CAA has now committed to begin sponsoring football in 2007. The pending arrival of Northeastern University gave the conference the six football programs needed to sponsor the sport. By May 2005 all of the football programs in the Atlantic Ten Conference opted to join the CAA football conference effective 2007.
The league currently has 10 full members:
- University of Delaware (future football member)
- Drexel University
- George Mason University
- Hofstra University (future football member)
- James Madison University (future football member)
- Old Dominion University
- Towson University (future football member)
- University of North Carolina at Wilmington
- Virginia Commonwealth University
- College of William and Mary (future football member)
Georgia State University and Northeastern University will join the CAA in 2005. Georgia State has no football program, while Northeastern will play in the football conference. After Northeastern accepted the CAA's offer of membership, the CAA invited the University of Richmond to become a football-only member in 2007. Once UR accepted the offer, this left the A-10 football conference with only five members, less than the six required under NCAA rules. The other A-10 football programs all decided to leave for the CAA afterwards.
On June 14, 2005, Old Dominion's Board of Visitors approved the creation of a football team by a 14-0 vote. The team is expected to begin play in 2009. As a division of William & Mary, Old Dominion had a football program, but dropped it in 1941.
The new CAA football conference will have the following members:
Northern Division
Southern Division
External link
- Colonial Athletic Association (http://www.caasports.com/)