The Coastal Athletic Association Football Conference, formerly the Colonial Athletic Association Football Conference, branded as CAA Football, is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I whose full members are located in East Coast states, from Maine to North Carolina. Most of its members are public universities, and the conference is headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. The conference is run by the same administration as the multisport conference Coastal Athletic Association (CAA; formerly the Colonial Athletic Association) but is legally a different entity.[1]
CAA Football was formed in 2005, although it did not begin play until 2007, as a separate conference independent of the CAA, but administered by the CAA front office. In the 2004–05 academic year, the CAA had five member schools that sponsored football, all of them as football-only members of the Atlantic 10 Conference. In 2005, Northeastern accepted the CAA's offer of membership, giving the CAA the six football-playing members it needed under NCAA rules to organize a football conference. At that time, the CAA announced it would launch its new football conference in 2007. Next, the CAA invited the University of Richmond to become a football-only member effective in 2007. Once UR accepted the offer, this left the A10 football conference with only five members, less than the six required under NCAA rules. As a result, the remaining A10 football programs all decided to join the CAA for football only, ending A10 football. Since the CAA football conference had the same members as the A10 the previous year, it can be said that the CAA football conference is the A10 football conference under new management.
The CAA football conference's earliest roots are in the New England Conference, founded in 1938 by four state-supported universities in that region plus Northeastern; three of the public schools are currently in CAA Football. However, neither the multi-sports CAA nor CAA Football includes the New England Conference in CAA Football history.[2] After the departure of Northeastern in 1945, the remaining members joined New England's other land-grant colleges, Massachusetts State College (now the University of Massachusetts Amherst) and the University of Vermont, to form the Yankee Conference under a new charter in 1946, with competition starting in 1947. That conference eventually dropped all sports other than football in 1975. Starting in the 1980s, it expanded to include many schools outside its original New England base. After the NCAA voted to limit the influence of single-sport conferences, the Yankee merged with the A-10 in 1997.
May 31, 2006 – Old Dominion, at the time a member of the all-sports CAA, announced plans to add football for the 2009 season and join CAA Football in 2011.[4][5]
June 11, 2009 – Georgia State, at the time a member of the all-sports CAA, announced the addition of Football in 2011, and joining the CAA football conference in 2012.[6]
November 9, 2009 – Northeastern announced plans to drop football after the 2009 season.[7]
December 3, 2009 – Hofstra also announced that the university would no longer be sponsoring football.[8]
June 1, 2010 – Due to the reduction of the conference, CAA Football did not use the division format for the 2010 season.
April 20, 2011 – UMass announced that it would transition to FBS beginning fall 2011, and would become a football-only member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC).[9][10]
May 17, 2012 – Old Dominion announced its plans to join Conference USA and transition to FBS status for the 2013 season.[12]
August 7, 2012 – Albany and Stony Brook both accepted offers of membership in CAA Football for the 2013 season.[13]
May 23, 2013 – Elon announced that the school would become a member of CAA Football and the all-sports CAA for the 2014 season.[14]
November 6, 2021 – James Madison announced its departure for the Sun Belt Conference and upgrade to FBS. Originally, JMU was slated to play the 2022 season as an FCS Independent before joining the Sun Belt in 2023, but JMU ended up joining a year earlier.[15][16][17]
January 25, 2022 – Hampton and Monmouth accept invitations to join CAA Football and the all-sports CAA for the 2022 season. Stony Brook, which joined CAA Football in 2013, also becomes a member of the all-sports conference.[18]
February 22, 2022 – North Carolina A&T accepts an invitation to join CAA Football for the 2023 season, a year after joining the all-sports CAA.[19]
August 3, 2022 – Campbell also accepts an invitation to join both sides of the CAA for the 2023 season.[20]
July 20, 2023 – CAA Football changed its full name to the Coastal Athletic Association Football Conference.[21]
August 10, 2023 – Bryant accepts an invitation to join CAA Football for the 2024 season.[22]
November 28, 2023 – Delaware announced its plans to join Conference USA and transition to FBS status for the 2025 season.[23]
May 14, 2024 – Richmond announced its departure from the CAA to join the Patriot League as an associate member for football for the 2025 season.[24]
April 25, 2025 – William & Mary announced its departure from the CAA to join the Patriot League as an associate member for football for the 2026 season.[25]
June 5, 2025 – Villanova announced its departure from the CAA to join the Patriot League as an associate member for football for the 2026 season.[26]
July 22, 2025 - Sacred Heart is announced by CAA Football as a future member, starting with the 2026 season.[27]
↑ CAA Football recognized Richmond and Rhode Island as co-champions because Rhode Island's only conference loss was to Delaware, which was ineligible for the FCS playoffs due to its transition to FBS.
BOLD denotes the team won the National Championship
‡Former member of CAA Football
^aThe CAA's 2020–21 NCAA Division I FCS football season was played in Spring 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Several teams opted out, and some games were canceled. The Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens completed the season with a 5-0 overall record, 4–0 in conference, and won the North Division title; the James Madison Dukes completed the season with a 5-0 overall record, 3–0 in conference, and won the South Division title. A vote of the CAA athletic directors, not including Delaware or James Madison, was held to determine a champion. The Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens were declared the 2020 CAA football champions as a result of this vote and were awarded the automatic qualifier for the FCS playoffs.[29]
↑ "CAA Changes Official Conference Name To Coastal Athletic Association" (Press release). Coastal Athletic Association. July 20, 2023. Retrieved July 20, 2023. The name change will carry over to the league's football conference, which will be officially recognized as the Coastal Athletic Association Football Conference but continue to be referred to as the CAA Football Conference.
↑ "The CAA & CAA Football". Coastal Athletic Association. Retrieved July 25, 2023. The conference [CAA Football] celebrated 75 years in 2022, with its roots tracing back to the Yankee Conference (1947-1996) and the Atlantic 10 Football Conference (1997-2006) before CAA Football begin (sic) in 2007.
↑ Old Dominion had the league's best regular-season record at 7–1 in the CAA and 10–1 overall, but was ineligible for the conference title. Under CAA bylaws of the time, a school that announced its future departure immediately became ineligible for CAA tournaments or championships in team sports.
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