The Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA

National Collegiate Athletic Association

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...

's Division III. Member institutions are located in the eastern United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in the states of Maryland

Maryland

Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

 and Delaware

Delaware

Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...

.

Current members

The league currently has ten full members:

Institution	Location	Team Name	Founded	Affiliation	Enrollment
Frostburg State University Frostburg State University Frostburg State University is a four-year university located on a campus in Frostburg, Maryland, in Western Maryland, and is part of the University System of Maryland. FSU is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.-History:...	Frostburg, Maryland Frostburg, Maryland Frostburg is a city in Allegany County, Maryland, United States located at the head of the Georges Creek Valley. It is part of the Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,873 at the 2000 census...	Bobcats	1898	Public	5,215
Hood College Hood College Hood College is a co-educational liberal arts college located in Frederick, Maryland. The college serves approximately 1,050 graduate students and more than 1,400 undergraduate students.-Early History :...	Frederick, Maryland Frederick, Maryland Frederick is a city in north-central Maryland. It is the county seat of Frederick County, the largest county by area in the state of Maryland. Frederick is an outlying community of the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is part of a greater...	Blazers	1893	Private/United Church of Christ	2,248
University of Mary Washington University of Mary Washington The University of Mary Washington is a public, coeducational liberal arts college located in the city of Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA. Founded in 1908 by the Commonwealth of Virginia as a normal school, during much of the twentieth century it was part of the University of Virginia, until...	Fredericksburg, Virginia Fredericksburg, Virginia Fredericksburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia located south of Washington, D.C., and north of Richmond. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 24,286...	Eagles	1908	Public	4,862
Marymount University Marymount University Marymount University is a coeducational, four-year Catholic university that has its main campus located in Arlington, Virginia. Marymount offers bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in a wide range of disciplines and has a diverse and welcoming academic community with approximately 3,600...	Arlington, Virginia	Saints	1950	Private/Catholic	3,684
St. Mary's College of Maryland St. Mary's College of Maryland St. Mary's College of Maryland, established in 1840, is a public, secular liberal arts college located in St. Mary's City, Maryland. It is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges and designated as a Public Honors College . St. Mary's College is a small college, with about 2,000...	St. Mary's City, Maryland St. Mary's City, Maryland St. Mary's City, in St. Mary's County, Maryland, is a small unincorporated community near the southernmost end of the state on the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It is located on the eastern shore of the St. Mary's River, a tributary of the Potomac. St. Mary's City is the fourth oldest...	Seahawks	1840	Public	1,950
Salisbury University Salisbury University Salisbury University is a public university in Salisbury, Maryland.According to U.S. News and World Report's 2009 America's Best Colleges index, "In guidebooks and surveys by U.S...	Salisbury, Maryland Salisbury, Maryland -Demographics:Salisbury is the principal city of the Salisbury-Ocean Pines CSA, a Combined Statistical Area that includes the Salisbury metropolitan area and the Ocean Pines micropolitan area , which had a combined population of 176,657 at the 2010 census.As of the census of 2000, there were...	Sea Gulls	1925	Public	7,383
Stevenson University	Stevenson, Maryland Stevenson, Maryland Stevenson is an unincorporated community located in the northern section of Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. It serves as the location of the central campus of Stevenson University . It is also home to St. Timothy's School, an all-girls boarding and day high school...	Mustangs	1947	Private/Non-sectarian	2,500
Wesley College	Dover, Delaware Dover, Delaware The city of Dover is the capital and second largest city in the U.S. state of Delaware. It is also the county seat of Kent County, and the principal city of the Dover, Delaware Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Kent County. It is located on the St. Jones River in the Delaware...	Wolverines	1873	Private/Methodist	2,400
York College of Pennsylvania York College of Pennsylvania York College of Pennsylvania is a private, coeducational, 4-year college located in southcentral Pennsylvania. The school offers more than 50 baccalaureate majors in professional programs, the sciences, and humanities to its 4,600 undergraduate students...	York, Pennsylvania York, Pennsylvania York, known as the White Rose City , is a city located in York County, Pennsylvania, United States which is in the South Central region of the state. The population within the city limits was 43,718 at the 2010 census, which was a 7.0% increase from the 2000 count of 40,862...	Spartans	1787	Private/Non-sectarian	5,367

History

Formed in 1989, the charter members were The Catholic University of America

The Catholic University of America

The Catholic University of America is a private university located in Washington, D.C. in the United States. It is a pontifical university of the Catholic Church in the United States and the only institution of higher education founded by the U.S. Catholic bishops...

, Gallaudet University, University of Mary Washington, Marymount University, St. Mary's College of Maryland and York College of Pennsylvania. Goucher College

Goucher College

Goucher College is a private, co-educational, liberal arts college located in the northern Baltimore suburb of Towson in unincorporated Baltimore County, Maryland, on a 287 acre campus. The school has approximately 1,475 undergraduate students studying in 31 majors and six interdisciplinary...

 joined in 1991, and Salisbury University in 1993. Hood College, Stevenson University, and Wesley College all formally joined the conference for the 2007–08 season, although Hood and Stevenson had already joined for some sports in the 2006–07 season. CUA and Goucher College left the conference in 2007–08 to become members of the new Landmark Conference

Landmark Conference

The Landmark Conference is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the eastern United States in the States of Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Washington, D.C....

. Gallaudet left the conference before the 2009-10 season for the North Eastern Athletic Conference

North Eastern Athletic Conference

The North Eastern Athletic Conference is an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.-Members:...

 for some sports. Stevenson University and Hood College will depart the Capital Athletic Conference for the Middle Atlantic Conferences effective July 1, 2012.

Sports

The CAC sponsors intercollegiate athletic competition in men's baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

, men's and women's basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, men's and women's cross country

Cross country running

Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...

, women's field hockey

Field hockey

Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...

, men's golf

Golf

Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes....

, men's and women's lacrosse

Lacrosse

Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...

, men's and women’s soccer, women's softball

Softball

Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...

, men's and women's swimming

Swimming (sport)

Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...

, men's and women's tennis

Tennis

Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...

, men's and women's track and field

Track and field

Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...

, and women's volleyball

Volleyball

Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules.The complete rules are extensive...

.