Institute division play in Olympic sports–
North–Boston Univ., Northeastern, Hofstra, Stony Brook, Drexel, DelawareSouth–Towson, George Mason, James Madison, William & Mary, UNC Wilmington, Coastal CarolinaFor football there are 10 members when you throw in the affiliates.  UNC Wilmington and the basketball schools stay happy

I would actually recommend Central Connecticut State as the replacement for Georgia State. This gives Northeastern a New England travel partner, one which plays football, and makes the Potomac River the dividing line between North and South again. Football-only status can go to Albany and Stony Brook.

This would put the CAA back at 12 for basketball, with 6 full-time football members, and 6 football-only members. It keeps Albany and Stony Brook together in the AEC for basketball alongside regional rivals like Maine and New Hampshire. It also prevents NY politicians from blocking a solo move by one school.

UNC Wilmington will cry like babies about being the sole Southern school again but let them go to the A-Sun if they don’t like it. The school is in an odd location and doesn’t have football. Not a good combination. Their travel partner will have to be ODU again, just like before 2005 when Northeastern and GSU joined.

It’s the “like-minded” that has changed so much. It used to mean schools that were public being with publics, private with privates. Rural state schools with other state schools while urban located schools with other urban located schools. But now, “like-minded” is about money. 
You have a tier of schools existing now that have fan support, facilities, revenue streams and success that is closer to the BCS level schools. The kicker is that they are spread out into different conferences. In the A10, you have Xavier, St. Louis, Dayton and until next year, Temple. You also have Richmond who fits some of these criteria now. In the CAA you had GMU (will be a test in years 2 and 3 without Coach L anymore) and for 3 coaches now, you have VCU. You also have Butler in that mix in the Horizon and Creighton in the MVC. What these school shave in common is that the benefit by being in a basketball conference together. Despite the runs by GMU and VCU, the conference champion, Drexel, was left out of the tournament, with the CAA as a 1 bid conference. In the best year ever for the CAA, they got 3 bids. In the A10, it’s been almost double that. This past year the A10 had 3 bids with a 4th sneaking in. Yet, the A10 was very average this year in performance…no schools were superstars like in the 90′s, when the conference got 4-5 bids some years due to UMass being #1 in the country, increasing the value of the other schools. As for VCU and GMU, I think they’d be in the A10 yesterday if it weren’t for some factors. And why not? GMU is in the DC media market, VCU in the city of Richmond.   You have GW in DC and Richmond in the city of Richmond as well. You have Xavier in Cincy, St. Joes and LaSalle in Philly, Dayton in Dayton, Charlotte in Charlotte, St. Louis in StL, Fordham in NYC, URI just outside Providence. Only UMass (amherst) and St. Bonaventure (Olean) are rural schools. So in the event that one needs another reason other than making more money, assuring a better chance of an at-large bid…you also have that these schools are mostly urban based schools, something GMU and VCU have in common.As for why I think VCU and GMU might not join:
1) same reason they should have: money.
If they leave before July, they lose this round of NCAA shares. But if they wait until July, sure, the $1.2 million exit fee can be quickly replaced in a year. But both schools also will forfeit their NCAA shares from the CAA through 2016. It adds up. Granted, they would make that money back in 3 years in the A10. But that is assuming the A10 remains as is. It DOES appear that will be the case, since a Big East split is not likely going to happen. What, 11 schools have been added to the Big East with the basketball schools approval since 2003. If a split were happening, it would have. But the basketball schools in the Big East need the football schools now more than ever.

It’s the “like-minded” that has changed so much. It used to mean schools that were public being with publics, private with privates. Rural state schools with other state schools while urban located schools with other urban located schools. But now, “like-minded” is about money. 
You have a tier of schools existing now that have fan support, facilities, revenue streams and success that is closer to the BCS level schools. The kicker is that they are spread out into different conferences. In the A10, you have Xavier, St. Louis, Dayton and until next year, Temple. You also have Richmond who fits some of these criteria now. In the CAA you had GMU (will be a test in years 2 and 3 without Coach L anymore) and for 3 coaches now, you have VCU. You also have Butler in that mix in the Horizon and Creighton in the MVC. What these school shave in common is that the benefit by being in a basketball conference together. Despite the runs by GMU and VCU, the conference champion, Drexel, was left out of the tournament, with the CAA as a 1 bid conference. In the best year ever for the CAA, they got 3 bids. In the A10, it’s been almost double that. This past year the A10 had 3 bids with a 4th sneaking in. Yet, the A10 was very average this year in performance…no schools were superstars like in the 90′s, when the conference got 4-5 bids some years due to UMass being #1 in the country, increasing the value of the other schools. As for VCU and GMU, I think they’d be in the A10 yesterday if it weren’t for some factors. And why not? GMU is in the DC media market, VCU in the city of Richmond.   You have GW in DC and Richmond in the city of Richmond as well. You have Xavier in Cincy, St. Joes and LaSalle in Philly, Dayton in Dayton, Charlotte in Charlotte, St. Louis in StL, Fordham in NYC, URI just outside Providence. Only UMass (amherst) and St. Bonaventure (Olean) are rural schools. So in the event that one needs another reason other than making more money, assuring a better chance of an at-large bid…you also have that these schools are mostly urban based schools, something GMU and VCU have in common.As for why I think VCU and GMU might not join:
1) same reason they should have: money.
If they leave before July, they lose this round of NCAA shares. But if they wait until July, sure, the $1.2 million exit fee can be quickly replaced in a year. But both schools also will forfeit their NCAA shares from the CAA through 2016. It adds up. Granted, they would make that money back in 3 years in the A10. But that is assuming the A10 remains as is. It DOES appear that will be the case, since a Big East split is not likely going to happen. What, 11 schools have been added to the Big East with the basketball schools approval since 2003. If a split were happening, it would have. But the basketball schools in the Big East need the football schools now more than ever.

