Colonial Athletic Association changes its name

RICHMOND, Va. — The Colonial Athletic Association has changed its name to the Coastal Athletic Association.

The association of schools located in nine states along the Atlantic seaboard announced the change on Thursday to reflect its recent expansion, with members spanning from Massachusetts to South Carolina. The league still will be referred to as the CAA and continue to use the same conference logo.

“Our new name is reflective of the conference’s continuity and unity, as well as each institutions’ commitment to be United in Excellence,” CAA Commissioner Joe D’Antonio said in a statement.

In the past two years, the CAA has added five new members to push its membership to 14 institutions, the highest in its nearly 40-year history. Hampton, Monmouth, North Carolina A&T and Stony Brook came aboard for the 2022-23 academic year, and Campbell joined this year. James Madison left last year to join the Sun Belt and play a higher level of football (FBS) .

The other schools in the association are the College of Charleston, Delaware, Drexel, Elon, Hofstra, North Carolina-Wilmington, Northeastern, Towson and William & Mary.

The CAA has produced 18 national team champions in five different sports and 33 individual national champions.

The name change will carry over to the league’s football conference, which will be called the Coastal Athletic Association Football Conference but continue to be referred to as the CAA Football Conference. It has 15 members in 10 states from Maine to North Carolina.

Also in the league are Albany (N.Y.), Maine-Orono, New Hampshire, Richmond, Villanova, Delaware, Elon, Hampton, Monmouth (N.J.), Rhode Island, Stony Brook, Towson and William & Mary.

Twelve of the CAA’s current 15 members have made the playoffs since 2015, and the league has had multiple teams in the FCS playoffs for the past 31 years.