Before North Dakota State took complete control of the sport beginning in 2011, the CAA was the SEC of the FCS. Formed in 2005 and playing its first game in 2027, CAA teams played for the national title annually from 2007-10, capturing the crown in 2008 via Richmond and in 2009 through Villanova. During NDSU's run of eight titles in nine seasons from 2011-19, it was CAA member James Madison who broke the streak.
At the same time, the Patriot League was, well, not in the CAA's league. The conference did not begin offering athletic scholarships until 1998, and began offering football scholarships in 2013. Consisting entirely of private schools in the Northeast, the Patriot League was basically the Diet Ivy League. (In fact, the Patriot League was founded at the behest of the Ivy League, who was looking for more like-minded schools to play after expanding its schedule in the 1980s.)
Decades later, the distance between the CAA and the Patriot League are closer than they've ever been.
Last year, Richmond -- a founding member, and located in the CAA headquarters -- left the CAA for the Patriot League. In April, William & Mary announced its intent to do the same, beginning with the 2026 football season. And then on Thursday, Villanova became the third CAA school (all founding members) to defect for the Patriot League.
"The addition of Villanova as our 10th football member represents a significant and exciting moment for the Patriot League," Patriot League commissioner Jennifer Heppel said. "Villanova has consistently demonstrated excellence on the field, establishing itself as a premier FCS football program while also upholding a strong commitment to academic achievement. Combined with the recent additions of Richmond and William & Mary and the continued strength of our current members, this expansion solidifies the Patriot League's standing as one of the strongest in the FCS."
Combined with Delaware's departure for Conference USA, the CAA will see its football membership dwindle from 16 schools in 2024 to 12 by 2026. Formed as a 12-member alliance in 2005, the CAA's story is a common one in college athletics. Like-minded and equally-resourced schools leave their conferences to form a new venture; buoyed by their shared mission, that conference becomes immediately successful; that success attracts attention from above (schools looking to move up, either from FCS to FBS to the Group of 5 to Power 4) or below; the conference expands, either by choice or necessity; a decade or so passes, and the original members find themselves in a different conference than the one they founded.
Incidentally, this tends to happen like clockwork once a conference gets to 16 members.
In the CAA's case, its 16 members stretched from Maine to North Carolina. Institutionally, it's become a hodgepodge of state flagship schools (the universities of Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island), feeder schools (Albany and Stony Brook, both part of the SUNY system), privates (Campbell, Elon, Monmouth, etc.) and HBCUs (Hampton, North Carolina A&T). Outside of occasional football games, what do the University of Maine, Monmouth University, and North Carolina A&T State University have in common?
The Patriot League had been a league comprised entirely of private schools in the Northeast -- Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland/DC -- plus Olympic sports members Army and Navy. Richmond and William & Mary will be its first Virginian citizens, and William & Mary its first public member (other than the two service academies).
“We are excited to join a conference where the member institutions share similar values, both athletically and academically,” said Villanova head football coach Mark Ferrante. “The geographic alignment makes sense for our program and our student-athletes, and we believe this move will foster strong regional rivalries while maintaining our commitment to excellence on and off the field. It’s a natural fit that positions us well for the future.”
On the field, the CAA still looks like the stronger league on paper. It got four teams in the 2024 FCS playoffs to the Patriot League's one, but two of those four were Richmond (the CAA champ) and Villanova. Richmond lost to Patriot League champion Lehigh on its home field in the first round.
The CAA will celebrate its 20th football season in 2026. Through a combination of FBS call-ups, FCS defections and a couple school dropping the sport entirely, of the 12 schools that jointly launched the Colonial Athletic Association in 2007, the conference now known as the Coastal Athletic Association will count only four original members still on its roster.