Atlantic 10 Conference

The Atlantic 10 was born in 1975 when representatives from Duquesne, George Washington, Massachusetts, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Villanova, and West Virginia banded together to form a basketball-only league. The league soon expanded into an all-sport (except football) league, as well as withstanding a variety of rapid membership changes.

In 1996, the Atlantic 10 took over administrative control of the (by that point) football-only Yankee Conference. The football section was always significantly divergent in membership from the main body of the conference, as most of the former Yankee Conference members played other sports in the America East Conference. Some A-10 football members were members of the Colonial Athletic Association for other sports, and when the CAA opted to begin its own football section beginning in 2007, those A-10 football schools understandably jumped ship. When the CAA then extended an invitation to Richmond to join them for football, the A-10 dropped below the six members required to maintain their automatic playoff berth; as a result, the remaining A-10 football members moved to the CAA. Because of the nature of this move, the new CAA football section is deemed to be a continuation of both the Yankee Conference and the Atlantic 10 Football Conference.

Data

Began play:	1976-77
Affiliation:	NCAA I
Formerly known as:	Eastern Collegiate Basketball League (1976-77)
	Eastern 8 (1977-1982)

Historical Data

Atlantic 10 Conference Football (now part of the Colonial Athletic Association)

Atlantic 10 Conference Women's Basketball

External Links

Atlantic Ten website