The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a collegiate athletic conference whose schools compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) Division I. The A-10's member schools are located in states mostly on the United States Eastern Seaboard, as well as some in the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

: Massachusetts,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri as well as in the

District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

. Although some of its members are state-funded, half of its membership is made up of private, Catholic institutions. Despite the name, there are 15 full-time members, and four affiliate members that participate in women's field hockey and men's lacrosse. The current commissioner is Bernadette McGlade, who began her tenure in 2008.

History

The Atlantic 10 Conference was founded in 1975 as the Eastern Collegiate Basketball League (ECBL) and began conference play in 1976. At that time, basketball was its only sport. After its first season, it added sports other than basketball and changed its name to the Eastern Athletic Association. However, despite its official names, it was popularly known as the Eastern 8, as it then had eight members (Villanova, Duquesne, Penn State, West Virginia, George Washington, Massachusetts, Pittsburgh, and Rutgers). After changes in membership that saw charter members Villanova and Pittsburgh leave (in 1980 and 1982, respectively) and new members St. Bonaventure (1979), Rhode Island (1980), Saint Joseph's (1982), and Temple (1982) enter, establishing the league with 10 members, the conference adopted the current Atlantic 10 name in 1982. Further membership changes saw the league expand to its maximum of 16 members. From 1997 through 2006, the league also operated a football conference; during that period, more than 20 schools were participating in A-10 competition in at least one sport. This ended when the A-10 football programs all departed to join a new football conference sponsored by the

Colonial Athletic Association The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I whose full members are located in East Coast states from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Most of its members are public universi ...

(CAA). In 2012, Butler joined the conference after leaving the Horizon League and VCU joined after leaving the CAA. Conference realignment in 2013 saw the departure of Temple to the American Athletic Conference, Butler and Xavier to the reconfigured Big East, and Charlotte to

Conference USA Conference USA (C-USA or CUSA) is an intercollegiate athletic conference whose current member institutions are located within the Southern United States. The conference participates in the NCAA's Division I in all sports. C-USA's offices are l ...

. George Mason joined from the CAA, and Davidson from the Southern Conference announced it would join in 2014. The league headquarters have been located in

Newport News, Virginia Newport News () is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 186,247. Located in the Hampton Roads region, it is the 5th most populous city in Virginia and 140th most populous city in the Uni ...

since fall 2009. Prior to that, the headquarters was in Philadelphia, within a few miles of member schools Saint Joseph's and La Salle. The conference currently has media deals with ESPN, CBS Sports Network,

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...

, and digital broadcasts with ESPN+. On November 16, 2021,

Loyola University Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Cathol ...

announced that its athletic program - the Loyola Ramblers - would depart the Missouri Valley Conference and join the A-10 effective July 1, 2022. The latest change to the A-10 was announced on May 23, 2022 with the addition of men's lacrosse for the 2023 season (2022–23 school year). The four full members that sponsor the sport (Richmond, St. Bonaventure, Saint Joseph's, UMass) were joined by affiliate members High Point and

Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...

Member schools

Current members

Full members

The following is a list of the full members of the conference and the year they joined: ;Notes:

Associate members

The "joined" column indicates the calendar year in which each school became an A-10 associate, which for spring sports such as lacrosse is the year before the first season of competition.

Former members

Former full members

None of these institutions played football in the A-10 during their tenure as full members. ;Notes:

Former associate members

Former football-only members

After expansion in the

brought that conference to 6 football-playing schools, it was agreed that the CAA would take over management of the Atlantic 10's football conference starting in the 2007–08 school year. All the schools on this list (except Boston U. and Connecticut) were in the A-10 football conference when it became CAA Football (technically separate from the all-sports CAA), but Hofstra and Northeastern discontinued their football programs after the 2009–10 school year. Membership dates include time in the Yankee Conference (which was an all-sports conference from the 1947–48 to 1975–76 seasons, and a football-only conference after that) which merged into the A-10 in the 1997–98 school year. ;Notes:

