The CAA is adding another member in North Carolina.

Elon is leaving the Southern Conference to join UNCW and eight other schools, according to a source. The university has scheduled a press conference for 2 p.m. Thursday. It’s unclear whether the membership begins in 2013-14 or 2014-15, although 2014-15 is more likely.

A Division I member since 1999, Elon left the Big South to join the Southern Conference in 2003. The Phoenix plays football at the FCS level and is coming off the best basketball season in the school’s Division I history, finishing 21-12 and winning the SoCon’s North Division. The Phoenix also has a consistently solid baseball program.

UNCW chancellor Gary Miller and athletic director Jimmy Bass are head of their respective councils in the CAA, which lost four schools in the last two years, including three in Virginia, home of the conference office. Elon is the second school from the Carolinas to join in the last year, joining College of Charleston which announced last fall it was leaving the Southern for the CAA effective in the 2013-14 season.

The private university, which has an excellent academic reputation and attracts athletes from outside the state, is in the town of Elon (formerly Elon College), near Burlington in the middle of the state.

Elon is the fifth school to leave the Southern in the last year. Appalachian State and Georgia Southern jumped to the Sun Belt to play football at the highest level. And the Southern’s premier men’s basketball program, Davidson, is joining VCU and George Mason in the Atlantic 10.

Albany is also considering an invitation from the CAA, but a university spokesman said they are still committed to the America East “at this time.” Their addition would give the CAA 11 members, six in a Baltimore – Boston corridor and five in the Carolinas and Virginia. Ideally, the conference would add one more southern member, creating two divisions for men’s basketball and a 16-team conference schedule. For example, under that scenario, UNCW would play Elon, College of Charleston, James Madison, William & Mary and the TBA Southern School home-and-home, and play the other six teams once, meaning only three trips to the North in a given season.

Schedules in other sports could also be restructured to reduce travel costs and missed class time, two CAA priorities in realignment that align with recommendations made by the IARC report at UNCW released last week.