(04-18-2022 08:53 AM)jcohen42 Wrote: (04-18-2022 07:43 AM)Sitting bull Wrote: Maybe this over reach leads to W&M and Delaware bolting for the Patriot League and take Richmond and Villanova along as football affiliates. At this point, it could be preferable with two more weak additions.
Does the Patriot League want Delaware? The Patriot has historically been pretty selective with who they add. Delaware does not fit their profile.
I tend to think, if W&M was going to leave, they would have left already. I wouldn't be surprised if they were one of the schools pushing the hardest for Howard. I really don't see W&M going anywhere.
Delaware has nowhere to go but up. If they're going to ditch the CAA, they have to commit the resources to prove that they are above the CAA.
I think the PL would jump at Delaware if available. They were once in the same league with Lehigh/Lafayette/Bucknell before they joined the Yankee/CAA.
This is all very fluid though I’m just speculating out what the CAA works would look like IF the expansion went to 16 and split divisions, as some have mentioned and strongly pushed here. I thought the CAA was solid at 12 (with SBU, Monmouth and Hampton adds), just two months ago. I think they should have stopped there.
Now, if the 16 became reality with a south Division, the speculated southern division would include the following:
W&M, Howard, Hampton, Elon, NC Central, UNCW, NC A&T and Charleston.
This group would become W&Ms primary core of athletic partners. There isn’t a single rival in the bunch. There’s not a single member there that W&M has any history beyond near 10 years of competition outside Hampton - and even Hampton has been a more recent opponent. I can’t imagine this would spark fan interest at W&M.
So I just can’t see that W&M would find this at all appealing. If they do, I guess they don’t think any of our past history, athletic rivals, academic associations, etc, mean anything.