Coastal Athletic Association

"Colonial Athletic Association" redirects here. Not to be confused with Colonial colleges.
This article is about the multi-sports league under the Coastal Athletic Association brand. For the football league, see Coastal Athletic Association Football Conference.

Coastal Athletic Association
FormerlyECAC South Conference (1979–1985)
Colonial Athletic Association (1985–2023)
AssociationNCAA
Founded1979
CommissionerJoe D'Antonio (since 2016)
Sports fielded
  • 23
    • men's: 10
    • women's: 13
DivisionDivision I
SubdivisionFCS
No. of teams14 (13 in 2025)
HeadquartersRichmond, Virginia
RegionEast Coast
Official websitewww.caasports.com
Locations
Location of teams in Coastal Athletic Association

The Coastal Athletic Association (CAA),[1] formerly the ECAC South Conference and the Colonial Athletic Association, is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I whose full members are located in East Coast states, from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Most of its members are public universities, and the conference is headquartered in Richmond. The CAA was historically a Southern conference until the addition of four schools in the Northeastern United States (of five that joined from rival conference America East) after the turn of the 21st century, which added geographic balance to the conference.

The CAA was founded in 1979 as the ECAC South Conference, made up of independent schools which played basketball in the Eastern College Athletic Conference's South Region Division I men's basketball tournament. During its first two seasons, its members continued to play basketball as independents during the regular season and take part in the ECAC's South Region tournament for independents, but it began conference play in basketball in the 1981–1982 season. It was renamed the Colonial Athletic Association in 1985 when it added championships in other sports (although a number of members maintain ECAC affiliation in some sports). As of 2006, it organizes championships in 21 men's and women's sports. The addition of Northeastern University in 2005 gave the conference the NCAA minimum of six football programs needed to sponsor football. For the 2007 football season, all of the Atlantic 10 Conference's football programs joined the CAA football conference, as agreed in May 2005. The football league operates under CAA administration as the legally separate entity of CAA Football.

The most recent changes to the conference membership took place in 2022 and 2023. First, Hampton University, Monmouth University, North Carolina A&T State University, and Stony Brook University joined in 2022. Stony Brook, already a member of CAA Football, joined in other sports at that time; Hampton and Monmouth joined both the all-sports CAA and CAA Football; and NC A&T joined the all-sports CAA in 2022 and joined CAA Football in 2023.[2][3] This was followed by Campbell University joining both sides of the league in 2023.[4] The conference renamed itself the Coastal Athletic Conference in 2023.

  1. ^ Washburn, Rob (July 20, 2023). "CAA Changes Official Conference Name To Coastal Athletic Association". Retrieved July 20, 2023.
  2. ^ "CAA adding three new schools to conference". ESPN.com. January 25, 2022. Retrieved January 27, 2022.
  3. ^ "CAA Welcomes North Carolina A&T as Newest Member of the Conference" (Press release). Colonial Athletic Association. February 22, 2022. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
  4. ^ "Campbell University Accepts Invitation To Join The CAA In 2023" (Press release). Colonial Athletic Association. August 3, 2022. Retrieved August 3, 2022.