NJIT to the American East as their tenth member seems not only like an easy move, but just plain fair to the Hylanders. They've waited long enough.

They can't be any worse institutionally than Lowell. On the other hand, they just added Lowell and obviously NJIT was on the table at that time.

Their 5 year plan now includes a 4000 seat events center where the 1500 seat gym sits.Sort of a prelude to full membership.
NJIT new jersey's technological university which growing to 12500 students by 2020.

America East just lost their Woman's Tennis AQ after NJIT joined the Atlantic Sun as full member.
This comes after America East lost their Men's Swimming and Diving program and Men's Tennis program.
Don't know what was on the minds of the commissioner and Presidents; other conferences would have immediately added NJIT had they been in the same shoes.

America East is emphasizing Basketball (M/W), Lacrosse (M/W), Soccer (M/W), Baseball (M), Softball (W), Cross Country (M/W), Indoor Track and Field (M/W), and Outdoor Track and Field (M/W). That's four team sports for each gender (one more than the NCAA requires), and three individual sports for each gender. Volleyball (W) also hangs on despite losing Providence. If anyone else leaves then things become a little uncomfortable.

The remaining men's tennis programs went to the MVC or MAC.

Welcome to the board.

What do you propose for the AE, since NJIT is gone. Will they be able to retain Albany and Stony Brook for long? What does the list of potential schools look like?

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Lowell was simply better and more ready to do what AE wanted. NJIT wasn't and still isn't, even if they soon will be more attractive for AE. That's the difference. Plus, you had Lowell playing hockey with these other AE schools, and there were years of working together...NJIT came up and in, and started looking for help.

I still wonder if there isn't Monmouth, Wagner, or CCSU lurking around...

Albany and Stony Brook will likely leave the AE.

And the AE can be proud of having Lowell.

America East ought to invite Central Connecticut St and start sponsoring football. This would mean a split from CAA football but I think its a good long term move for the conference. For football they would have:

Maine
New Hampshire
Albany
Stony Brook
Central Connecticut St.
Rhode Island (fb only)
Monmouth (fb only)

They could even test the waters with some of the MEAC schools that are supposedly disgruntled with the decision to abstain the FCS Playoffs as well as the pitiful state of MEAC basketball. Delaware St would slot in nicely as a travel partner for UMBC. Howard, Morgan St, Norfolk St, or Hampton would be bad catches either. Another perk of going out on their own is that if UMass ever needs to move back down they can instantly offer them a slot.

The obvious fallout from this is that CAA football needs to address losing 5 of its 12 football schools. They'd still have Delaware, Towson, JMU, Wm & Mary, Elon, and affiliates Richmond & Villanova (unless America East can take them). I think that they'd either full invites to two Big South schools or offer to absorb Big South football.

It's no secret CCSU wanted/s to be in AE, but Hartford wasn't for them, and the football thing was kind of an issue, given NEC would likely drop them if they left with everything else, and the school can't necessarily feed more mouths by way of a higher scholarship count expected by CAA and Big South. Patsy won't touch them. So, CCSU's had problems finding support, even though it's more fitting an AE member than NEC; it's possible things change enough for them to finally land a spot.

That's why I kind of think Monmouth's creeping around. They're going bigger with football and are willing to do the Big South thing like Stony was when they were clearly shopping themselves. Monmouth can fill some of those needs AE might have, including a desire for football sponsorship if CAA and CAAF are fractured in any way (and I think AE, to keep peace among whatever associate members they could get, like Rhody, will allow flexible scholarship numbers like the Patriot). Obviously gunning for the CAA and CAAF, I don't think Monmouth's there, yet (maybe close to CAAF once JMU is figured out), but very much a boost for AE and much more suited for AE's entire offerings than NJIT's presently handling. Monmouth and Wagner essentially eliminate the need for NJIT, and being private schools, might find support from members like Hartford who would be cool to public football schools. Both of those schools (M & W) are trying to position themselves closer to Fairfield, who seems to have a lot of support in CAA.

But, yeah...what's going on in Albany and Stony Brook? Stony's got this project...smoke for potential MAC/FBS future?

I graduated from NJIT so I would speak from my perspective (although it seems like a little too late right now).

The NJIT Athletic Director said they have been begging people for closed to 10 years but no conference with AQ was willing to accept them so they grabbed the first opportunity that they had. They are also very happy with the deal ( see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG1R52kZFdY" ) and also immediately received a 7-year sponsorship from Adidas ( http://njithighlanders.com/news/2015/7/ ... th=general ) for the entire athletic program after that. So NJIT would be in Atlantic Sun for quite a while.

Are the Presidents aiming for better sports or better academics or both is the question? If they are going for both or academics, then they should have picked NJIT, which has similar profile as almost all of them as a public national university and create America East 10 like Big Ten and Pac-10 (I know it is 12 right now) which are all public national universities plus one or two private universities. It is also impossible to get other similar profile universities like U-Conn, Penn State, U-Mass, Rhode Island, Rutgers and Delaware as they are very comfortable in their more sports competitive conferences.

