{"id":60,"date":"2010-10-18T04:04:59","date_gmt":"2010-10-18T09:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/?p=60"},"modified":"2010-10-21T11:40:05","modified_gmt":"2010-10-21T16:40:05","slug":"get-to-know-colonial-athletic-association","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/2010\/10\/18\/get-to-know-colonial-athletic-association\/","title":{"rendered":"Get to Know: Colonial Athletic Association."},"content":{"rendered":"

My task gets a little easier today, as we’ll deal with two conferences whose basketball programs I don’t have to worry about.\u00a0 First up, the SEC of FCS (no disrespect intended to the SoCon), aka the Colonial Athletic Association<\/strong>.
\nMembers<\/strong>: (full) Delaware Blue Hens, James Madison Dukes, Towson Tigers, William & Mary Tribe.\u00a0 (football-only) Maine Black Bears, Massachusetts Minutemen, New Hampshire Wildcats, Rhode Island Rams, Richmond Spiders, and Villanova Wildcats.\u00a0 (non-football) Drexel Dragons, George Mason Patriots, Georgia State Panthers, Hofstra Pride, Northeastern Huskies, Old Dominion Monarchs, UNC-Wilmington Seahawks, Virginia Commonwealth Rams.<\/p>\n

Northeastern and Hofstra ended their football programs last fall, of course.\u00a0 Old Dominion’s football team joins the conference next year, followed in 2012 by Georgia State.\u00a0 I will go ahead and cover those two teams here, rather than among the independents.<\/p>\n

The conference has technically only sponsored football since 2007; however, conventional wisdom and basic logic hold that the CAA football league is the direct descendant in unbroken lineage from the Atlantic 10 football conference, itself the direct descendant of the old Yankee Conference.\u00a0 Both times, when the name of the conference changed, the conference roster was exactly the same either side of the change.\u00a0 As a result, I and most other data-aggregating types consider the league as dating back to 1947*, and competing in an uninterrupted fashion.<\/p>\n

* – the Yankee Conference actually began in 1938 as the New England Conference, but didn’t start officially sponsoring football until 1947, when it changed its name.\u00a0 Schizo, I know.<\/p>\n

The charter members were UConn, Maine, UMass, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.\u00a0 In 1971, Boston U and Holy Cross joined; Holy Cross left after only two years.\u00a0 Vermont dropped football in 1974.\u00a0 The conference began expanding in the 80s, adding Delaware, Richmond, and Villanova.\u00a0 In 1993, another three teams joined the fold: James Madison, Northeastern, and William & Mary.\u00a0 The conference moved under the aegis of the Atlantic 10 in 1997; after that season, Boston U dropped its football program.\u00a0 In 2000, the conference lost a charter member as UConn moved up to FBS; they were replaced the following year by Hofstra.\u00a0 Towson was added in 2004, and the changes since then have been noted above.<\/p>\n

The conference title ends up being shared more often than not, due the the competitive balance of the upper tier of the league.\u00a0 Since the early-80s expansion, only seven times has a team run the table in conference play.\u00a0 In contrast, on six occasions two or more teams have tied for the championship with two conference losses.\u00a0 UMass has won or shared 21 league titles, leading the pack.\u00a0 UConn is still in second at 15. The defunct program at Boston U claimed all or part of five titles, while Hofstra and Northeastern each shared the title once.<\/p>\n

The conference was a Division II conference until the creation of Division I-AA.\u00a0 During those years, conference teams made three appearances in the D-II playoffs with a 1-3 record.\u00a0 In the I-AA\/FCS playoffs, the conference sports a 50-55 record (43-48 if excluding intra-conference matchups), five FCS championships, and two additional championship game losses.\u00a0 Current members of the conference, taking into account appearances prior to CAA membership, have a total FCS playoff record of 71-67.<\/p>\n

TIDBITS:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Delaware<\/strong> has won or shared eight conference titles.\u00a0 As members of the league, Delaware is 17-11 in the playoffs in 12 trips.\u00a0 Under KC Keeler, who took over the program in 2002, they won the 2003 I-AA title, and lost in the 2007 championship game.\u00a0 Prior to joining the CAA, Delaware also lost the 1982 championship game, as well as the 1974 and 1978 D-II title games; they won the D-II title in 1979.\u00a0 Their overall record in the I-AA playoffs is 19-13 (14 appearances); their record in D-II was 7-4.\u00a0 Keeler’s predecessor, legend Tubby Raymond, helmed the program for 36 years, winning exactly 300 games.\u00a0 They’re 7-0 thus far this year, and are in control of the CAA race.\u00a0 The Blue Hens have provided two starting NFL QBs: current Ravens QB Joe Flacco, and former Vikings, Chiefs, and Raiders QB Rich Gannon.<\/p>\n

Georgia State<\/strong> just got started with football this year, and they’ll officially join the league in 2012.\u00a0 They’re led by former Georgia Tech, Alabama, and Kentucky head coach Bill Curry, and are currently 5-2 in their inaugural season.<\/p>\n

