(02-20-2019 11:19 AM)NC Tribe Wrote: "Am unsure anyone can make a compelling case for CAA at this juncture."
I can think of three
1. Best men's basketball conference we have been invited to join, A-10 is better, but haven't been invited.
2. Best FCS football conference in country
3. Member schools in states important for recruitment of student athletes and regular students. The Northeast is a critical region.
Finally, I could care less what the academic reputations are of other school's in the Tribe's conference. I don't want the Tribe to be the best football or hoops team among the nerd herd. I want the Tribe to be the best of the best. If that means playing other state schools that have 30,000 students, that is fine with me. Just beat them.
As noted earlier, five schools in the CAA don’t field football teams. Three or four of these programs tend to congregate at the top of the league. The Tribe record against these schools is now 4 - 6 this season. These programs are able to skew resources to men’s basketball. I won’t argue causation; I do think it’s not a coincidence. This structure will lend itself to seasons like this. Fortunately there is less disappointment than three games ago and three wins in March turns disappointment into a glorious year.
On rare occasions these discussions drift to other topics. I’ve never been responsible for this, but it does happen:). In response to above it’s worth noting that an alternate viewpoint is that W&M was not invited to join the CAA, but along with JMU and Towson (with an asterisk for a hiatus), was a party to its formation. The present league/other members had nothing to do with W&M’s membership. W&M belongs due to an earlier effort to shape its own destiny.
One nice thing about the league at this point is that the Tribe is reasonably competitive despite structural disadvantages. But there are a lot of warts. We can watch SOCON, Patriot League, America East, MAAC, and Big South basketball on television. The CAA, meanwhile remains on double secret probation. And if cable cutters are flocking to CAA tv, wouldn’t we have heard about it? If we’re inclined to look down our noses at the SOCON, we should at least acknowledge it may garner an at large bid before the CAA does. The best thing the CAA has going for it at this juncture are budding rivalries; some are tenuous.
CAA FCS football strength is legitimate. Data indicating CAA games generate more ticket sales or fan interest than Patriot League or SOCON games would be useful to know. The JMU game sells. Loss of the Delaware game to rotational scheduling is a negative. I don’t know how CAA membership factors into recruiting decisions. Do high school football players have the life long dream (or at least “safety dream”) of playing in the SEC of the FCS? My guess is that the academic reputation, annual FBS game and even new facilities are bigger draws. What is ironic of course is that a school need not be a member of the CAA to play CAA football. File for future reference.
Received an email this week indicating W&M has 500 students playing intercollegiate sports. I can be persuaded that competition with schools in the northeast could be a variable in the choice of college for some of these student-athletes. How many is another question. The issue is the overlap between the sports teams W&M fields and those fielded by, say, Hofstra and Northeastern. The impact may not be that great. I’m hard pressed to believe CAA membership factors into a selection decision by a non-athlete. The amount of publicity CAA athletics receives is marginal. If W&M hasn’t penetrated the consciousness of high school guidance counselors, the school is in more trouble than CAA membership can solve.
To give credit where credit is due, no members are on probation and no players’ shoes are exploding. House of cards? Shining city on a hill? Somewhere in between.