Membership timeline

DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:1976 till:2026 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:20 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 #> to display a count on left side of graph, use "left:20" to suppress the count, use "left:20"<# Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white id:Full value:rgb(0.742,0.727,0.852) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports id:FullxF value:rgb(0.551,0.824,0.777) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in all sports except for football id:AssocF value:rgb(0.98,0.5,0.445) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member for football only id:AssocOS value:rgb(0.5,0.691,0.824) # Use this color to denote a team that is a member in some sports, but not all (consider identifying in legend or a footnote) id:OtherC1 value:rgb(0.996,0.996,0.699) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference id:OtherC2 value:rgb(0.988,0.703,0.383) # Use this color to denote a team that has moved to another conference where OtherC1 has already been used, to distinguish the two PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:1 color:FullxF from:1976 till:1980 text: Villanova (1976–1980) bar:1 shift:(40) color:OtherC1 from:1980 till:1997 text: Big East bar:1 color:AssocF from:1997 till:2007 text:(1997-2007; A-10 football) bar:1 color:OtherC1 from:2007 till:2013 bar:1 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:end text: Big East bar:2 color:FullxF from:1976 till:1982 text: Pittsburgh (1976–1982) bar:2 color:OtherC1 from:1982 till:2013 text: Big East bar:2 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:end text: ACC bar:3 color:FullxF from:1976 till:1979 text:

Penn State #Redirect Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campu ...

(1976–1979) bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:1979 till:1982 bar:3 color:FullxF from:1982 till:1991 text:(1982–1991) bar:3 color:OtherC1 from:1991 till:1993 bar:3 color:OtherC2 from:1993 till:end text: Big Ten bar:4 color:FullxF from:1976 till:1995 text: Rutgers (1976–1995) bar:4 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2013 text: Big East bar:4 shift:(-10) color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:2014 text:

AAC AAC may refer to: Aviation * Advanced Aircraft, a company from Carlsbad, California * Alaskan Air Command, a radar network * American Aeronautical Corporation, a company from Port Washington, New York * American Aviation, a company from Cleveland, ...

bar:4 color:OtherC1 from:2014 till:end text: Big Ten bar:5 color:FullxF from:1976 till:1995 text: West Virginia (1976–1995) bar:5 color:OtherC1 from:1995 till:2012 text: Big East bar:5 color:OtherC2 from:2012 till:end text: Big 12 bar:6 color:FullxF from:1976 till:1992 text: Duquesne (1976–1992; 1993–present) bar:6 color:OtherC1 from:1992 till:1993 text: MCC bar:6 color:FullxF from:1993 till:end bar:7 color:FullxF from:1976 till:end text:

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

(1976–present) bar:8 color:FullxF from:1976 till:end text: Massachusetts (UMass) (1976–present) bar:8 color:Full from:1997 till:2007 bar:8 color:FullxF from:2007 till:end bar:9 color:FullxF from:1979 till:end text: St. Bonaventure (1979–present) bar:10 color:FullxF from:1980 till:1997 text: Rhode Island (1980–present) bar:10 color:Full from:1997 till:2007 bar:10 color:FullxF from:2007 till:end bar:11 color:FullxF from:1982 till:2013 text: Temple (1982–2013) bar:11 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:end text:

bar:12 color:FullxF from:1982 till:end text: Saint Joseph's (Pa.) (1982–present) bar:13 color:FullxF from:1995 till:2000 text: Virginia Tech (1995–2000)* bar:13 shift:(35) color:OtherC1 from:2000 till:2004 text: Big East bar:13 color:OtherC2 from:2004 till:end text: ACC bar:14 color:FullxF from:1995 till:2013 text: Xavier (1995–2013) bar:14 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:end text: Big East bar:15 color:FullxF from:1995 till:end text: Dayton (1995–present) bar:16 color:FullxF from:1995 till:end text: Fordham (1995–present) bar:17 color:FullxF from:1995 till:end text: La Salle (1995–present) bar:18 color:AssocF from:1997 till:1998 text: Boston University (1997-1998) bar:19 color:AssocF from:1997 till:2000 text: UConn (1997–2000) bar:19 color:OtherC2 from:2000 till:2002 bar:19 shift:(15) color:OtherC1 from:2002 till:2013 text: Big East bar:19 color:OtherC2 from:2013 till:2020 text:

bar:19 color:OtherC1 from:2020 till:end text:D-I FBS Independent bar:20 color:AssocF from:1997 till:2007 text:

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacen ...

