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 ) . Member schools . Full members . The following is a list of the full members of the conference and the year they joined : † - 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 . < br > † † - Temple will be joining the Big East Conference for all sports beginning on July 1 , 2013 . < br > † † † - Charlotte will be re - joining C - USA for all sports on July 1 , 2013 . < nowiki > * < / nowiki > - 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 . < br > Notes < br > 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 : Football . 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 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 :