Atlantic 10 Conference

Infobox Athletic Conference
name = Atlantic 10 Conference
short_name = A-10
established = 1976

logo_size = 200
association = NCAA
division = Division I
subdivision =
members = 15 (14 full; 1 associate)
sports = 21
mens = 9
womens = 12
region = Eastern United States
Midwestern United States
former_names =
hq_city = Philadelphia
hq_stateabb = PA
hq_state = Pennsylvania
commissioner = Bernadette McGlade
since =
website = http://www.atlantic10.org/
color = DF1741
font_color = FFFFFF

---

map_size = 250The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a mid-major college athletic conference which operates mostly on the United States' eastern seaboard. It also has two member schools in Ohio: Dayton and Xavier, located in Dayton and Cincinnati, respectively. Another member, Saint Louis is located in St. Louis, Missouri. Although some of its members are state-funded, more than half of its membership is made up of private, Catholic institutions. The Atlantic 10 Conference was originally known as the Eastern 8 Conference. Despite the name, there are 15 partial or full-time members: 14 basketball and other sports, and one affiliate member participates in women's field hockey only.

Members

Full Members

The following is a list of the full members of the conference and the year they joined:† Includes time in Yankee Conference, which merged with the Atlantic 10 for football in 1997.

Men's Basketball Champions

ports sponsored

There are 21 NCAA sports in the conference

*baseball
*men's basketball
*women's basketball
*men's cross country
*women's cross country
*field hockey
*men's golf
*women’s lacrosse
*men's indoor track & field
*women's indoor track & field
*men's outdoor track & field
*women's outdoor track & field
*women's rowing
*men's soccer
*women's soccer
*softball
*men's swimming & diving
*women's swimming & diving
*men's tennis
*women's tennis
*women's volleyball

A-10 football

Origin

The A-10 began sponsoring football in 1997 when it absorbed the Yankee Conference, a Division I-AA (now known as Division I FCS) football-only conference. The move was triggered by a change in NCAA rules that reduced the influence of single-sport conferences over NCAA legislation. The following schools were in the Yankee Conference at the time of its demise:
* Boston University
* Connecticut
* Delaware
* James Madison
* Maine
* Massachusetts
* New Hampshire
* Northeastern
* Rhode Island
* Richmond
* Villanova
* William & Mary

Boston University dropped football after the first season of A-10 football. After the 1999 season, UConn started a transition from Division I-AA to Division I-A football (now Division I FBS) that was completed in 2002. In 2004, UConn, already a member of the Big East for other sports, became a football member of that conference. The other schools all remained in the A-10 football conference until its demise after the 2006 season.

Demise

The 2005 move of Northeastern University, a football-only member of the A-10, to the Colonial Athletic Association for basketball and Olympic sports began a chain of events that would lead to the demise of the A-10 football conference, at least under the A-10 banner.

At that time, the CAA did not sponsor football, but five of its members in the 2004-05 academic year (Delaware, Hofstra, James Madison, Towson, and William & Mary) were football members of the A-10. The addition of Northeastern gave the CAA six schools with football programs, which under NCAA rules allows a conference to sponsor football. Northeastern agreed to join any future CAA football conference, which meant that the A-10 football conference would drop to six members once CAA football began operation.

With six football members in place, the CAA decided to start a football conference in 2007. The league then invited Richmond, which left the CAA in 2001, to rejoin for football only, because of UR's long-standing in-state rivalries with William & Mary and James Madison. UR accepted the invitation, taking the A-10 football conference below the NCAA minimum of six. Shortly after this, the A-10 football conference opted to disband, with all of its members becoming charter members of the CAA football conference — in effect, this meant that the A-10 football conference was under new management.

Conference facilities

†Saint Joseph's facility is currently being renovated and will hold at least 4,200 people when finished. Their men's team will play its home games at the Palestra on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania during the 2008-2009 season, while the women's team will split its home games between the Palestra and facilities at Philadelphia University.

External links

* [http://www.atlantic10.org/ Atlantic 10 Conference]