Does anyone have a source that actually lists all the CFA members throughout its history? Or even one that lists all the members at any one time? I know the CFA started off in 1977 with somewhere from 61 to 63 members (the sources I've found vary), including the ACC (7), Big 8, SEC (10), SWC (9), WAC (6-8*), and all the "major" independents, such as Notre Dame, Penn State, Pitt, Syracuse, WVU, and the service academies (I've seen these indies specifically mentioned as members).

* Not sure if UA and ASU were initially party to the CFA, as they left the WAC in 1978 for the Pac-8/10, which along with the Big Ten was not a member of the CFA.

Between the 5 conferences that were in at the start, there were 40-42 schools. I'm pretty sure the following independents were "major" enough to have been members: Air Force (joined WAC in 1980), Army, BC, FSU, GT, Miami, Navy, Notre Dame, Penn State, Pitt, Rutgers, South Carolina, Syracuse, Temple, VT, and WVU. That's another 16.

Indies that were possibly "major" enough include: Cincinnati, East Carolina, Hawaii (joined WAC in 1979), Louisville, Memphis, SDSU (joined WAC in 1978), Southern Miss, and Tulane, for an additional 8 potential CFA members.

Notre Dame was famously the first to leave the CFA (aside from possibly UA and ASU), but it had grown to over 70 members by the time it finally died in 1997.

Any info you can provide would be appreciated. :)

Honestly, no one does.
I could never find a non-contradictory list.
Hopefully someone can help.

The University of Tulsa ended up as part of the CFA before it fell apart. This was during their years of independence after the MVC football conference (not the same as the current MVFC) fell apart, and before they joined the mega-WAC.

They were so proud of it that they put the CFA logo on their field. It shows up at 0:32 of the video below from their 1991 game vs. Texas A&M:

Tulsa - CFA

My guess, in the 80's you had:

ACC-8
Big 8
SEC-10
SWC-9
WAC-9

So that's 44.

Army, Navy, Notre Dame, Penn State, Syracuse, BC, Pitt, WVU, Temple, Rutgers, VaTech, SC, FSU, Miami, Tulane, USL, Tulsa, Memphis, Louisville, Cincinnati, ECU, So. Miss

That's 66. I imagine once Arkansas State and Louisiana-Monroe moved to 1-A, they were members. It seems the MAC and the Big West/PCC were not members, but the independent schools were.


Louisiana-Lafayette "USL is an associate member of the College Football Association" 1986

I found this interesting bit from 1992:

"Almost every fall Saturday, somebody somewhere is playing for a beer barrel, an old oaken bucket, a little brown jug, a golden egg, a silver spade, a keg of nails or even a 320-pound, eight-foot-tall Indian. Ah, the simple joys of college football. The College Football Association once put out a list of 52 so-called "trophy games." It includes four Victory Bells, three Peace..."

Now I want to know those 52 trophy games.

(02-24-2019 02:26 AM)esayem Wrote:  Now I want to know those 52 trophy games.

A whole bunch of trophies are listed here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NC...alry_games

I've looked, but I've never been able to find a list. I can indentify who was I-A, but not which were CFA.

The poster above is right that the MAC and Big West were not members.

Most indies were, but not all. I don't think the former SLC schools were. Note that the poster above lists ULL as an "associate member."

Ivy League schools I think were.
West Texas A&M *
New Mexico State *
Wichita State *
Southern Illinois *
Indiana State *
Illinois State *
All a member of MVC but as Independent in football. *
Akron was Independent
Colgate independent *
ECU *
Hawaii *
Holy Cross *
Lousville *
Memphis *
North Texas
Richmond *
Tennessee State
Tulsa *
Appalachian State
UNLV *
Utah State
Villanova *
William & Mary *
citadel *
Drake *
East Tennessee State
Furman *
Lamar
McNeese State
Chattanooga *
Western Carolina *
UTA
VMI *
Taken out MAC, Big West and Southland?

Some schools were in conferences like Southern when they were independent. That is before conferences like Patriot and CAA formed.
The * symbol could represent teams that are or were in former strong conferences with history. Citadel and VMI were treated as the same as the three larger military schools. Now, we need to find which of these schools are actually part of the CFA back then.

(02-24-2019 02:26 AM)esayem Wrote:  My guess, in the 80's you had:

ACC-8
Big 8
SEC-10
SWC-9
WAC-9

So that's 44.

Army, Navy, Notre Dame, Penn State, Syracuse, BC, Pitt, WVU, Temple, Rutgers, VaTech, SC, FSU, Miami, Tulane, USL, Tulsa, Memphis, Louisville, Cincinnati, ECU, So. Miss

That's 66. I imagine once Arkansas State and Louisiana-Monroe moved to 1-A, they were members. It seems the MAC and the Big West/PCC were not members, but the independent schools were.


Louisiana-Lafayette "USL is an associate member of the College Football Association" 1986

I found this interesting bit from 1992:

"Almost every fall Saturday, somebody somewhere is playing for a beer barrel, an old oaken bucket, a little brown jug, a golden egg, a silver spade, a keg of nails or even a 320-pound, eight-foot-tall Indian. Ah, the simple joys of college football. The College Football Association once put out a list of 52 so-called "trophy games." It includes four Victory Bells, three Peace..."

Now I want to know those 52 trophy games.

The inclusion of a "keg of nails" on the list of trophies indicates that Louisville and Cincinnati were part of the CFA in 1992.