Delaware, James Madison, Old Dominion, and Georgia State need to break off with three basketball schools to keep their auto-bid. I recommend Virginia Commonwealth and George Mason. The third school, as much as I wish was UNCW, would probably be Hofstra due to the NYC presence. Or maybe not. I could see them waiting out an A10 invite with Northeastern, Drexel, and William & Mary. Towson, you say? Well they are near Baltimore. It could be between UNCW and Towson if a private school isn't interested.

Delaware- Have been good for a long time and have a big enough football stadium.

JMU- Big enough stadium. Anywhere Lefty Driesell coached has potential.

ODU- Wow, look at the football progress. Solid basketball program.

Georgia State- Former Sun Belt school. Banking on Georgia Dome and potential. Also see previous Lefty Driesell comment.

With those seven schools and an auto-bid in tact, the new league should invite Temple, Massachusetts, and Appalachian State. That's a ten team league with seven football schools.

Temple- Already FBS and are NCAA tournament regulars.

UMass- May need to add to football stadium or play a few home games at the Patriots place. Solid basketball program.

Appalachian State- Solid football and you can't go wrong with Buzz Peterson.

That's a ten school league with seven football schools. UNC Charlotte, Fordham, and Rhode Island could be in contention if the conference decides to look at twelve. Which I think would happen with more football schools.

Charlotte- Solid basketball program, and could possibly field an FBS team at some point.

Fordham- Wow, if this school spent the dough to bring football back to NYC look out! Basketball has been atrocious.

Rhode Island- Don't think they'll ever be in consideration for football, but as non-football member they round the north out rather nicely.

Going north-to-south, UMass, Fordham, Temple, Delaware, Towson, JMU, ODU, Charlotte, and Georgia State are the way to go. Towson would seem to be a stretch, but they just invested a lot in their facilities and their program is dead if they don't move with the rest, they have nowhere else to go. They fill the gap in the Baltimore/DC area nicely.

Don't invite anyone else. Leave room to expand if Army, Navy, and/or UCF should become interested in the future. Having too many teams is what's weighing down the A10 and CAA and preventing them from making aggressive maneuvers when opportunities arise.

I believe there would have to be seven CAA schools to retain an auto-bid for the dance, so if you add Towson with VCU and GMU that would work.

I believe this conference will need three bowl games already waiting for them to even make it worth the CAA's time to consider such a move as a conference or partial conference.

Egg Bowl in Norfolk, Georgia Bowl in Atlanta, and the Blizzard Bowl in Foxborough. There, now all is ready. Really the conference would hope for the DC Bowl or some new bowl games, I know it's a hard sell to move up with no bowl guarantees.

Oh, and it wouldn't be the CAA, it would be like the Mountain West when they broke away from the WAC. A made for TV conference with tradition and rivalries.

New Conference (all schools FBS and from CAA unless othwise indicated)
North:
Delaware
Fordham (from Atlantic 10)
James Madison
Massachusetts (from Atlantic 10/CAA football)
Temple (from Atlantic 10/MAC football)
Towson

South:
Appalachian State (from Southern)
Charlotte (from Atlantic 10)
Georgia State
UNC-Wilmington (non-football, to keep automatic bid)
Georgia Southern (from Southern)
Old Dominion

After seven years, UNC-Wilmington leaves for the SoCon and is joined by Kennesaw State of the Atlantic Sun, who bridges the gap between the Carolina schools, Samford, and Chattanooga. UNC-Wilmington is replaced by Stony Brook, and James Madison moves to the South Division. America East fills its vacancy with Indiana University of Pennsylvania from Division II.

At this point the America East, Atlantic 10, and Metro Atlantic Athletic team up to kill the remainder of the CAA, which sells its name on to the new conference.

Atlantic 10 (does not sponsor football)
West:
Dayton
Duquesne (plays FCS football in Northeast)
St. Bonaventure
St. Louis
Virginia Commonwealth (from CAA)
Xavier

East:
Drexel (from CAA)
George Mason (from CAA)
George Washington
Hofstra
NJIT (from Great West)
St. Joseph's

America East (sponsors FCS football)
Atlantic:
Albany
Binghamton (no football)
Richmond (from Atlantic 10/CAA football)
Stony Brook (football from Big South)
UMBC (no football)
William & Mary (from Atlantic 10/CAA football)
*Villanova (football only)

New England:
Boston University (no football)
Hartford (no football)
Maine
New Hampshire
Rhode Island (from Atlantic 10/CAA football)
Vermont (no football)

Metro Atlantic Athletic
North:
Canisius
Farifield
Marist
Niagara
Northeastern (from CAA)
Siena

South:
Drexel (from CAA)
Rider
Loyola-MD
Manhattan
Iona
St. Peter's

I think if UMass, Fordham, Temple, and Charlotte left, the A10 would look at Boston U, Hofstra, Drexel (or Butler), and William & Mary.

Thoughts, Last Minutemen? You seem to know the A10 well.

Boston University would be the A10's first pick if there were openings in the conference, particularly if UMass left. They were the third choice when the A10 added two members in 2005. The powers that currently control the A10 want private and preferably Catholic universities without football aspirations. The only way a state school is getting in there is if they have very strong men's basketball credentials. Butler is a popular choice among the Xavier/Dayton/St. Louis contingent, and they pretty much run the conference so they might have an inside track. Detroit is another name that doesn't get mentioned much but fits the A10's profile well. Hofstra and/or Siena have a shot if Fordham leaves.

But it's a hopeless conference ultimately doomed to irrelevance. I wish we could preserve the name for a new FBS conference, but we'll never pry all those crappy little schools out of there. This used to be the conference of Penn State, Pitt, West Virginia, Rutgers and Virginia Tech, along with UMass and Temple. Now it's WCC-East. The Catholic schools completely screwed up everything in the northeast.

Here's what I'd do...
The CAA trades 4 of their teams to the A10 for 6 of theirs:
OUT
Northeastern
Hofstra
Drexel
UNCW

IN
UMass
URI
Fordham
Temple
Richmond
Charlotte

The A10 could send UNCW to the BigSouth and add Butler and I think they'd be just fine and happy with the deal. You can throw in Boston and Detroit if you like (and if they'd come). That would give them (west to east, north to south):
St.Louis
Butler
Xavier
Dayton
Detroit
Duquesne
St.Bonnys
--------------
Boston
Northeastern
Hofstra
LaSalle
Drexel
St.Joes
George Washington

CAA would then have 14 teams under their all-sports umbrella:
UMass, URI, Fordham, Temple, Delaware, Towson, GMU
JMU, Richmond, VCU, W&M, ODU, Charlotte, Georgia St.

Under the conference hierarchy you'd have 2 FB leagues, the CAA for teams going the FBS route and the Yankee Conference for the schools remaining FCS.
The CAA (9):
UMass
Temple
Delaware
JMU
ODU
Georgia St.
Charlotte to come
Army and Navy as affiliates.

Yankee (8):
Maine
UNH
URI
Fordham
Villanova
Towson
Richmond
W&M
This would give the best of both worlds for members with the desire to move up because you could keep AQ status, maintain rivalries, and provide opportunies for FB expansion for GMU, VCU, and hopefully Charlotte.