(08-07-2022 11:31 AM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  I can see the CAA/F additions as a way of “restocking” the southern side of the conference. I just find it curious why *these* specific schools over others. And while I just knew Monmouth was building up for membership, now that we got there, I don’t understand why they got the full invitation, same with Stony Brook. Expansion, not replacements. Growth on both sides of the Mason-Dixon, and full memberships to boot. All while you have AmEast, A10, and Big East members in with football affiliations.

It’s just odd. And while this may be “the best they can do,” couldn’t they have just waited? What is prompting this growth? Why not just adding more affiliates?

You have to look at this expansion from the point of view of the all-sports members who have always wanted divisions. They did not want to have a round-robin in basketball where every team had to travel to every other team every season. It was not a positive situation. Affiliates do not solve this situation. If you need to understand anything about the CAA, know this: the 10-team CAA wasn't working, and the 9-team CAA was going to work even less.

Stony Brook has been a no-brainer add for a while, but allegedly Hofstra had been blocking them. For whatever the reason, that was no longer the case. It was always a matter of time before they joined, honestly.

Monmouth is not a peak school academically. But they've been building up their brand, and they're a school that a lot of students in the CAA North catchment area are aware of. That's a school that the CAA is happy to take on as a way to provide an additional bus trip to Delaware, Drexel, Hofstra, et al.

You ask why couldn't the conference have just waited. My answer is, why wait? The conference had the chance to go after what they wanted for a LONG time, and they seized that chance.