CAA fells ACC

OK, so only two teams from the CAA did this.

But they were the only two teams to play against ACC competition, and it says something about the toughness of the Colonial Athletic Association, a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) conference. Villanova also beat Temple on Thursday, the first of the CAA's three wins against major conference schools.

Of course, I'm speaking of Richmond's 24-16 win at Duke and William & Mary's 26-14 upset at Virginia, games that were scheduled by the major conference schools as easy wins.

Hank Kurz Jr. of the Associated Press wrote an interesting article about this phenomenon, in which he diagrams the fallout from Duke and Virginia's losses.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch has a similar article about the weekend's action, but focused solely on Richmond's perspective.

The RTD's main point was that 2000 was the last time the CAA had three wins against Football Bowl Subdivision teams, and one of those wins was against Connecticut, a transitionaI I-A program at the time.

So now, the question becomes: Is the CAA good for a fourth? James Madison travels to Maryland for its season debut against the Terrapins, who lost 52-13 at California on Saturday. Stay tuned.