(1997–2007) bar:20 color:OtherC1 from:2007 till:end text: CAA (football-only) bar:21 color:AssocF from:1997 till:2007 text: James Madison (1997–2007) bar:21 color:OtherC1 from:2007 till:2023 text: CAA (football-only) bar:21 color:OtherC2 from:2023 till:end text:

Sun Belt The Sun Belt is a region of the United States generally considered to stretch across the Southeast and Southwest. Another rough definition of the region is the area south of the 36th parallel. Several climates can be found in the region — des ...

bar:22 color:AssocF from:1997 till:2007 text: Maine (1997–2007) bar:22 color:OtherC1 from:2007 till:end text: CAA (football-only) bar:23 color:AssocF from:1997 till:2007 text: New Hampshire (1997–2007) bar:23 color:OtherC1 from:2007 till:end text: CAA (football-only) bar:24 color:AssocF from:1997 till:2007 text: Northeastern (1997–2007) bar:24 color:OtherC1 from:2007 till:2010 text: CAA (football-only) bar:25 color:AssocF from:1997 till:2007 text: William & Mary (1997–2007) bar:25 color:OtherC1 from:2007 till:end text: CAA (football-only) bar:26 color:AssocF from:1997 till:2001 text: Richmond (1997–2001) bar:26 shift:(40) color:Full from:2001 till:2007 text:(2001-2007; full; football) bar:26 shift:(40) color:FullxF from:2007 till:end text:(2007-present; full; non-football) bar:27 color:AssocF from:2001 till:2007 text: Hofstra (2001–2007) bar:27 color:OtherC1 from:2007 till:2010 text: CAA (football-only) bar:28 color:AssocF from:2004 till:2007 text: Towson (2004–2007) bar:28 shift:(60) color:OtherC1 from:2007 till:end text: CAA (football-only) bar:29 color:FullXF from:2005 till:2013 text: Charlotte (2005–2013) bar:29 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:end text: C-USA bar:30 color:FullXF from:2005 till:end text: Saint Louis (2005–present) bar:31 color:AssocOS from:2010 till:end text: Lock Haven (field hockey, 2010–present) bar:32 shift:(-75,-5) color:FullxF from:2012 till:end text:

Butler A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some a ...

(2012–2013) bar:32 color:OtherC1 from:2013 till:end text: Big East bar:33 color:FullxF from:2012 till:end text: VCU (2012–present) bar:34 color:FullxF from:2013 till:end text: George Mason (2013–present) bar:35 color:AssocOS from:2013 till:end text: Saint Francis (PA) (field hockey, 2013–present) bar:36 color:FullxF from:2014 till:end text: Davidson (2014-present) bar:37 shift:(-60) color:FullxF from:2022 till:end text:

Loyola Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic universities in the United States. Its namesake is Saint Ignat ...

(2022-present) bar:38 shift:(-100) color:AssocOS from:2022 till:end text: High Point (men's lacrosse, 2022–present) bar:39 shift:(-100) color:AssocOS from:2022 till:end text:

(men's lacrosse, 2022–present) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:1976 TextData = fontsize:L textcolor:black pos:(0,30) tabs:(400-center) text:^"Atlantic 10 Conference Membership History" #> If the chart uses more than one bar color, add a legend by selecting the appropriate fields from the following six options (use only the colors that are used in the graphic.) Leave a blank line after the end of the timeline, then add a line with the selected values from the list, separated by a space. <#
Notes
^* - Virginia Tech did not participate in wrestling.

