Commissioner Thomas E. Yeager today announced that Northeastern University will join the Colonial Athletic Association and the Colonial Academic Alliance effective July 1, 2006. 

            ?œThe CAA is excited to add Northeastern University to an already impressive list of academic institutions,?ť said Yeager.  ?œThe Huskies bring a quality, broad-based program to the CAA that will expand our reach into the highly desirable New England corridor.  An institution that fits so well both academically and athletically, Northeastern will be a significant addition to the athletic and academic profile of the conference.   The 2006-07 season promises to be an eventful year in terms of the growth and evolution of the conference.?ť

            Founded in 1985, the Colonial Athletic Association includes the University of Delaware, Drexel University, George Mason University, Hofstra University, James Madison University, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Old Dominion University, Towson University, Virginia Commonwealth University and the College of William & Mary.  Last month, Georgia State University, a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference, announced that it would also join the CAA in 2006.

            The addition of Northeastern will bring the CAA's membership total to 12 and give the conference a geographic footprint that stretches from Boston to Atlanta.  By adding the nation's #6-ranked media market, the league will have a presence in five of the nation's nine largest metropolitan areas (New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta).  The Huskies will also field the sixth I-AA football team in the conference satisfying NCAA conference requirements for potential sponsorship.

            ?œNortheastern has increasingly expanded its recruiting arm and admission efforts beyond Massachusetts and New England into the Mid-Atlantic region, so it's critical that our teams are represented in that part of the country,?ť said Director of Athletics, Dave O'Brien. ?œIt's an honor to be invited to join a group of prestigious institutions that have well-established academic and athletic histories. Furthermore, CAA member schools cover a wide geographic footprint in the East that will expose our teams to thousands more alumni, fans and potential students.?ť

Headquartered in Richmond, Va., the CAA regularly showcases the talents of student-athletes, coaches and administrators who stand out not only on the playing field but also in the classroom.  CAA schools have produced 16 national team champions in five different sports, 33 individual national champions, 11 national coaches of the year, 11 national players of the year, 12 Honda Award winners, 16 NCAA post-graduate scholars, five Rhodes Scholars and four Nobel Prize winning faculty.

            In 2003-04, the CAA conducted championships in 21 sports with NCAA automatic qualifiers in 15 of those sports.  Northeastern sponsors 12 sports in which the CAA conducts championships and 19 sports overall.  This past season the Huskies won a league-high five America East Conference titles including field hockey, women's swimming, men's outdoor track and women's indoor & outdoor track.  Northeastern was also the regular season AEC champion in baseball and finished third in the league's 2004 commissioner's cup standings.   

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