(02-28-2018 10:34 AM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote: (02-28-2018 09:50 AM)solohawks Wrote: (02-28-2018 09:35 AM)70shawk Wrote: (02-28-2018 12:25 AM)solohawks Wrote: Here is the information via the internet archive. The site that hosted the original material is no longer active
https://web.archive.org/web/201504290711...n-efforts/
That's a great find and an impressive e-mail trail.
It seems to reinforce my thinking about how dependent the school presidents were on Tom Yeager for information (and how Yeager asked them to disregard "rumors" - ie, information that didn't come from him), and little Yeager really knew about the shifting state of conference realignment and about him being "blind sided" by where particular schools were coming from during the process.
It also seemed to me that the CAA office had an unrealistically exalted view of how attractive a home the CAA might be to various institutions. Yeager never could do anything to get TV deals and TV money to the CAA, and conference realignment has been basically all about trying to get more money. So it looks like he was talking to all kinds of schools, clueless that he was a lot of peoples' second or third option - and taken aback when at least one of the CAA schools left for more A-10 money and exposure.
I took it kind of the other way. It seemed to me the Presidents were directing Yeager to look at unrealistic candidates like George Washington and getting Richmond and VCU to return. For all his faults, I think Yeager did a good job considering the tools he had to work with. Every time he had something put together, something happened, like Richmond going to the A10 has the CAA was literally about to announce an major expansion with SoCon schools. He kept the league alive when it was down to 6 members and got football under the CAA banner to provide stability to schools like JMU and William and Mary. We had excellent TV coverage for a league of our stature under his tenure. His biggest fault, in my opinion, was that he could never land Davidson.
Had the schools listened to Yeager we would have divisions by now and wouldn't be such a mishmash of schools trying to make it work.
Meh. If preserving a league with an acceptable slate of decent teams is considered a success story, I guess Yeager is a success. But that seems like his main job. Preventing a league from breaking up is not particularly easy, but it isn't a reason to really praise him.
The league never got the media exposure it COULD have because his vision for the league was skewed towards schools in big media markets. Sure, there was a high ceiling there IF the teams were wildly successful, but also a very low floor, which we're seeing today.
Yeager also never could decide whether to put most of the eggs in the football or basketball basket. Clearly, the latter should have been the case, since very few people care about FCS Football. When you have FCS schools desperately trying to get into the FBS any way they can, that's evidence enough that the FCS is not desirable.
Had we decided early on to be a basketball-first conference, while also making baseball a priority, we'd probably be in much better shape. We'd be more of a poor man's A-10 instead of a conference that's basically in no-man's land today. Instead of competing for multiple bids on a consistent basis, we're just a plain old 1-bid league. That's not a great legacy he left behind.
I gotta dispute that. Overall, Yeager did a good job. Look at what we have now for a bad job. Yeager would not have allowed the embarrassment that was this season's media deal to happen.
When Richmond slammed a chair in the back of the CAA's head when they weren't looking, the SoCon merger fell apart and the CAA was in a bad spot. No SoCon school was going to join at that point. The remaining 6 tried to merge with the American East and got rejected. While the league wasn't in trouble of losing its auto bid, as 6 teams was the minimum required at the time, a 6 team league that just lost 3 members does not breed stability. They had to act.
Who would have joined the CAA in the early 2000's. Not SoCon schools, not CUSA schools, not A10 schools. I guess we could have taken on schools like Liberty, Coastal, Radford, Winthrop and Ashville from the Big South, but I don't think that would have inspired any stability, particularly with football schools JMU and W&M. Hampton was out there too but again, the pickings to stay below the Mason Dixon line were very very slim.
Getting American East schools was literally the only realistic option, and Delaware was the kingmaker. Looking back UNCW was extremely lucky the American East turned down the merger or would either be making annual trips to Maine or be in the Big South. If we were in the Big South during our prime period, I don't think it would have turned out as well as it did as our NCAA seeding would have been horrendous.
In order to get Delaware you had to make a push to get football, as that is why they wanted out of the American East. Delaware wanted to be in an all sports conference that included football. That meant taking on Hofstra (a football school at the time) and Towson as well as Delaware's little buddy Drexel. I imagine there was push to go ahead and add Northeastern (another football school at the time) initially as well so football could be launched right away. I suspect UNCW got that delayed until another southern school could be added. This makes sense as Northeastern was added as soon as Ga St became the southern school willing to join. I suspect UNCW really wanted Charleston but had to compromise once Charleston made it clear they wanted to stay in the SoCon with Davidson.
Understanding all this and what Yeager was left with, its no wonder he emphasized major markets. Its the only card he had. I don't believe that was his goal in expansion initially, it is just how it turned out. It actually worked out for a while on the TV front as the majority of our schools were in Comcast markets, making it a great fit for their RSN's, thereby keeping the CAA's solid regional TV footprint and eventually some national coverage on NBC Sports Network.
What sucks is their are now better options for all CAA schools. But that would require the American East and CAA to work together, along with the SoCong taking a hit, which just isn't going to happen.
The American East should take the 5 northern CAA schools and Monmouth and become a 14 team all sports conference that is the king of FCS football in the Northeast.
The 5 remaining CAA schools should then add Furman, Wofford, UNCG, UNCA, and Winthrop. With Richmond as an affiliate an FCS football league could be formed and the CAA would be in the dominant FCS conference in VA, NC, and SC with a major focus on basketball being maintained.