(01-13-2022 02:21 PM)Blue_Trombone Wrote:  Maybe the A10 convinced Fordham or La Salle to finally leave? But even then I'd put a less than 1 percent chance on that.

I was gonna joke about this. It would certainly be a surprise!

(01-13-2022 07:30 AM)Blue_Trombone Wrote:  

(01-13-2022 04:33 AM)All4One Wrote:  The Colonial. Where you go when you don't plan on being anything better.

Maybe? Although JMU, ODU, Georgia State, VCU, GMU, Richmond, and ECU were all a part of the conference there at one time, and those teams certainly wanted something better (and got it). I guess that might explain the attitude of what's leftover tho

Yeah, but I'm not so sure those schools ever would've joined the Colonial if the eventual exit was going to involve burnt bridges.

(01-13-2022 01:53 PM)ccd494 Wrote:  

(01-13-2022 01:25 PM)whittx Wrote:  Only if it is accompanied by a Hockey East invite.

Are we sure that Quinnipiac prefers Hockey East to ECACHL at this point?

Either way, Northeastern is the only CAA school in Hockey East. I don't think they would have the sway to get that invite to occur if it didn't already exist.

But Maine and New Hampshire (both CAA football members) are in HE as well.

(01-13-2022 02:30 PM)whittx Wrote:  

(01-13-2022 01:53 PM)ccd494 Wrote:  

(01-13-2022 01:25 PM)whittx Wrote:  Only if it is accompanied by a Hockey East invite.

Are we sure that Quinnipiac prefers Hockey East to ECACHL at this point?

Either way, Northeastern is the only CAA school in Hockey East. I don't think they would have the sway to get that invite to occur if it didn't already exist.

But Maine and New Hampshire (both CAA football members) are in HE as well.

Neither have any say over who the CAA admits to the all-sport league, and Quinnipiac doesn't have a football team.

Might the "surprise" school be Queens University?

Previously it had been reported as a school the CAA was analyzing

(01-13-2022 05:33 PM)solohawks Wrote:  Might the "surprise" school be Queens University?

Previously it had been reported as a school the CAA was analyzing

I am 100% convinced that the source of that report was Queens University itself, not the CAA.

Well the original names put out there a few months ago were Monmouth, Marist, Howard. So those 3 and we figure southern schools for the other 2. UNCG, Winthrop, Hampton (but none of those names surprise me).

Is Marist a surprise to Matt?

I don't recall Marist ever being in the discussion

(01-13-2022 06:05 PM)TDenverFan Wrote:  I don't recall Marist ever being in the discussion

yeah, they were. go back on here to who knows when it was now, Nov? and they were on that list of 3. It was also linked w/ talk of Charleston moving back to the SoCon.

(01-13-2022 10:38 AM)MattBrownEP Wrote:  Anyway, I can confirm the original Monmouth rumor...hearing this is actually for all sports. This is part of a much larger expansion plan that would bring the CAA to 14 basketball schools...I'll share the full list as soon as I can get it confirmed by everybody. There was a surprising ( to me, anyway) name on it.

My guess:

Fairfield
Monmouth
Howard
Hampton
High Point (the surprise)

The question I would have is do Hampton and Howard also join CAA-Football and the conference gets to 14 football schools or do they join the MEAC as a football-only school? The MEAC doesn’t send a team to the FCS playoffs so I do not think the AQ matters for them, but I am sure they would still like to keep more than 6 football members.

(01-13-2022 08:55 AM)Sitting bull Wrote:  

(01-12-2022 05:41 PM)ShakeNBake Wrote:  UNCG and Winthrop would be good. Would help travel for Elon, UNCW, CofC and W&M.

At least one of any southern new members would have to include football in my view. A full, all sports member. Replace Winthrop with VMI or Furman, would be optimal.

If Monmouth joins for all sports, the all sports core would become:
W&M
Elon
Delaware
Towson
Monmouth

As mentioned, Monmouth for football only makes no sense for the CAA.

Does it make sense for football to even be associated with the Colonial name?

Colonial football has 6 northern schools that don't play Colonial basketball, and Colonial basketball has 3 northern schools that don't play Colonial football.

Only 4 of 9 CAA are in for basketball and football; and only 4 of 11 Colonial football are in for basketball and football.

(01-13-2022 06:43 PM)jimrtex Wrote:  

(01-13-2022 08:55 AM)Sitting bull Wrote:  

(01-12-2022 05:41 PM)ShakeNBake Wrote:  UNCG and Winthrop would be good. Would help travel for Elon, UNCW, CofC and W&M.

