When fellow in-state and Colonial Athletic Conference rival Old Dominion added football, it started some discussions about the sport at the Richmond school.

Fast forward a few years and the CAA Football conference is now poised to replace schools that dropped football, Northeastern and Hofstra, with Old Dominion and Georgia St. The conference still includes associate members (or technically, they just aren’t all-sports members of the CAA) with Maine, UNH, UMass, URI, Richmond and Villanova.

But there is still a strong group of CAA schools that are now in the league for both basketball, the primary sport, as well as football now: Delaware, Towson, JMU, W&M;, ODU, Georgia St.. Northern schools Northeastern and Hofstra recently dropped football. The primary advantage for the CAA having both schools was their football participation.

And with the shifting focus being on football, schools like VCU, GMU, Drexel and UNCW are wondering what the conference future is for them.

VCU is in a strong position to add football. They already have a stadium to play in, which was left over by the University of Richmond when they moved to Robbins Stadium. Fellow in-state school George Mason has also had some preliminary discussions of adding football, and has plenty of real estate to build a stadium.

Meanwhile, you have CAA schools without football sitting on the outskirts of the conference footprint: Northeastern (Boston), Hofstra (Long Island, NY), Drexel (Philadelphia), UNCW (Wilmington, NC).

Adding football at VCU and GMU would be a means for both schools to ensure that they remain connected to the rest of the all-sports schools. And with all the changes in the conference landscape, VCU and GMU might need to add football to remain up to speed with the rest of the CAA.