Atlantic 10 Conference

The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a college athletic conference which operates mostly on the United States' eastern seaboard. It also has several members in the Midwest, including two member schools in Ohio, Dayton and Xavier (located in Dayton and Cincinnati, respectively); Saint Louis (in St. Louis, Missouri); and Butler (located in Indianapolis). Virginia Commonwealth and Butler joined the A-10 on July 1, 2012. Although some of its members are state-funded, more than half of its membership is made up of private, Catholic institutions. Despite the name, there are 17 partial or full-time members: 16 basketball and other sports, and one affiliate member that participate in women's field hockey only.

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 Pittsburgh and Villanova leave 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 16 current 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 (CAA). In 2012, Butler joined the conference after leaving the Horizon League and VCU joined after leaving the CAA.

The league office headquarters has been located in Newport News, Virginia since the Fall of 2009. Prior to that, the headquarters was in Philadelphia, within a few miles of three member schools (Temple, Saint Joseph's, and La Salle).

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


 * Notes

† -  Duquesne left the A-10 for the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now known as the Horizon League) only for the 1992-93 season; but re-joined back in the 1993-94 season. †† - Temple will be joining the Big East Conference for all sports beginning on July 1, 2013. ††† - Charlotte will be re-joining C-USA for all sports on July 1, 2013.

* - Massachusetts and Rhode Island also played football within the A-10 when the Yankee Conference was absorbed from 1997 to 2006.

Former members
† - Includes time in the Yankee Conference, which merged with the Atlantic 10 for football in 1997.

Membership timeline
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 * - Virginia Tech did not participate in wrestling.

Atlantic 10 rivalries
There are a number of intense rivalries within the Atlantic 10. Rivalries that carry over from the Big 5 which includes Saint Joseph's, Temple, and La Salle include those games between La Salle and Saint Joseph's and especially Temple and Saint Joseph's, a rivalry that has intensified in recent years. Like the Big 5, Dayton and Xavier are near one another and have an intense rivalry that began in 1920. URI and UMass also maintain a long-standing rivalry. St. Bonaventure and Duquesne also maintain a rivalry that predates their affiliation with the conference. A fledgling rivalry that has spawned has been one between Temple and Xavier, two of the most consistent schools in the A-10. UMass and Temple also had a basketball rivalry while John Chaney was coaching Temple but it has died down a bit since. 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 already-existing crosstown rivalry between Richmond and VCU, known as the Black & Blue Classic, became a conference rivalry with VCU's arrival in the A10.

Sports
The Atlantic 10 Conference sponsors championship competition in nine men's and twelve women's NCAA sanctioned sports:

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 the A-10 dropped sponsorship after the 2006 season.

Demise/"Rename"
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, 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. For all intents and purposes, including the conference's automatic bid to the FCS playoffs, the A-10 football conference became the CAA football conference.

A-10 schools in I-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, and three A-10 members joined the Big East as football-only members: Rutgers, West Virginia, and Temple.

All but Temple would join the Big East in all sports in 1995, but Virginia Tech joined the A-10 as a result of the merger that created Conference USA; they were already Big East football members, and would join that conference as full members in 2000. Temple remained a football-only member of the Big East until 2004; they would join the MAC for football in 2007-2012, and rejoin the Big East for the 2012 season, with all sports moving in 2013. Massachusetts joined them in FBS football with membership in the MAC beginning in the 2012 season. Charlotte, which will start a football program in 2013, will be leaving for Conference USA that year. It will start as an FCS program and fully transition to FBS in 2015.

Facilities
The conference does not sponsor football. Members who participate in football do so as affiliate members of other conferences:
 * Butler, Dayton – Pioneer Football League
 * Charlotte – To begin football in 2013 as an FCS Independent
 * Duquesne – Northeast Conference
 * Fordham – Patriot League
 * Massachusetts – Mid-American Conference
 * Rhode Island, Richmond – Colonial Athletic Association
 * Temple – Big East Conference