Atlantic Ten Conference

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Image:Atlantic10 Main Logo.png

The Atlantic 10 Conference (A10) is a college athletic conference which operates mostly in the eastern United States; 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. It participates in the NCAA's Division I-AA for football and Division I for all other sports. The A-10 is traditionally considered to be one of the best mid-major conferences in college basketball. After the 2006 football season, A-10 will disband its football division due to the member schools joining the Colonial Athletic Association. Image:Atlantic10Conference 100.png

Despite the name, there are 24 partial or full-time members; 12 schools play football, 14 basketball and other sports, and one affiliate member participates in women's field hockey only. Only three schools—UMass, Rhode Island, and Richmond—are members in both football and basketball. This odd conference construction is because the A-10 Football Conference was created in 1997 by a takeover of the football-only Yankee Conference, due to NCAA rules changes that significantly diminished the legislative input of single-sport conferences. The members of the Yankee Conference narrowly chose the A-10's merger proposal over that of the Colonial Athletic Association; this decision was later revisited by the football-playing members of the A-10, as explained below.

Contents

Members

Full Members

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

Institution Location Founded Affiliation Enrollment Year Joined
University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte, North Carolina 1946 Public 20,772 2005
University of Dayton Dayton, Ohio 1850 Private/Catholic 9,175 1995
Duquesne University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 1878 Private/Catholic 9,985 1976
Fordham University Bronx, New York 1841 Private/Catholic 17,501 1995
George Washington University Washington, D.C. 1821 Private/Non-sectarian 19,581 1976
La Salle University Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1863 Private/Catholic 6,221 1995
University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts 1863 Public 22,585 1976
University of Rhode Island Kingston, Rhode Island 1888 Public 14,180 1980
University of Richmond Richmond, Virginia 1830 Private/Non-sectarian 4,276 2001
St. Bonaventure University Olean, New York 1856 Private/Catholic 2,700 1979
Saint Joseph's University Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1851 Private/Catholic 6,450 1982
Saint Louis University St. Louis, Missouri 1818 Private/Catholic 11,089 2005
Temple University Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1884 Public 32,107 1982
Xavier University Cincinnati, Ohio 1831 Private/Catholic 6,500 1995

Associate Members

The following is a list of the associate members and the sport to which they belong to the conference. Prior to 1997, football members belonged to the Yankee Conference.

Broken down by who plays what, that's:

Football

Basketball and Olympic sports

Women's field hockey only

Logos

Men's Basketball Champions

SeasonRegular Season ChampionTournament Champion
1977Rutgers/West Virginia/Penn State Duquesne
1978Rutgers/Villanova Villanova
1979Villanova Rutgers
1980Villanova/Duquesne/Rutgers Villanova
1981Rhode Island/Duquesne Pittsburgh
1982West Virginia Pittsburgh
1983Rutgers/St. Bonaventure/West Virginia West Virginia
1984Temple West Virginia
1985West Virginia Temple
1986St. Joseph's St. Joseph's
1987Temple Temple
1988Temple Temple
1989West Virginia Rutgers
1990Temple Temple
1991Rutgers Penn State
1992Massachusetts Massachusetts
1993Massachusetts Massachusetts
1994Massachusetts Massachusetts
1995Massachusetts Massachusetts
1996Massachusetts/West Virginia/George Washington Massachusetts
1997St. Joseph's/Xavier St. Joseph's
1998Temple/Xavier Xavier
1999Temple/George Washington Rhode Island
2000Temple/Dayton Temple
2001St. Joseph's Temple
2002Xavier/Temple/St. Joseph's Xavier
2003Xavier/St. Joseph's Dayton
2004St. Joseph's/Dayton Xavier
2005St. Joseph's/George Washington George Washington
2006George Washington Xavier

Women's Basketball Champions

<tr><td>1984<td>Rutgers<td> <tr><td>1985<td>Penn State/St. Joseph's<td> <tr><td>1986<td>Rutgers<td> <tr><td>1987<td>Rutgers<td> <tr><td>1988<td>Rutgers<td> <tr><td>1989<td>Rutgers/St. Joseph's<td> <tr><td>1990<td>Rutgers/St. Joseph's<td> <tr><td>1991<td>Penn State<td> <tr><td>1992<td>West Virginia<td> <tr><td>1993<td>Rutgers<td> <tr><td>1994<td>George Washington/Rutgers<td> <tr><td>1995<td>George Washington<td> <tr><td>1996<td>George Washington<td> <tr><td>1997<td>St. Joseph's<td> <tr><td>1998<td>George Washington<td> <tr><td>1999<td>St. Joseph's<td> <tr><td>2000<td>George Washington/St. Joseph's<td> <tr><td>2001<td>Xavier<td> <tr><td>2002<td>George Washington<td> <tr><td>2003<td>George Washington<td> <tr><td>2004<td>George Washington/Temple<td> <tr><td>2005<td>Temple<td> <tr><td>2006<td>Charlotte/George Washington<td> </table>

Sports 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

Future developments

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 upcoming demise of the A-10 football conference.

Although the CAA does not currently sponsor football, 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. Not wishing to be left in a shell of a conference, Maine also applied for football-only membership in the CAA effective in 2007, and was accepted. Eventually, the A-10 football conference opted to disband. All of its members will compete in the CAA football conference starting in 2007.

Conference Stadia

School Football stadium Stadium capacity Basketball arena Arena capacity
Charlotte Non-Football School N/A Dale F. Halton Arena 9,105
Dayton Welcome Stadium 11,000 University of Dayton Arena 13,409
Duquesne Arthur J. Rooney Athletic Field 4,500 A.J. Palumbo Center 6,200
Fordham Coffey Field 7,000 Rose Hill Gym 3,470
George Washington Non-football School N/A Smith Center 5,000
LaSalle McCarthy Stadium 7,500 Tom Gola Arena 4,000
Massachusetts Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium 17,000 Mullins Center 9,349
Rhode Island Meade Stadium 6,580 Ryan Center 7,657
Richmond University of Richmond Stadium 22,000 Robins Center 9,171
St. Bonaventure Non-Football School N/A Reilly Center 6,000
Saint Joseph's Non-Football School N/A Alumni Memorial Fieldhouse 3,200
Saint Louis Non-Football School N/A Savvis Center 21,000
Temple Lincoln Financial Field 66,000 Liacouras Center 10,224
Xavier Non-Football School N/A Cintas Center 10,250

External links

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