A CIAA champion will be crowned in early November. However, the path to the top of the conference mountain will be very different.
The 2023 Virginia Union and Fayetteville State football teams are now noteworthy, as they are the last champions of the CIAA Northern and Southern divisions.
As reported by the Richmond Free Press, starting with the 2024 season, the CIAA has opted to abolish the Northern and Southern divisions, placing all 11 football-playing teams into a single group where the top two teams will meet in Salem, Virginia to battle for conference supremacy.
From 2010-11 until 2022-23, the CIAA utilized an East-West conference split. The conference expanded with the addition of Lincoln (PA) and the rejoining of Winston Salem State, which had departed the conference following the 2005-06 academic year to join the MEAC.
Two divisions were created. One was the seven-team Northern Division that included Bowie State, Chowan, Elizabeth City State, Lincoln (PA), St. Paul’s, Virginia State, and Virginia Union. A six-team side that made up the Southern Division featured Fayetteville State, J.C. Smith, Livingstone, St. Augustine’s, Shaw and Winston-Salem State.
The previous North-South alignment was the conference’s third run with such a divide, having previously implemented the setup from 1970-1972 and 1981-1990.
