The Colonial Athletic Association on Tuesday set its spring 2021 football schedule, which will split the 12-team conference stretching from Orono, Maine, to Elon, N.C., into two divisions with unequal formats.
Each CAA team will play six games this fall, but how they get there will be quite different.
The North Division will consist of seven teams, each of them playing the other once. The South Division will have four teams, with each team playing a home-and-home against the other three. Towson is sitting out the 2020-21 academic year, so they are not included in the format.
CAA North
Albany
Delaware
Maine
New Hampshire
Rhode Island
Stony Brook
Villanova
CAA South
Elon
James Madison
Richmond
William & Mary
The CAA will not play a championship game. Instead, the team with the best record will fill the league's automatic bid for the scaled-down FCS playoffs. If the two divisional champions finish with equal records, a "tie-breaking procedure" will determine the CAA representative. The procedure was not explained in the release.
“We are pleased to announce the conference schedule for the 2021 Spring football season, but understand this is just the next step in the planning process associated with playing football on each of our campuses,” CAA Commissioner Joe D’Antonio said. “Our unique divisional format was developed with the goal of enhancing safety and reducing the risks associated with travel during this difficult period of time, while still providing a fair and competitive model to determine a champion. Today’s announcement hopefully provides an additional level of excitement for the student-athletes and coaches who have worked hard and made numerous sacrifices over the past eight months. As always, health and safety remain at the forefront of all return-to-play decisions that we as a Conference continue to make.”
Conference play will consist of six games with one off week, beginning March 6 and concluding April 17. The late start provides room for teams to schedule up to two non-conference games; CAA teams are allowed to schedule other CAA opponents as "non-conference" games, but such games would not count toward the league standings.
2021 CAA FOOTBALL SPRING CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Saturday, March 6
Maine at Delaware
UAlbany at New Hampshire
Villanova at Stony Brook
James Madison at Elon
William & Mary at Richmond
Saturday, March 13
William & Mary at James Madison
Elon at Richmond
Rhode Island at Villanova
Stony Brook at Delaware
UAlbany at Maine
Saturday, March 20
Delaware at New Hampshire
Rhode Island at UAlbany
Maine at Stony Brook
Richmond at James Madison
Elon at William & Mary
Saturday, March 27
Richmond at Elon
James Madison at William & Mary
Stony Brook at UAlbany
New Hampshire at Villanova
Delaware at Rhode Island
Saturday, April 3
Villanova at Maine
New Hampshire at Rhode Island
UAlbany at Delaware
William & Mary at Elon
James Madison at Richmond
Saturday, April 10
Richmond at William & Mary
Elon at James Madison
Maine at Rhode Island
Stony Brook at New Hampshire
Villanova at UAlbany
Saturday, April 17
New Hampshire at Maine
Delaware at Villanova
Rhode Island at Stony Brook
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.