Don't know where we'll end up but really feel confident Samantha will lead the way. Had a chance to talk with her last week for about 25 minutes before she went out for the Final Four---she is a natural leader for the Tribe.

If Hofstra leaves I bet they get replaced by Stony Brook. That is the easiest thing to do and gets the CAA back up to 6 all sports members that play football. Assuming Nova and Richmond stay with their CAA brethren, this assures the CAA a solid 8 team football league no matter what happens with the American East northern affiliates in the future. Stony Brook gets to be in an all sports conference so its a win win.

To ease possible Stony Brook travel concerns add UNCG and UMBC to get to divisions. Play only 3 interdivisional road games.

This way the northern schools would only have to make a trip to the Carolinas once a year. Year 1 they go to UNCG/Elon in 1 road swing and the other year they go to CoC/UNCW. For the far northern schools, the 3rd road game against a VA school could be paired with a road game against either Towson or UMBC.

(04-03-2018 01:57 PM)solohawks Wrote:  If Hofstra leaves I bet they get replaced by Stony Brook. That is the easiest thing to do and gets the CAA back up to 6 all sports members that play football. Assuming Nova and Richmond stay with their CAA brethren, this assures the CAA a solid 8 team football league no matter what happens with the American East northern affiliates in the future. Stony Brook gets to be in an all sports conference so its a win win.

To ease possible Stony Brook travel concerns add UNCG and UMBC to get to divisions. Play only 3 interdivisional road games.

This way the northern schools would only have to make a trip to the Carolinas once a year. Year 1 they go to UNCG/Elon in 1 road swing and the other year they go to CoC/UNCW. For the far northern schools, the 3rd road game against a VA school could be paired with a road game against either Towson or UMBC.

Expanding to 12 teams in the one bid era seems counterproductive from a men’s basketball perspective. Almost wonder if have not leagues should be conspiring to reorganize into 8 team conferences to counter Power 5 going to 20 game conference schedules. Strategy: achieve more NCAA and NIT auto bids.

If/when Hofstra departs would want replacement to be a fit and not a bandaid. Geography is a consideration and a complex one. Read a Davidsonian article from last year where school leaders thought A10 exposure was assisting grads with employment opportunities beyond Charlotte and Atlanta. Trade off was that athletes found extra travel added stresses to being an athlete and a student.

If W&M enrollment, recruiting, placement, and donations don’t measureably benefit from adding a school that is a lengthy bus ride away, other factors should have greater significance in the replacement decision.

As a Tribe fan would like other metrics to figure prominently. Would like to see average league entrance requirement standards elevated by any new member. And don’t want new member’s athletic budget characteristics (either size or weighting to a particular sport — especially the one with the large round ball — to put our program at a disadvantage).