Wasn't there some rumored interest in the CAA trying to go FBS as a conference before the NCAA shut down the ability to do that or to go FBS without a conference invite? Seems like that goal could've kept the conference on a more unified push to improve in football instead of eventually JMU being the only one that cared.

For basketball I'd say the demise was when VCU, GMU, ODU left. Before that the conference was becoming very strong well after RU left, it became a regular thing to expect multiple bids to be possible. Those three and a few others were sometimes in the mix, like in 2006 a lot of people thought Hofstra was more deserving than GMU. I think Northeastern got an at large once if I remember correctly. Then those three left and no one stepped up to contend for at large bids in their place.

Even as a bigger JMU basketball than football fan I'm happy with how things went. Hopefully basketball gets it together soon and I believe the SBC will improve. When it does, it's full of rivals I'm happy to be with. Hell with GMU and VCU, I'm glad to be back with ODU though.