At least one of any southern new members would have to include football in my view. A full, all sports member. Replace Winthrop with VMI or Furman, would be optimal.

If Monmouth joins for all sports, the all sports core would become:
W&M
Elon
Delaware
Towson
Monmouth

As mentioned, Monmouth for football only makes no sense for the CAA.

Does it make sense for football to even be associated with the Colonial name?

Colonial football has 6 northern schools that don't play Colonial basketball, and Colonial basketball has 3 northern schools that don't play Colonial football.

Only 4 of 9 CAA are in for basketball and football; and only 4 of 11 Colonial football are in for basketball and football.

Someone has got to do it. The football conference isn't going to add the expense of setting up its own league office and staff. It's going to share a commissioner and administrative expenses with an all sports league. The CAA gets the benefit of having any team it adds pretty much walk right into CAA Football if need be. America East doesn't get that benefit despite having the same number of members in the football league. That isn't to say that AE is salivating over taking over league administration, just that it isn't completely without perks for the CAA.

(01-13-2022 10:17 AM)ibby10 Wrote:  

(01-13-2022 09:32 AM)Cruhawk Wrote:  

(01-13-2022 02:27 AM)NJcollegehoopsGUY Wrote:  As a Monmouth fan, I hope they only move to CAA for football at the moment. Since CAA-Football is a different organization than the CAA for other sports, this seems like a safer decision than moving all sports over. I am not confident in the CAA will remain intact over the next year. There is no common identity among members and I could imagine some of the southern members flaking to the A-10 (Charleston?) or SoCon or ASUN. Until there is more clarity on that front, I hope basketball stays put in the MAAC. Plus, with the rise of Iona because of Pitino, it could be good for Monmouth. Being the #2 in a league with a nationally recognized program could be the better for recruiting and branding...especially if they win some games against them. Who knows, if the MAAC commish had any ambition, maybe the MAAC could grab Hofstra during this time of turbulence for the CAA and get to 12 members themselves.

I have been thinking about this identity crisis issue within the CAA for some time (Matt Brown had an excellent Extra Points newsletter about this last year before realignment). The Conference is definitely in a bind since they have a wide variety of members of varying characteristics that can create fissures:

• Geography - North vs Mid-Atlantic vs South
• Funding/Regulatory Constraints - Public vs Private
• Institutional Focus/Culture - Research/Science vs Liberal Arts/Humanities
• Membership Status - Full Members vs Affiliates
• Sports Sponsorship - Football vs Non-football playing members
• Athletic Department strengths/focus - Football vs Basketball (Along with Hockey to an extent with the America East affiliates)
  

Based on this, I can't help but feel like there are too many opportunities for the CAA to eventually splinter after schools get tired of having to appease conference members they have little in common with.

Part of me thinks the America East football affiliates (Stony Brook, Albany, UNH, Maine) might get tired of traveling south for conference games and attempt to poach URI and Delaware to join them in the America East so they can restart football in an more New England/North East centered footprint (with Villanova and/or Richmond as football affiliates).

Or maybe some of the non-football schools on the conference's outer range like College of Charleston and Northeastern get tired of the travel for Olympic sports and look to join something closer regionally or with less football influence.

Bottom line, it feels like the CAA is bound for some kind of fracture to happen among its membership, it seems more like a loose confederation than a united conference. I'd wager that the CAA eventually loses its AE football affiliates and non mid-Atlantic (ie its historic core" in VA, MD, DE, and maybe NC) with members get plucked by other conferences based on geography.

Agree with most. Except the bold part above. Traveling south twice a year for football to play other premier FCS programs is not that bad. I am pretty sure we want to continue playing in the best northeast/mid-Atlantic FCS football conference with regular multiple at large bids, instead of breaking it up. The tension is in the all sports side of CAA. The 4 AE schools in the CAA FB are very happy with the current arrangement, and I’m sure so are NOVA, Delaware and Towson. The alternate options are all diluted weaker FCS football arrangements. If CAA breaks up, the CAA FB will most likely stay intact and move under a different conference umbrella.

I get that argument, but FWIW id say many of the football powers (sans JMU since they're a huge outlier) in the CAA over the past few years are the AE affiliates themselves (UNH, Albany, Maine to an extent). And considering that Delaware and URI are both relatively close and fit the AE's membership mold of New England and Northeastern public state flagships/research powers (as would Nova if it was public), I don't think it would be unrealistic for them to at least consider jumping ship for AE football depending on how realignment further affects the CAA.

I’d say Fairfield, Monmouth, Howard, Stony Brook, High Point.

