Colonial Athletic Association Football

[Brad]

FOOTBALL: The Colonial Athletic Association will begin sponsoring football in 2007 when all 12 members of the Atlantic 10 football conference switch leagues, CAA officials said.

CAA TO BEGIN SPONSORING DIVISION I-AA FOOTBALL IN 2007

5/4/2005

Commissioner Tom Yeager announces the start of CAA Football.  

RICHMOND, Va. (May 4, 2005) – Colonial Athletic Association Commissioner Thomas E. Yeager announced today that the conference will sponsor football beginning with the 2007 season.

“We are pleased to announce the addition of football to the CAA,” Yeager said. “College football, with all of its tradition, pageantry, and rivalries, creates an interest and excitement on campus and across communities that is unmatched. We look forward to having the CAA name attached to such a distinguished group of institutions and building on the successes that those members have had in the past.”

Members of the CAA’s Division I-AA football conference will be the University of Delaware, Hofstra University, James Madison University, the University of Maine, the University of Massachusetts, the University of New Hampshire, Northeastern University, the University of Rhode Island, the University of Richmond, Towson University, Villanova University and the College of William & Mary. All 12 teams are currently members of the Atlantic 10 Football Conference and will continue that affiliation through the 2006 season.

“The addition of Northeastern as a full CAA member and the sixth football-playing institution qualified the CAA for football conference recognition by the NCAA,” Yeager said. “With the commitment to begin conference competition, invitations were sent to the other six institutions and we are thrilled that the long, competitive history of this league will be preserved.”

The conference is already considered one of the finest in Division I-AA football, having produced the past two national champions in Delaware (2003) and James Madison (2004) and three of the last seven with Massachusetts claiming the title in 1998. Ten of the 12 teams have reached the Division I-AA playoffs at least once in the past five years.

Four teams (Delaware, James Madison, New Hampshire and William & Mary) earned I-AA playoff berths a year ago and all of them advanced to the quarterfinals, marking the first time in the 27-year history of I-AA football that a conference had achieved that feat. Eight of the 12 conference members were ranked in the ESPN/USA Today Top 25 poll at the same time last October.

Celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2004-05, the CAA has established itself as one of the nation’s top collegiate conferences. Along with Delaware, Hofstra, James Madison, Towson and William & Mary, other full members include Drexel University, George Mason University, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Old Dominion University and Virginia Commonwealth University. Georgia State University and Northeastern will increase the CAA’s full membership to 12 when they join the conference on July 1, 2005.

“I am very pleased that the CAA has seen two major events this year,” said Dr. Eugene P. Trani, President of Virginia Commonwealth University and chair of the CAA Council of Presidents. “First, the addition of Northeastern and Georgia State bringing the conference to 12 full-time members with six Division I-AA football programs and schools in five of the nation’s nine largest media markets. Second, I am delighted that Villanova, Maine, New Hampshire, Richmond, Massachusetts and Rhode Island are now all part of Colonial football. The CAA universities could not be more pleased with the increased recognition that the CAA is a major league on the national scene.”

Football will become the 22nd sport to be sponsored by the CAA. The conference has produced 16 national team champions in five different sports, 33 individual national champions, 11 national players of the year, 11 national coaches of the year and 12 Honda Award winners.

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[BULLfreak]

who cares

[smazza]

can't wait

[___ Eats It]

You wouldn't like it, Steve.  There are no coaches named Carroll who make $2M per year... ;-)

[Markeymark]

I-AA football is nice because they determine a national champion on the field. Many of these schools seem to have higher graduation rates than the I-A schools who love to whine about losing study time if they were to institute a playoff.

[bullwark]

Remember the Maine Black Bears defeated Miss State a team that went on to defeat the Gators.  On any given Saturday anything can happen, good news for those schools and good luck.