After the realignment of the Quebec–Ontario Athletic Association, Ontario Intercollegiate Athletic Association and Ottawa-St. Lawrence Conference in 1971, the Quebec Universities Athletic Association was born. The league began with 8 teams and, despite the name, one was located in Ontario (Royal Military College). The inaugural postseason tournament included four teams with all games being single-elimination. The league began to contract almost immediately when Montreal suspended play after just one season. RMC left after the second year and, although they were replace by Macdonald, that reprieve lasted for just one year. The conference briefly included a quarterfinal round but, with both Macdonald and Sherbrooke leaving after 1974, the conference abandoned that format. One year later, Loyola and Sir George Williams merged, leaving the QUAA with four members schools.
Before the start of the 1975–76 season, Laval restarted its program, bringing the league back up to five teams. At this point, the league shifted their postseason format so that all rounds were best-of-three. One year later, the conference appeared to have stabilized when they added Quebec–Chicoutimi. After being penalized for using an ineligible player in 1977, Laval suspended play for a full year before returning. In their absence, the conference expanded the final series into a best-of-five format. The addition of Ottawa in 1979 brought the conference nearly back to what they had at the start but the gains were short-lived.
In 1982, Bishop's suspended its program and Laval followed suit a year later. While the conference was barely holding together at this point, the playoffs were still expanded to be best-of-five for all series, though that format lasted for one tournament. After Quebec–Chicoutimi suspended its program in 1986, the conference lasted just one more year before all existing members were absorbed into the Ontario University Athletic Association. The final championship for the conference was a best-of-seven series.
