By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
The Coastal Athletic Association is adopting a new scheduling format for some of its sports, beginning with the 2025-26 school year.
The changes will impact women’s soccer, men’s soccer softball, and baseball. The process to qualify for CAA Tournaments is also changing in these sports.
“When you have a conference that really expands the entire East Coast, you’re trying to figure out how do you do this that’s competitively effective and cost effective in a world where a lot is changing in college athletics,” Elon athletics director Jenn Strawley said.
She said the scheduling model is an effort for some regionalization for sports such as soccer, softball, and baseball where enough CAA schools participate.
“It was also looking at each sport and how do we best and take the competitive piece into and how we can create some levels of cost efficiently,” Strawley said, noting the geographic footprint. “How do we have a conference that makes sense, have some level of cost efficiency, and still have the best teams be in the position to have success in the postseason. It’s a balance of all that across the sports. Nothing’s perfect.”
Divisions will be used in these sports, with Elon in the South Division in each case. What was best for each sport was considered, something Strawley said she appreciated.
“It’s the travel piece,” she said. “Do you want to spend $35,000 to send the soccer team to play two games in Hofstra and Stony Brook or is there a more efficient ways to manage those dollars and still produce a high-quality student-athlete experience?”
Elon was a Southern Conference member when that league reduced the number of teams for some of its tournaments and altered scheduling for the 2009-10 school year because of the economy.
The CAA’s changes are designed to avoid compromising the ability to have multiple schools receive NCAA bids in some sports.
“We don’t want to do anything that undermines the opportunity for that,” Strawley said.
Here’s a breakdown:
- In women’s soccer, there will be two divisions and each team will play nine games with one against each team in its division and four games against teams from the other division. The top three teams in each division will be in the league tournament.
- For men’s soccer, teams will play eight conference games – home and away against each team in its five-team division. The top three teams in each division advance to the tournament.
- In softball, teams will play eight three-game conference series. Two of the South Division teams will face two divisional opponents in two series and the other three teams in one series. Plus, those teams will have one series against a North Division team. Three South Division teams will play one divisional opponent in two series and four divisional foes in one series along with two series (one home, one away) against North Division teams.
Based on winning percentage, the top two teams from each division plus the teams with the highest conference winning percentage not in first or second place will advance to the six-team tournament.
- Baseball teams will play 10 conference series for 30 games. Four of the South Division teams will play home-and-home series against three divisional opponents and two divisional teams in one series each. There will also be two series (one home, one away) vs. North Division teams.
The top two teams from each division advance to the tournament. The other two tournament teams will be the teams (not in first or second place) with the NCAA Ratings Percentage Index ranking at the end of the regular season.
Other conferences have previously gone to scheduling models that include six games against the same opponent for baseball and softball. America East Conference, with seven baseball-playing schools and six softball teams, has certain six-time matchups in a single season.
Football changes, too
In CAA football, there has been upheaval in recent months that are bound to impact Elon.
William & Mary and Villanova announced several weeks apart this spring that they’re leaving the conference in football to play in the Patriot League, which is based in the Northeast. They’ll play their final seasons in the CAA this year.
Richmond played its final CAA football season in 2024, also going to the Patriot League.
William & Mary remains in the CAA for other sports, while Villanova and Richmond have been football-only members.
Plus, James Madison and Delaware have left the CAA in all sports to move to the Football Bowl Subdivision.
