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

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states, from Maine to North Carolina. Most of its members are public universities, and the conference is headquartered in

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

. 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.

History

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 The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Eastern ...

. 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. 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. CAA Football went through many changes during the early 2010s with the loss of

Georgia State Georgia state or ''variation'', may refer to: Primarily * Georgia State University ("State", "Georgia State"), a state university * Georgia (U.S. state) ("Georgia state"), a state of the United States of America Sports * sports teams of Georgia St ...

, Massachusetts, and

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and the addition of Albany, Elon, and Stony Brook. Stability was maintained for a decade before the departure of James Madison in 2021 leading to the addition of Campbell, Hampton,

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North Carolina A&T North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (also known as North Carolina A&T State University, North Carolina A&T, N.C. A&T, or simply A&T) is a public, historically black land-grant research university in Greensboro, North Caro ...

, and

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from 2022 to 2024.

Timeline

*May 4, 2005 – CAA Football was formed with inaugural members Delaware, Hofstra, James Madison, Maine, New Hampshire,

Northeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

, Rhode Island,

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

, Towson, Massachusetts (UMass), Villanova, and William & Mary. *May 31, 2006 –

, 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. *June 11, 2009 –

, 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. *November 9, 2009 –

announced plans to drop football after the 2009 season. *December 3, 2009 – Hofstra also announced that the university would no longer be sponsoring football. *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 The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, Lowell, and a medical ...

announced that it would transition to FBS beginning fall 2021, and would become a football-only member of the Mid-American Conference (MAC). *April 7, 2012 –

began an FBS transition in advance of its 2013 move to the

Sun Belt Conference The Sun Belt Conference (SBC) is a collegiate athletic conference that has been affiliated with the NCAA's Division I since 1976. Originally a non-football conference, the Sun Belt began sponsoring football in 2001. Its football teams participa ...

. *May 17, 2012 –

announced its plans to join

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

and transition to FBS status for the 2013 season. *August 7, 2012 – Albany and Stony Brook both accepted offers of membership in CAA Football for the 2013 season. *May 23, 2013 – Elon announced that the school would become a member of CAA Football and the all-sports CAA for the 2014 season. * November 6, 2021 – James Madison announced its departure for the

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. *January 25, 2022 – Hampton and

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. *February 22, 2022 –

accepts an invitation to join CAA Football for the 2023 season, a year after joining the all-sports CAA. *August 3, 2022 – Campbell also accepts an invitation to join both sides of the CAA for the 2023 season. *July 20, 2023 – CAA Football changed its full name to the Coastal Athletic Association Football Conference. * August 10, 2023 –

accepts an invitation to join CAA Football for the 2024 season.

Member institutions

Current members

;Notes:

Future members

Former members

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:2007 till:2027 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<# Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:Full from:2007 till:end text: Delaware (2007–present) bar:2 color:Full from:2007 till:2009 text: Hofstra (2007–2009, then dropped football) bar:3 color:Full from:2007 till:end text: James Madison (2007–2022) bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:2022 till:end text:

Sun Belt The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel. Several climates can be found in the region — des ...

bar:4 color:Full from:2007 till:end text: Maine (2007–present) bar:5 color:Full from:2007 till:end text: New Hampshire (2007–present) bar:6 color:Full from:2007 till:2009 text:

(2007–2009, then dropped football) bar:7 color:Full from:2007 till:end text: Rhode Island (2007–present) bar:8 color:Full from:2007 till:end text:

(2007–present) bar:9 color:Full from:2007 till:end text: Towson (2007–present) bar:10 color:Full from:2007 till:2011 text:

(2007–2011) bar:10 color:OtherC1 from:2011 till:2016 text: MAC bar:10 color:OtherC2 from:2016 till:end text: FBS Ind. bar:11 color:Full from:2007 till:end text: Villanova (2007–present) bar:12 color:Full from:2007 till:end text: William & Mary (2007–present) bar:13 color:OtherC1 from:2009 till:2011 text:

FCS Independent NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision independent schools are four-year institutions in the United States whose football programs are not part of a football conference. This means that FCS independents are not required to schedule each ...

bar:13 color:Full from:2011 till:2013 text:

(2011–2013) bar:13 shift:30 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:2014 text: Ind. bar:13 color:OtherC2 from:2014 till:2022 text: C-USA bar:13 color:OtherC1 from:2022 till:end text:

bar:14 color:OtherC1 from:2010 till:2012 text:

bar:14 color:Full from:2012 till:2013 text:

(2012-2013) bar:14 shift:90 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:end text:

bar:15 color:OtherC1 from:2007 till:2013 text: NEC bar:15 color:Full from:2013 till:end text: Albany (2013–present) bar:16 color:OtherC1 from:2007 till:2008 text: FCS Ind. bar:16 color:OtherC2 from:2008 till:2013 text: Big South bar:16 color:Full from:2013 till:end text: Stony Brook (2013–present) bar:17 color:OtherC1 from:2007 till:2014 text: SoCon bar:17 color:Full from:2014 till:end text: Elon (2014–present) bar:18 color:OtherC1 from:2007 till:2018 text:

MEAC The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) is a collegiate athletic conference whose full members are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the Southeastern and the Mid-Atlantic United States. It participates in the National C ...

bar:18 color:OtherC2 from:2018 till:2019 text: FCS Ind. bar:18 color:OtherC1 from:2019 till:2022 text: Big South bar:18 color:Full from:2022 till:end text: Hampton (2022–present) bar:19 color:OtherC1 from:2007 till:2013 text: NEC bar:19 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:2014 text: FCS Ind. bar:19 color:OtherC1 from:2014 till:2022 text: Big South bar:19 color:Full from:2022 till:end text:

(2022–present) bar:20 color:OtherC1 from:2008 till:2018 text:

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bar:20 color:OtherC2 from:2018 till:2023 text: Big South bar:20 color:Full from:2023 till:end text: Campbell (2023–present) bar:21 color:OtherC1 from:2007 till:2021 text:

bar:21 color:OtherC2 from:2021 till:2023 text: Big South bar:21 color:Full from:2023 till:end text:

(2023–present) bar:22 color:OtherC1 from:2007 till:2008 text: NE-10 bar:22 color:OtherC2 from:2008 till:2009 text: FCS Ind. bar:22 color:OtherC1 from:2009 till:2022 text: NEC bar:22 shift:(-20) color:OtherC2 from:2022 till:2023 text: Big South bar:22 shift:(-15) color:OtherC1 from:2023 till:2024 text: Big South–OVC bar:22 shift:(15) color:Full from:2024 till:end text:

(2024–future) bar:N color:blue from:2007 till:end text:CAA Football ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:2007 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center) text:^"CAA Football membership history" #> If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. <#

Conference champions

All-time conference championships

Co-championships are designated by ''italics''. BOLD denotes the team won the National Championship ^‡Former member of CAA Football *The CAA's

2020–21 NCAA Division I FCS football season The 2020–21 NCAA Division I FCS football season, part of college football in the United States, was organized by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level. The regular ...

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.

NCAA FCS National Championships

†Delaware was an NCAA I-AA independent in the 1982 season. *Won as a member of the

. ^UMass became a football-only member in the MAC in 2013, and an independent football member of FBS beginning with the 2016 season.

All-time NFL Draft selections

Conference facilities

Future members in gray.

References

External links

* {{NCAA Division I FCS conference navbox Organizations based in Richmond, Virginia Sports in the Eastern United States Sports organizations established in 2005 Articles which contain graphical timelines