The Atlantic 10 Conference (A-10) is a college athletic conference which operates mostly on the United States' eastern seaboard. It also has two member schools in Ohio: Dayton and Xavier, located in Dayton and Cincinnati, respectively. Another member, Saint Louis is located in St. Louis, Missouri. Virginia Commonwealth, located in that state's capital of Richmond, and Butler, located in Indianapolis, will join the A-10 on July 1, 2012. Although some of its members are state-funded, more than half of its membership is made up of private, Catholic institutions. Despite the name, there are 17 partial or full-time members: 15 basketball and other sports, and two affiliate members that participate in women's field hockey only.

The Atlantic 10 Conference was founded in 1975 as the Eastern Collegiate Basketball League (ECBL), and began conference play in 1976. At that time, basketball was its only sport. After its first season, it added sports other than basketball and changed its name to the Eastern Athletic Association. However, despite its official names, it was popularly known as the Eastern 8, as it then had eight members (Villanova, Duquesne, Penn State, West Virginia, George Washington, Massachusetts, Pittsburgh, and Rutgers).