(01-16-2018 09:40 AM)ccd494 Wrote:  I realize that the point of this board is to perpetuate bonkers theories, but just to refute and clarify re: the AE and CAA.

1.) The name of the conference is "America East." Calling it "American East" is a pretty good sign you don't know what you are talking about.

2.) UVM or Hartford aren't these rogue holdouts who don't want AE to sponsor football because they don't sponsor the sport. Frankly, I bet they either don't care, or would love their basketball rivals to lose more money on football so they have an easier go in basketball. You know who are at the top of the list for not wanting a New England/New York based AE football conference? Maine, New Hampshire, Stony Brook and Albany. They love being in a conference with Delaware, Villanova, Richmond, JMU, etc. The CAA is one of the top two FCS football leagues. AE football wouldn't be. Maine, in particular, recruits New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia more than Massachusetts and the other New England states. They are in the football conference they want to be in.

3.) BU didn't kill AE football. Neither did Northeastern. You know what killed AE football? Delaware, Hofstra, Towson and Drexel leaving the league for the CAA. If they had stayed, the conference makeup for football would likely be identical but the banner would be "America East" not "CAA." When they left, the numbers shifted, and when the A-10 no longer had the most members, the CAA did. Either way, all schools are full members of the football conference. No affiliates.

4.) BU DID kill AE hockey. Word was that BC and Providence were okay with Hockey East becoming some version of America East, but BU had it's foot out the door already (or had dreams of leaving) and didn't want to sacrifice any of its power in the hockey league office.

5.) BU isn't keeping NU out of the Patriot- NU's academics and not so distant past as a commuter school are. BU is barely within the parameters of what the Patriot wants its members to be (if you squint) as the only large city school in the conference (BU is twice the size of American), Northeastern is BU with inferior academics. NU left the AE for the CAA when the CAA still had ODU, VCU and GMU and thought it was moving to a top flight basketball league. Obviously, that didn't shake out. They are still strivers though, and they aren't going to park their sports in the Patriot League that doesn't aspire to much athletically. BU left AE because they finally realized they weren't getting into the A-10. They wanted their sports to raise the school's profile, and when they realized that wasn't happening, they decided to leverage their decent athletics for an association with better educational institutions.

6.) Long story short, these are all one bid conferences in basketball and most other sports besides football, men's soccer, and ice hockey. Why the heck would they merge and make it harder for their members to get automatic bids? There's no huge check waiting for anyone if they combine and provide games for someone to air. The AE is a geographically compact group of northeast publics. You have the flagships of three small states (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont). You have the "second" state school of Massachusetts and Maryland. You have the three non-Buffalo D-I SUNYs. And there's Hartford who are a bit of an academic outlier but are a good league citizen. Maybe CCSU fits better, but they have nowhere to put football if they leave the NEC, so whatever.

Maybe Stony Brook or Albany gets a wandering eye thinking they could be FBS (not happening unless they get big donors, the state legislature isn't letting the money flow, and Binghamton's basketball scandal encouraged all three SUNYs to adopt a "stay in your lane" mentality with their athletics), but CAA doesn't get them much. Instead of beating each other and Vermont they would have to beat each other, UNCW and about six more schools to win the basketball league, and take a lot more flights to do it.

I would argue point 2.

After Richmond left, the remaining CAA 6 looked to the AEast for a new home. If that would have happened, the AEast could have taken over A10 football with Maine, UNH, Northeastern, Hofstra, Delaware, Towson, JMU, and William and Mary. Nova probably would have gone with Delaware and Richmond would have pushed to stay with the VA schools despite being an A10 member. The A10 didn't care about football anyways so I don't see them (UMass and URI) putting up much of a fight. The AEast was unable to absorb the CAA schools because the merger did not have the required 8 votes. Looking at the school makeup it is easy to see BU leading the way, with Vermont and Hartford, blocking the deal and thus keeping football out of the AEast. This caused the immediate departure of 3 football schools followed by the eventual departure of the 4th. UNH and Maine in particular got really jipped with the AEast not taking the CAA schools and not adding football.