I think the CAA wants to try and rejigger its focus on the New York metro area with this move. You’d have Fairfield, Monmouth, Stony Brook and Hofstra in the Tri-State area, Howard, the wealthiest HBCU for DC (plus a home team for the conference tournament), and High Point as a fast-growing private in NC a lot like Elon, in the same area creating rivalry.

These could be the divisional alignments:

North:

Northeastern
Fairfield
Hofstra
Stony Brook
Monmouth
Drexel
Delaware

South:

Towson
Howard
W&M
High Point
Elon
UNCW
CofC

Play 20 conference games, 2 against each in your division, 1 against the other division, play one team in the other division every year twice.

CofC would only have to fly to BWI in division, Northeastern to the two Philly area schools.

(01-13-2022 09:58 PM)sctvman Wrote:  I’d say Fairfield, Monmouth, Howard, Stony Brook, High Point.

I think the CAA wants to try and rejigger its focus on the New York metro area with this move. You’d have Fairfield, Monmouth, Stony Brook and Hofstra in the Tri-State area, Howard, the wealthiest HBCU for DC (plus a home team for the conference tournament), and High Point as a fast-growing private in NC a lot like Elon, in the same area creating rivalry.

These could be the divisional alignments:

North:

Northeastern
Fairfield
Hofstra
Stony Brook
Monmouth
Drexel
Delaware

South:

Towson
Howard
W&M
High Point
Elon
UNCW
CofC

Play 20 conference games, 2 against each in your division, 1 against the other division, play one team in the other division every year twice.

CofC would only have to fly to BWI in division, Northeastern to the two Philly area schools.

Agreed except for Howard. Not because of Howard per se, but I thought Howard itself was interested in keeping the MEAC going? If Howard pulled out when FB membership was at 6, and full membership at 8, that would effectively put MEAC football out to pasture since willing and able HBCU replacements for the MEAC are slim pickings.

In any case, I'd swap Howard for either Winthrop or UNC Greensboro for that reason, also so College of Charleston has a travel partner. Outside of that I think you've got it.

College of Staten Island?

It is transitioning to DII, presumably to demonstrate its independence from the remainder of NYC. If Staten Island were to become independent the university might switch to SUNY.

And it could conceivably have the community support for football.

Matt Brown did say it was a surprise.

Well, to be fair, it was a surprise to ME. It might not be a surprise to you. I don't follow CAA football as closely as some of you all do.

I got word last night from the relevant leagues that the rumors are a bit ahead of official paperwork and whatnot, so I'd be very surprised if anything breaks today, or maybe even next week. I don't THINK CAA officials are going to the NCAA convention, which makes me think they all have lots and lots of paperwork to do.

I'm not trying to be vague or anything to be a jerk. I just want to make sure I'm right before I throw stuff out there with my name on it or get a school to angrily call me or something

(01-14-2022 09:24 AM)MattBrownEP Wrote:  Well, to be fair, it was a surprise to ME. It might not be a surprise to you. I don't follow CAA football as closely as some of you all do.

I got word last night from the relevant leagues that the rumors are a bit ahead of official paperwork and whatnot, so I'd be very surprised if anything breaks today, or maybe even next week. I don't THINK CAA officials are going to the NCAA convention, which makes me think they all have lots and lots of paperwork to do.

I'm not trying to be vague or anything to be a jerk. I just want to make sure I'm right before I throw stuff out there with my name on it or get a school to angrily call me or something

AHA! So the surprise team has football?

(01-14-2022 10:36 AM)jcohen42 Wrote:  

(01-14-2022 09:24 AM)MattBrownEP Wrote:  Well, to be fair, it was a surprise to ME. It might not be a surprise to you. I don't follow CAA football as closely as some of you all do.

I got word last night from the relevant leagues that the rumors are a bit ahead of official paperwork and whatnot, so I'd be very surprised if anything breaks today, or maybe even next week. I don't THINK CAA officials are going to the NCAA convention, which makes me think they all have lots and lots of paperwork to do.

I'm not trying to be vague or anything to be a jerk. I just want to make sure I'm right before I throw stuff out there with my name on it or get a school to angrily call me or something

AHA! So the surprise team has football?

That would seem to indicate that CAA football is going above 12.

Since a 14 team all sports CAA would mean 5 new schools, then I would assume at least 3 of them have football

Both the CAA proper and CAA football would be at 14 if this upcoming CAA expansion was 3 football schools and 2 non football schools

Unless a team like Stony Brook is getting an all sports invite, that would change the calculus a bit

I'd still be surprised at Stony Brook. Not shocked, but surprised.

Wonder if there is some sort of deal in the works that America East essentially waives any SBU exit fees in exchange for the CAA admitting CCSU football, which would free up CCSU to join America East.