The association was established in 2018[1] as the Central Coast Athletic Conference and consists of 16 schools in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties[2] that previously were members of the CIF Southern Section and three of its constituent conferences, the Pac-8, the Los Padres League, and the Channel League.
[5] (The aforementioned Tri-County League, which was smaller than the peer Northern League and LPL in terms of enrollment, was originally entitled as such due to also including high schools from neighboring Kern and Fresno counties at the time, in addition to San Luis Obispo County.
[6]) Briefly, the association also reached into the Pacific View and Channel leagues on a football basis,[7] but heading into the fall of 2022, the alignment was simplified to revert to a more historical format when Cabrillo, Lompoc and Santa Ynez rejoined the CCAA's fellow 13 schools in the Central Section and, thus in turn, its Mountain and Ocean leagues.
[8] As the Santa Maria Times assessed of the unison of all 16 programs: "It's just two leagues and two counties.
[12][13] The CCAA, which spans the 805 area code, uses a system of promotion and relegation to place each school's teams, by sport and gender, into either of two leagues[14] periodically based on performance.