The CAA was founded in 1979 as the ECAC South Conference, made up of independent schools which played basketball in the Eastern College Athletic Conference's South Region Division I men's basketball tournament.

Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) left for the Atlantic 10 Conference in July 2012.

On March 25, 2013, George Mason University left the CAA to join the Atlantic 10 Conference.

[9] Shortly after, the CAA ceased sponsorship of wrestling due to the lack of teams.

During another phase of realignment that started in 2021, the CAA was affected when longtime member James Madison University announced it would leave the CAA, transition its football program to the Football Bowl Subdivision, and join the Sun Belt Conference (SBC).

Thus, JMU officially joined the Sun Belt in July 2022 instead (at which time it was counted as an FBS member for scheduling purposes after meeting an NCAA minimum requirement of five FBS opponents at home), housing all of its sports in that league, including men's soccer, which would be sponsored by the SBC again, but one season earlier.

[11][12] Shortly before JMU announced its departure, it was reported that the CAA sought to expand by several schools, allowing it to split into a divisional format for most of its sports in order to reduce travel costs for its members.

[15] On January 18, local media in Monmouth's home of New Jersey reported that a CAA invitation to that school was imminent.

[4] On July 20, 2023, the Colonial Athletic Association rebranded as the Coastal Athletic Association, citing the expansion of the conference footprint throughout the east coast for the change in name; however, the current logo was unchanged.

[18] On November 28, 2023, Delaware announced its departure from the CAA and transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) joining Conference USA on July 1, 2025.

[19] In all tables below, dates of joining and departure reflect the calendar years these moves took effect.