The University will help open the Colonial Athletic Association football era next fall, facing the College of William and Mary in a night game to be played Thursday, Aug. 30, at Zable Stadium in historic Williamsburg, Va.

All of UD’s longtime gridiron foes in the Atlantic 10 Conference switched affiliations this season, making CAA football a reality and bringing all Fightin’ Blue Hens varsity athletics programs under one conference banner.

Not only are the 2007 Hens playing in a new football conference, they are playing in a newly renamed classification. Beginning late last year, NCAA Division I-AA was renamed the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, reflecting the fact that schools in the subdivision face one another in a playoff tournament format to determine a champion.

The CAA is expected to remain among the elite Football Championship Subdivision conferences in the nation. Teams now part of the CAA have won two national championships in the last four years, with UD capturing the title in 2003 and James Madison University in 2004. Last year, the University of Massachusetts played in the title game but fell 28-17 to Appalachian State University.

Head Coach K.C. Keeler, whose Blue Hens finished 5-6 in 2006, will return for his sixth season. Despite the rocky 2006 season, UD fans turned out in force once again, ranking second in the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision with 21,825 fans per game. Total attendance reached 152,773, third in the classification behind the University of Montana and Appalachian State.

The support of UD fans did not go unnoticed, with columnist Charles Burton of the College Sporting News ranking them No. 1. “Delaware earned the top spot in 2006 with the combination of everything,” Burton writes. “The constant home sellouts. The band. The dance team. The lunatic fans. The guy in the chicken outfit. The tailgating. The atmosphere. The fact that the state of Delaware is centered around Delaware football. There’s no doubt about it: Delaware earned their No. 1 spot this year over fierce competition.”

For ticket information, see [www.udel.edu/sportsinfo/tickets/index.html].