Since Basketball is the biggest sport in the conference, I shall use it as an example. AE is unlikely to be super-strong in sports judging from the type of basketball players it is able to recruit ( https://www.verbalcommits.com/conferences/america-east" ) . Make a click from the link supplied to another stronger sports conference in the region (like Atlantic-10, CAA, Big East and Big Ten) to see the type of players that AE schools are able to recruit and compare. If you take a look at the best basketball players in the conference for the past few ten of years, you would not find many NBA players ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/America_E ... f_the_Year" ). So far only Hartford (Vin Baker) and Northeastern University (Reggie Lewis) have produced good NBA players. So top athletics stay away from the conference knowing they would get better shots realizing their dreams joining stronger sports conferences. This probably explains why universities like Towson, Hofstra, Drexel, Delaware, Rhode Island and Northeastern left although this may also be due to lack of Football. But there are exceptions too, Harvard is able to recruit better players ( https://www.verbalcommits.com/conferences/ivy" ) because it recently produced a good NBA player (Jeremy Lin) and Florida Gulf Coast (Atlantic Sun) is able to attract better players (a few 3-stars or better) because it had a good run in NCAA tournament.

The other schools (Boston University, Canisius College, Siena College, Niagara University, Colgate University and College of the Holy Cross) that left AE went to more profile-fitting conferences. So profile-fit and comparable strength sports programs seem to be the most important considerations whether to invite universities to conferences or not. In my personal opinion, NJIT met both requirements but was not invited to AE. This was still the case after it had a good year in basketball ( 21 wins, beat ranked team Michigan, beat Ivy League Regular Season Champion, beat NEC regular season champion, beat MEAC tournament champion, reached CIT semi-finals ) and announcement of new 100 million sports arena.

It just does not make sense; they rather lose Men's swimming and both Tennis programs than to strengthen the conference. Which university that is willing to leave its existing conference is a better fit than NJIT?

That school cannot be Monmouth because it just went to MAAC (more likely because of better profile-fit, stronger sports program and lower-cost of travelling).

It also cannot be Wagner as Wagner is not strong in sports (NJIT beat Wagner in Basketball twice in 2009-2010 season) and they lost legendary high school coach Dan Hurley to Rhode Island although they are recently able to attract 3-star basketball players. Besides, Wagner's profile does not fit.

Although CCSU is a public university, it is not a public national university (public research university) so the profile does not fit.

Don't think AE would want to include Football as Football is a very expensive sport and could be eliminated anytime when there is sports budget cuts. Even AE former member Boston University which has endowment funds of $1.369 billion eliminated Football.

Possibly it is also because the commissioner does not want to be this lady on top ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Sangay_(AE-10) ).

Eastside, much of what I've come to know about AE, and where it stands to where it once stood (and the defections therein), saw a lot of friction with members like Boston and Delaware. And schools like N'Eastern and Hofstra...you know, considering the in-fighting they're creating in CAA, maybe the problem wasn't AE, but those former members?

AE's a hodge-podge of flagships, system campuses, and a private school, football-fielding, and non-fb. I don't doubt it's cured of whatever ailed them (obviously not if CCSU still isn't there, who's wanted to be in), but it's stronger/more cohesive without the headcase former members, that's for sure.

As for football, their numbers are close: the minimum needed for FCS sponsorship is seven, and AE's got:

Maine
UNH
Albany
Stony Brook

Rhody's practically a lock as a fifth. Given Monmouth's current methods, CCSU lurking around, Wagner trying to fudge its counts so it can play FBS games, and the other CAAF associate members, as well as ex-AE members, if it came down to picking up the sport, AE's got the numbers and ability to still keep a very travel-friendly, possibly entirely bus-league-like place. It can sell that if it has enough internal support...

Did not expect AE to have the ambition of adding Football as conference sport.

Well if that is the case, NJIT would be out as the Athletic director has already indicated that Football is not an option ( http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/sport ... .html?_r=0 ).
The students are already paying one of the highest tuition fees in the nation ( http://www.usnews.com/education/best-co ... st-tuition ) together with Vermont and New Hampshire which also do not sponsor Football. Finance is already stretched to the max with the building of the new $100 million arena. I also do not think the New Jersey tax payers would want NJIT to use more money on Football since Rutgers (which is the birth place of college football) is already sponsoring this expensive sport. There is also no place on the city campus to build a Football field.

NJIT introduced men's lacrosse to make it attractive to regional conferences but it did not improve the situation. It ended up with a conference that does not sponsor men's lacrosse inviting them. The lacrosse team also did not win a single match in its inaugural year of playing ( http://www.njithighlanders.com/schedule.aspx?path=mlax ) .

So considering all factors, it would be quite a while before NJIT would be changing to a geographically more fitting conference since it just joined the Atlantic Sun Conference.

I am also hoping that all the current members of America East would not leave as the cluster of good public research universities in the northeast would just weaken should any member leaves as there does not seem to be any comparable replacement.

Football is truly just within the reach of America East--I don't see why they don't just reach out and grab it. 1 full member invite (CCSU) and 2 affiliate invites (Monmouth & URI) and they'd have it. My guess is that the 4 football schools don't have enough support from the non-football side to get the votes. The likes of Hartford, UMBC, UMass Lowell, and Vermont don't see it as in their best interest to allow the balance to tip out of their favor.

Like someone else said, Wagner is another one floating around out there that could help complete the roster. Maybe full invites to Wagner, Monmouth, and CCSU would be a solid move to get to 12 full members.

I suppose their is a certain degree of desire to maintain the status quo even among the football schools because as part of CAA football they are in the SEC of FCS. The new league would not have the same status. If UMass were to ever return that would definitely raise the profile some though.