In 2005, the CAA chose to expand. While it’s a mid-major conference that traditionally would not have top candidates as options, the CAA did have it’s choice of schools from conferences such as the America East. So when the CAA started looking north, and then into Boston, since the CAA is a “basketball conference” in your mind, they would take the best college basketball program available, right? Figure that if it’s a “basketball conference first” then the order of criteria would include strength of program, athletic facilities, media market penetration, academic rankings to name a few.

So it was an easy choice then. The CAA would invite Boston University.
* They had won 4 of the last 8 AE titles up until that year of 2005.
* They fall 2nd Boston College in the Boston market (fighting it out with Harvard in current day).
* They have excellent facilities via the Agganis Arena…so good that prior to the AE change of the championship game being at the highest seeds home venue, the conference championship was at BU.
* And for academics, Boston University being ranked #53 put them as the highest ranked academic school of those schools that would consider the CAA.
* And, 

But something else happened.
Instead, the CAA selected Northeastern. The same Northeastern that hadn’t won the lowly AE since 1990…15 years prior. The same Northeastern that has next to no Boston market penetration when compared to BC, BU, Harvard and even UMass in Western MA as the flagship school of the state. As for basketball facilities, rather than a new arena like BU offered, NU offered an outdated 95 year old building that had last been renovated in 1982.But Northeastern had football. So the decision took all of about 30 seconds for the CAA…since the CAA makes it’s decisions with football as a priority.

In adding a 6th football school, the CAA was able to take sponsorship of the FCS football conference that had been the Yankee and then A10, similar to the Gateway and then MVFC setup, since there was no conference with the 6 school minimum to sponsor the sport.Northeastern has since dropped football, as as Hofstra. But the CAA was fortunate that ODU and GA State stepped up earlier to join the ranks of CAA all-sports members with football.

Make no mistake. In saying the CAA is a football conference first, it is not an insult. It is just a reality. When the conference urged GMU and VCU to add football, it should have been a sign. The fact that the CAA put in a clause into the membership charter, something approved by the non-CAA members (note that CAA Football members have full rights, not partial rights like many other football only members in other conferences), that if a CAA member adds football, they can join the CAA right away for football.

Now when it comes to success, CAA Football is clearly the top football conference, even with NU, Hofstra dropping football…even with URI downgrading…even with GA State leaving. Losing UMass hurts since they are a school that has won the conference before or represented the conference well (made it to the 2006 final). Basketball has had some success as well, with 2 schools advancing to the Final Four over the past decade. Now that success hasn’t turned into a plethora of at-large bids, but it’s certainly something that shows the CAA basketball strength.But when it comes to CAA conference membership, yes, it is a football-first conference. Northeastern would not have been invited over BU if that wasn’t the case. Once NU joined, it meant that the southern addition could be a non-football school, rather than say, having to add Coastal Carolina. Also note that GA St. was added without football ans after College of Charleston rejected the CAA again.As for your theory that the CAA is “basketball first”, then it should be a simple matter of looking at the facts in the form of the next CAA school to join.

If the CAA is basketball first, then a school like Boston University, another run at Charleston, an invite to Davidson, UNCG or another basketball school will be the next addition.But, with CAA Football being the priority, it’s my belief that the CAA will add a football member next. They will try for App St. If rejected by App St (and if GA Southern is not an option either) then they will go for either Stony Brook (if they want to go north) or be forced with Coastal Carolina (to appease UNCW). 

But the next CAA school will be a football member and they will be an all-sports member…since the CAA needs 6 all-sports members with football in CAA Football in order to retain football sponsorship.

It doesn’t take away from their basketball abilities to recognize that the CAA membership decisions are driven by football. They have been since 2005 when they added NU and with the departure of GA State, football will drive the next decision as well.

If VCU and GMU leave too, the CAA moves made AFTER replacing GA State will likely be basketball decisions like adding BU, Davidson, etc as candidates.

GMU and VCU aren’t going to the A-10. The move isn’t a home run for either school.

And Northeastern has lower rated academics than other choices? Versus who? Adding the Ivy League? It’s ranked #62 in the country!

But as for the source, the person(s) is unnamed. But Brett Mcmurphy was the most prominent to report on Charlotte.