This season will be the last one that the Stony Brook University football team plays in the Big South Conference.

The school announced on Tuesday that it has accepted an invitation from the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), which the team will be a part of beginning with the fall 2013 season.

“Today is a proud day for Stony Brook University as we continue to elevate our intercollegiate athletics program to higher levels of excellence,” Stony Brook University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr. said in a press release.  “Moving our football program into the CAA aligns us with the elite academic and athletic institutions in the Football Championship Subdivision.”

Stony Brook is not the only school that is an all-sports member of the America East Conference that will be a part of the CAA. Also present will be the University at Albany, the University of New Hampshire and the University of Maine. Many of the other schools are in the Chesapeake Bay area. With entrance into the CAA, the Seawolves will automatically be eligible to win a conference championship and a bid into the NCAA Division I Football Championship.

The CAA has had a recent history of success in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Since 2007, two of its teams have been national champions and four have appeared in the national championship game.

Along with athletic success, the CAA is also noteworthy for its emphasis on academics for the student-athletes. In the last three years, 10 of its programs achieved NCAA Public Recognition Awards for being in the top 10 percent of the FCS in the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rating System.