RE: The CAA schools hate each other - Article
Sorry, I don't care what the SoCon is doing right now, it's a long term loser.
The Citadel, VMI, Samford, Mercer, Western Carolina? And, they just lost the head coaches of the two best schools at UNCG and Wofford? Whatever stupid FloSports deal that was made will come to an end, but the crappy schools in the SoCon will remain.
UNCW would immediately be the biggest school in the conference along with UNCG(who, btw, I was putting out as a future CAA team when they sucked, and was told by everyone here they weren't good enough. And now all the sudden UNCG is a better job than UNCW?). WCU is getting a bump right now because the legislature lowered their tuition to $500 which really helps them scholarship players, but that isn't going to last forever. It's a bad location in the middle of nowhere.
Wofford 1773 students
VMI 1772
Furman 2692
Citadel 3623
Samford 5792
Mercer 9092
ETSU 9151
Chattanooga 11,728
WCU 12,243
UNCG 19,674
The smallest schools in the CAA are Elon and William and Mary
Elon 6991
William and Mary 8817
CofC 10,783
Hofstra 10,871
UNCW 17,500
NU 21,627
JMU 21,787
Drexel 22,412
Towson 22,923
Delaware 23,381
Size of schools matters in athletic conferences because it has a direct impact on funding. UNCW is also trending to 25,000 students by the end of this decade. It's laughable to think the SoCon is a better long term conference plan for UNCW than the CAA or even the A10. A N/S division for the CAA is far better than the Patriot for any CAA school or the SoCon for any CAA school. Both are a step down.
And regardless what anyone else thinks, I see the CAA trending upward. Hofstra and NU were an anchor on CAA basketball at the beginning, and both are solid year in and year out now. Elon is trending up with a new basketball arena and a new coach. UNCW has been a traditonal power and should be on the rise. CofC lost a good coach but picked up a good coach. JMU has a good new coach. CofC picked up one of the best head coaches in the SoCon, which should tell you which conference that coach considered to be better. The fact is, there wasn't a single coaching job in the SoCon that could pay what CofC paid.
I know Mullet is gleefully leading the UNCW/CAA sucks parade with his return, but all this doom and gloom is ridiculous.
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