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The Colonial Athletic Association
By Matt Shetler

The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) is a Division I athletic conference whose members are all located on the each coast. The CAA sports twelve members, with five in Virginia alone. The CAA fields twenty-one men’s and women’s Division I programs and the CAA headquarters are located in Richmond, Virginia.
  
When the CAA was founded in 1983, it was known as the ECAC South basketball league. When it added championships in other sports in 1985, it was renamed the CAA. Charter members of the CAA included: James Madison University, The College of William & Mary, George Mason University, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, American University, East Carolina University, the United States Naval Academy and the University of Richmond.
  
Old Dominion University would be the first addition to the CAA in 1991. In 2001, Navy, Richmond, East Carolina and American would leave the CAA, but would quickly be replaced by Towson University, Hofstra University, Drexel University and the University of Delaware. Georgia State University and Northeastern University would join in 2005, giving the CAA the twelve members it has today.
  
The addition of Northeastern gave the CAA the NCAA minimum of six football programs needed to sponsor football. Although the CAA announced they would sponsor football in 2005, they did not begin competing in the sport until 2007. All of the remaining football programs of the Atlantic-10 conference joined the CAA as football only members, giving it twelve competing members. For football, the CAA separates itself into two divisions, the North includes: Hofstra, Maine, U Mass, New Hampshire, Northeastern and Rhode Island. The CAA South Division includes: Delaware, James Madison, Richmond, Towson, Villanova and William & Mary. Old Dominion will begin play on the gridiron in 2011 and Georgia State will start fielding a team in 2012.
  
The CAA is considered one of the top mid-major conferences in the country. The conference has produced sixteen national team champions in five different sports. The sport the conference is most known for is men’s basketball. The CAA tournament champion receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and it is there where many CAA teams have strutted their stuff on the sports biggest stage.
  
In recent years, CAA programs such as Hofstra, Drexel, George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth had excellent showings during March Madness. In 2007, VCU upset the heavy favored Duke Blue Devils in the first round of the tournament, putting the Rams on the NCAA map. However it was only one year earlier, when George Mason embarked on one of the greatest runs in NCAA Tournament history. The Patriots became the first CAA team to reach the Final Four and was the first program from a mid-major conference to make it that far since the tournament expanded to 64 teams.

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