Atlantic 10 rivalries

There are a number of intense rivalries within the Atlantic 10, with rivalries that carry over from the Big 5 which includes Saint Joseph's, La Salle, and Temple (now in the American Athletic Conference). URI and UMass also have a long-standing rivalry. St. Bonaventure and Duquesne also maintain a rivalry that predates their affiliation with the conference. UMass and Temple also had a basketball rivalry while John Chaney was coaching Temple but it has died down a bit since, and even more so now that Temple has left the conference. Due to both teams sharing the Ram mascot, the Fordham - URI rivalry has increased in recent years as the competitions are heralded as "The Battle of the Rams." The long-standing crosstown rivalry between Richmond and VCU, now known as the Capital City Classic, became a conference rivalry with VCU's arrival in the A10. Rivals St. Louis and Dayton play each year in basketball for the Arch-Baron Cup. George Washington and George Mason compete annually in the Revolutionary Rivalry across all sports.

Sports

In the 2021–22 academic year, the Atlantic 10 Conference sponsors championship competition in nine men's and twelve women's NCAA sanctioned sports, with lacrosse becoming the 10th sponsored men's sport in 2022–23. In addition to the 15 full members, two Pennsylvania schools, Lock Haven and

Saint Francis St. Francis or Saint Francis may refer to: Roman Catholic saints *Francis of Assisi (1181–1226), Italian founder of the Order of Friars Minor (Franciscans) *Francis of Paola (1416–1507), Italian (Calabrian) founder of the Order of the Minims * ...

, are affiliate members in field hockey. High Point and

became men's lacrosse affiliates in July 2022.

Men's sponsored sports by school

;Notes ;Men's varsity sports not sponsored by the Atlantic 10 Conference which are played by A-10 schools ;Notes

Women's sponsored sports by school

;Notes ;Women's varsity sports not sponsored by the Atlantic 10 Conference which are played by A-10 schools ;Notes

Current tournament champions

The Atlantic 10 Conference sponsors championship competition in nine men's and twelve women's NCAA sanctioned sports, with a tenth men's sport to be added in July 2022. Regular-season champions are indicated with "(RS)" and tournament champions with "(T)".

Football (1997–2006)

Origin

The A-10 began sponsoring

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

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 teams were in the Yankee Conference at the time of its demise: * Boston University Terriers football * Connecticut Huskies football * Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens football * James Madison Dukes football * Maine Black Bears football * UMass Minutemen football * New Hampshire Wildcats football *

Northeastern Huskies football The Northeastern Huskies are the athletic teams representing Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. They compete in thirteen varsity team sports: men's and women's hockey (in Hockey East); men's baseball, men's and women's basketball, ...

* Rhode Island Rams football *

Richmond Spiders football Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

* Villanova Wildcats football * William & Mary Tribe football 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 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

. In

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

, 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 the management change after the 2006 season.

Football champions

Demise/"Rename"

The 2005 move of

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

, a football-only member of the A-10, to the

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, a member of the CAA from 1983 to 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.

A-10 schools in DI-A/FBS

A-10 charter members Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, West Virginia, and Villanova played I-A football as independents while members of the A-10 in other sports. Villanova became a member of the Big East in 1980 with Pittsburgh following in 1982. Temple joined the A-10 that year. Penn State joined the Big Ten in 1991 (effectively in 1993), and three A-10 members joined the Big East as football-only members: Rutgers, West Virginia, and Temple (only Rutgers and West Virginia would later join the Big East as full members in 1995). Virginia Tech joined the A-10 in 1995 as a result of the merger that created

. They would then join the Big East as full members in 2000, following the football program which was already a member of the league. Temple remained a football-only member of the Big East until 2004; they would join the MAC for football in 2007 until 2012, and re-joined the Big East in football for the 2012 season. Temple planned to move the rest of its sports into the Big East in 2013, but the conference realigned into the football-sponsoring American Athletic Conference and a new non-football Big East. Temple joined The American. Massachusetts joined them in FBS football with membership in the MAC beginning in the 2012 season and as an FBS independent beginning in 2016. Charlotte, which started a football program in 2013, left for Conference USA.

Facilities

Future member in gray.

References

External links

* {{NCAA nonfootball Div1 conferences Sports in the Eastern United States Sports organizations established in 1976 1976 establishments in the United States Articles which contain graphical timelines