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Colonial Athletic Association facts for kids

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

The CAA was founded in 1979 when the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) split its basketball league into several conferences. It was first known as the ECAC South Basketball League, and became the Colonial Athletic Association in 1985 when it added other sports.

Members

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

School Location Founded Type Nickname Joined
CAA
College of Charleston Charleston, South Carolina 1770 Public Cougars 2013
University of Delaware Newark, Delaware 1743 Public/private hybrid Fightin' Blue Hens 2001
Drexel University Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1891 Private Dragons 2001
Elon University Elon, North Carolina 1889 Private Phoenix 2014
Hofstra University Hempstead, New York 1935 Private Pride 2001
James Madison University Harrisonburg, Virginia 1908 Public Dukes 1979
Northeastern University Boston, Massachusetts 1898 Private Huskies 2005
Towson University Towson, Maryland 1866 Public Tigers 1979, 2001
University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNC Wilmington) Wilmington, North Carolina 1947 Public Seahawks 1984
The College of William & Mary Williamsburg, Virginia 1693 Public Tribe 1979

Football

The CAA has run a football conference since the 2007 season. CAA football plays 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 1979, the football conference can trace its history to the late 1930s.

In 1938, five schools in New England formed the New England Conference. 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, Elon, James Madison, Towson, and William & Mary have football teams. The other schools that play football in the CAA, sometimes called "associate members", are:

School Location Founded Type Nickname Joined Main Conference
University at Albany Albany, New York 1844 Public Great Danes 2013 America East
University of Maine Orono, Maine 1865 Public Black Bears 2007 America East
University of New Hampshire Durham, New Hampshire 1866 Public Wildcats 2007 America East
University of Rhode Island Kingston, Rhode Island 1892 Public Rams 2007 Atlantic 10
University of Richmond Richmond, Virginia 1830 Private Spiders 2007 Atlantic 10
Stony Brook University Stony Brook, New York 1957 Public Seawolves 2013 America East
Villanova University Villanova, Pennsylvania 1842 Private Wildcats 2007 Big East

Other associate members

The CAA has several other associate members, each of which plays one sport in the conference. In addition to these, football associate Villanova became a CAA member in a second sport in 2015.

School Location Founded Type Nickname Joined CAA Sport Main Conference
University at Buffalo Buffalo, New York 1846 Public Bulls 2008 Women's rowing MAC
Eastern Michigan University Ypsilanti, Michigan 1849 Public Eagles 2012 Women's rowing MAC
Fairfield University Fairfield, Connecticut 1942 Private Stags 2014 Men's lacrosse MAAC
University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst, Massachusetts 1863 Public Minutemen 2009 Men's lacrosse Atlantic 10
Villanova University Radnor Township, Pennsylvania 1842 Private Wildcats 2015 Women's rowing Big East

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See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Colonial Athletic Association para niños

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