The William & Mary Tribe football team will join the Patriot League in 2026, the school announced Friday.
William & Mary will officially join the Patriot League as a football-only member on July 1, 2026. Conference affiliations for all other Tribe sports teams will not be affected.
“We are excited to accept this invitation from the Patriot League as football members,” said W&M President Katherine A. Rowe. “It is a delight to be president of a university with such a robust commitment to excellence in Division 1 sports. We are constantly looking at how best we can support students who compete in every one of our sports. This move is a perfect fit for our football program, and we look forward to the future.”
Twenty of William & Mary’s remaining 22 sports will remain members of the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA). Men’s gymnastics will continue to compete in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC), while women’s gymnastics will remain in the Gymnastics East Conference (GEC).
“We have enjoyed our association with the CAA since becoming a founding member in 1985, and the decision surrounding our football program does nothing to diminish our enthusiasm for those partnerships,” said Brian D. Mann, Director of Athletics. “Our commitment to the league remains strong, and we value the opportunity for our 20 programs to compete for CAA Championships. I look forward to working with Commissioner Joe D’Antonio and our league partners to provide the best possible competitive experience for our student-athletes.”
William & Mary has been a member of the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) since the 2007 season. Prior to that, the Tribe competed in the Atlantic 10 Conference from 1997 through 2006.
With the addition of William & Mary, the Patriot League will expand to nine teams in 2026. The Tribe will join existing members Bucknell, Colgate, Fordham, Georgetown, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh, and Richmond. Richmond is also an associate member in football only.
Interesting timing considering Richmond & William & Mary just announced an extension of the series but that is no longer needed as it should become a conference game. This also probably means the Patriot League is moving to an 8-game schedule which means several teams will have to scrap one of their games off the schedule.
Wonder what this means for the CAA? Do they replace them?
I have optimism semithin can work out.
Colgate, Fordham, Lafayette, and Richmond currently have 4 non-conference games for next year (Lafayette has 5 actually).
Bucknell, Georgetown, and Lehigh only have 1 non-conference game for ’26, and Holy Cross has 2. I’m sure that some of the schools that get canceled by the former 4 can schedule with the latter 4.
Looks like the 16 team CAA wasn’t meant to last
Their contract with FloSports was a HUGE mistake
Nobody in this world is perfect.
Flo was an absolute disaster and the recent additions to fill in the departed FBS members were not all that helpful.
If Elon and Campbell move to the SoCon I’d expect the northern schools to split from the remaining southern schools split.
The FloSports deal hurt the CAA–I live in Albany and I can’t watch the Danes unless I pay Flo or go live. I just can’t justify another monthly subscription. It has to stop somewhere. Now, I am not one of those guys that has Netflix, Amazon, etc. I have cable TV and ESPN Plus–that’s enough. Say what you want about ESPN, but that’s the platform you need to be on and CAA football could be on ESPN Plus, a service that has 24.9 million subscribers.
Good for the Patriot League which will now have 9 solid football playing members. W&M is a public university, so perhaps this opens the door for other publics (Albany) to consider joining. That said, nine is the perfect number–everybody plays one another and tiebreaks can be broken in an easier manner.
Good decision.
John Amsterdam, NY is favorite town along beautiful Mohawk River that west of Albany.
@John Furgele If the FCS does in fact agree to allow schools to schedule 12 games as part of the 2026 season (as has been speculated) it would be a slam dunk for Villanova to join the Patriot and move to a 9 game schedule. Even if that doesn’t occur Villanova seems inevitable to join, as they, not W&M had been initially rumoured to be joining after Richmond’s departure. UAlbany unfortunately doesn’t make the cut but instead would expect a possible CAA rebrand to the Yankee Conference, or at least a Northeast centric focus with Merrimack and Sacred Heart joining in football to round out the departures.
As for the Patriot, the 9/odd game schedule will also help reduce tiebreakers required and with W&M, Richmond, and Villanova the Patriot would be a bonafide multi playoff bid conference.
As a Chicago Bears Fan if they go for a Offensive Tackle I would like Bears select William & Mary Charles Grant 72nd overall.
Admittedly I did not think W&M would be able to depart from the CAA without all sports moving. I had them pegged to rejoin the SoCon and possibly A10 for all but football. Given the Patriot league’s membership it makes sense W&M is a football only member. Is it only a matter of time before Villanova joins the Patriot as well?
With just Elon, Campbell, Towson, and NC A&T left representing the south for CAA football there may still be chance the former 3 move to the SoCon and the NC A&T in a hard spot either to move to the Big South or MEAC.
I would not mind Villanova joining Patriot for Football Reverend.
Reverend—I think the reason why the CAA is allowing WM to say for the other sports is that old 1-A/1-AA thing. If this were the MAC (Northern Illinois), they would not allow this, but because PL schools are D1 in all other sports, this can work. Now, I wouldn’t bet against WM deciding someday to move other or all sports into the PL, but for now, this is great.
I have gone to Holy Cross for games and will enjoy seeing Richmond and W&M come to town going forward!
Technically, the CAA football conference is a separate legal entity from the all-sports CAA, but is administered by staff of the latter. It’s like how the MVFC and MVC are separate entities.
Good news Z-Man I credit your post.
It´s interesting that FCS conferences are completely fine with schools moving some of their sports to another league and keeping the remaining ones in their league, but FBS conferences aren´t okay with it and kick the school out.
Very true. Z Man nailed it though. CAA football operates like MVFC football. They have the name, but are indeed separate entities.
I like the idea of a Yankee Conference forming and I like the idea of Villanova coming to the Patriot League.
I’m sure Albany, Maine, New Hampshire, Sacred Heart, Merrimack and three others are thinking of an America East football conference. Ya might get Central Connecticut too. Can we think of two others? Maybe Villanova comes here
John as A Villanova Fan I fully welcome Wildcats come to Patriot League.
American East Football Conference would an excellent idea.