I'm going to throw my hat in the ring with an option I've poo-pooed in the past - the CAA.

Consider this: the CAA has a NATIONAL television deal. Not regional like the OVC or A-Sun, but national on NBC Sports Network, which gets to some 60 million homes if memory serves. Their football league is on in the middle of the day Saturdays as a lead-in to the Mountain West game later that day. Their basketball games have been on quite a bit as well. That's likely to continue; NBC is really hard-up for primetime programming outside of the NHL, and the CAA is in a bunch of large markets along the East Coast.

Speaking of which, those markets would open up the entire Eastern Seaboard (and potentially more) to ETSU for recruiting. The CAA has basketball schools in New York (Hofstra), Boston (Northeastern), Philadelphia (Drexel), Baltimore (Towson), and Washington, D.C. (George Mason). What do we get from going to the OVC? Nashville? Maybe St. Louis? There is a lot of TV exposure to be had by playing there. The CAA also sponsors a lot more sports than the OVC and SoCon do, which we need to help create the gender equity to revive the football program. We can start up a field hockey or women's lacrosse or swimming & diving team without having to scramble to find a league for it to compete in. The CAA fits the needs our athletic footprint (both for existing and potential sports) better than the SoCon does, and significantly better than the OVC does. We still have schools reasonably close by - public schools like James Madison, William & Mary, UNC-Wilmington, and College of Charleston. Bear in mind, Sander was the AD who oversaw VCU's move to the league and dominance of it in the 1990s and early 2000s. I would most definitely consider him an influential figure in that league, and he might well have the clout to squeeze ETSU into the league.

Just some food for thought.

http://www.bloggingthebracket.com/2012/9...basketball

(03-11-2013 11:49 PM)Mister Consistency Wrote:  I'm going to throw my hat in the ring with an option I've poo-pooed in the past - the CAA.

Consider this: the CAA has a NATIONAL television deal. Not regional like the OVC or A-Sun, but national on NBC Sports Network, which gets to some 60 million homes if memory serves. Their football league is on in the middle of the day Saturdays as a lead-in to the Mountain West game later that day. Their basketball games have been on quite a bit as well. That's likely to continue; NBC is really hard-up for primetime programming outside of the NHL, and the CAA is in a bunch of large markets along the East Coast.

Speaking of which, those markets would open up the entire Eastern Seaboard (and potentially more) to ETSU for recruiting. The CAA has basketball schools in New York (Hofstra), Boston (Northeastern), Philadelphia (Drexel), Baltimore (Towson), and Washington, D.C. (George Mason). What do we get from going to the OVC? Nashville? Maybe St. Louis? There is a lot of TV exposure to be had by playing there. The CAA also sponsors a lot more sports than the OVC and SoCon do, which we need to help create the gender equity to revive the football program. We can start up a field hockey or women's lacrosse or swimming & diving team without having to scramble to find a league for it to compete in. The CAA fits the needs our athletic footprint (both for existing and potential sports) better than the SoCon does, and significantly better than the OVC does. We still have schools reasonably close by - public schools like James Madison, William & Mary, UNC-Wilmington, and College of Charleston. Bear in mind, Sander was the AD who oversaw VCU's move to the league and dominance of it in the 1990s and early 2000s. I would most definitely consider him an influential figure in that league, and he might well have the clout to squeeze ETSU into the league.

Just some food for thought.

I've always been pro CAA even without VCU and ODU and it's mainly because of the TV deal and the fact that the CAA has long been a very well respected conference. A conference that has received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament 5 times. Yes it was down this year and may be down for the next couple of years but I still think it's better than the Socon and Asun and has the opportunity to get better.