We’ll include Hofstra<\/strong> even though they’re no longer playing, since they were around last year.\u00a0 The Pride made five appearances in the I-AA playoffs, going 2-5; only one of these (0-1 in 2001) was as a conference member.\u00a0 They also made five trips to the D-III playoffs, going 0-5.\u00a0 They split the 2001 conference title.\u00a0 They’ve sent some guys to the NFL, including former Jets WR Wayne Chrebet, former 49ers and Titans DB Lance Schulters, and current Saints WR Marques Colston.<\/p>\n

James Madison<\/strong> didn’t come out of nowhere before stunning Virginia Tech.\u00a0 They’ve made nine appearances in the playoffs, going 8-8 including the 2004 I-AA title.\u00a0 The Dukes have shared four league crowns.\u00a0 Coach Mickey Matthews, in his eleventh year, has a record of 86-53.\u00a0 JMU has provided a total of 10 Pro Bowl seasons to the NFL, courtesy of Redskins WR Gary Clark, 49ers and Cowboys DE Charles Haley, and Bills K Scott Norwood.<\/p>\n

Maine<\/strong> has a share of ten conference titles, most of them before 1990.\u00a0 They’ve made five trips to the playoffs, going 2-5.\u00a0 Jack Cosgrove has been head coach since 1993, going 95-106; some notable men preceded him, including Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, Harvard’s Tim Murphy, Dartmouth’s Buddy Teevens, and former Boston College coach Jack Bicknell.<\/p>\n

Massachusetts<\/strong> lost the first I-AA Championship Game in 1978, as well as in 2006.\u00a0 Overall, they’ve gone 10-7 in eight trips, including winning the national title in 1998.\u00a0 Former Lions QB Greg Landry was a Minuteman.<\/p>\n

New Hampshire<\/strong> has claimed part of 13 conference titles, and made 8 playoff trips.\u00a0 They’ve never made it past the second round, going 5-8; they were also 1-2 in two D-II appearances.\u00a0 Sean McDonnell has been in charge since 1999, and has a 84-56 career record.\u00a0 He was preceded by Bill Bowes, who spent 27 years in Durham, collecting 175 victories.<\/p>\n

Northeastern<\/strong> is also gone but not forgotten, although their resume might as well be.\u00a0 In 2002, they shared the league crown, and lost an opening-round playoff game; that sums up their accomplishments.\u00a0 Raiders, Oilers, and Packers DE Sean Jones was a Husky, as was Bengals TE Dan Ross and Steelers DE Keith Willis.<\/p>\n

Old Dominion<\/strong> ditched their football team way back in 1940; they relaunched in 2009.\u00a0 They’ll join the league in 2011.\u00a0 They’re off to a good start as an independent, having gone 9-2 in 2009, and currently sit at 3-3 this year.<\/p>\n

Rhode Island<\/strong> has gone 2-3 in three visits to the post-season (all of which were prior to 1986), and grabbed a share of seven league championships.\u00a0 They’re reportedly looking into a move to the Northeast Conference, which would have the benefit of reducing their football scholarship load by about half.<\/p>\n

Richmond<\/strong> has made eight tournament appearances (one of which preceded their membership in the league).\u00a0 They’ve gone 10-7, including the 2008 FCS title under coach Mike London, now the boss at Virginia.\u00a0 The Spiders have a share of six league crowns.\u00a0 Prior to joining I-AA, the Spiders were members of the SoCon.\u00a0 Richmond’s had a lot of guys who had reasonable, if not stellar, NFL careers.<\/p>\n

Towson<\/strong> hasn’t done anything at the FCS level.\u00a0 They did make two appearances each in the D-II and D-III playoffs before moving up, losing the 1976 D-III title game.\u00a0 Towson was the alma mater of diminutive Giants RB Dave Meggett, as well as the ageless punter Sean Landeta.<\/p>\n

Villanova<\/strong> spent forever as a major college independent before a decade of futility and rising costs led them to cancel the program in 1980.\u00a0 They came back as a D-III school five years later, then jumped back to I-AA in 1987, joining the Yankee Conference.\u00a0 Andy Talley has helmed the program since its resurrection, and has a record of 183-104-1.\u00a0 ‘Nova has a share of five league titles and has made eight appearances in the playoffs, with a record of 8-7.\u00a0 That includes 4-0 last year; they are the defending FCS champions.\u00a0 Many, many Wildcats have starred in the NFL, including Howie Long and Brian Westbrook.<\/p>\n

William & Mary<\/strong> has a share of four league championships, and they’ve made 8 trips to the post-season, going 6-8.\u00a0 Jimmye Laycock is in his 31st year at the helm, with a record of 207-142-2.\u00a0 Like Richmond, the Tribe moved over from the SoCon.\u00a0 The best-known W&M alum is probably Packers, Vikings, and Saints DB Darren Sharper.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My task gets a little easier today, as we’ll deal with two conferences whose basketball programs I don’t have to worry about.\u00a0 First up, the SEC of FCS (no disrespect intended to the SoCon), aka the Colonial Athletic Association.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,14],"tags":[21,41],"class_list":["post-60","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fcs","category-get-to-know-a-conference","tag-colonial","tag-fcs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p185sV-Y","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60\/revisions\/88"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jonfmorse.com\/tog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}