No where of consequence, its just that they're bball team is hot right now and the Big 12 is just being talked about by some people who don't understand the intricacies of conference realignment. (not knocking JP since he's just throwing out hypotheticals)

Same as TCU before who had no chance of getting in...until A&M left. SMU has virtually the same chance as TCU had...until Texas leaves. On another thread I gave them a 10% at being the next State of Texas school invited in with UTexas still in the conference but that obviously doesn't included the many out of state candidates in the MWC/AAC plus BYU...their real odds are very low single digits.

http://frankthetank.me/2013/10/30/the-b ... -all-over/

Frank (when you fix his bad math) had them at the 3rd to last of possible candidates only beating out UNLV and Rice. And personally, I think they're lower than Rice (as I think he under values the benefit of playing in Houston for recruiting exposure and creeping effect of the SEC in the area with A&M/LSU, also I think he should value their academics higher as the Big 12 is in needs of them).

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Fan of the Big 12 Conference, the Mountain West Conference and...

CAA was trying for A10-like status until they lost VCU, GMU, and ODU. CoC and Elon don't make up for those losses, nor would Furman or Fairfield if they are next in line. Plus, if Furman does go, wouldn't Wofford be next?

These guys thought they had a shot at GWU in an A10 Doomsday scenario. They and Siena are the only speculated candidates who put hoops back into respectability. I bet both would be part of a new A10, still better than CAA.

Thanks.

I don't think UT likes SMU. We never play them in any sport, that I can remember.
We play Rice almost every year...sometimes in multiple sports.
SMU is playing other SWC rivals, though. And their bb program is doing pretty well, this year.

Yeah, if UT has anything to say about it....Rice will get the call before SMU. Rice would also pair up well with Tulane. And Tulane is building a nice new on campus fb stadium. It's nothing like Baylor's new digs...but, still...for Tulane it's pretty cool.

Baylor's new stadium can be seen here...FYI:
http://www.baylorbears.com/sports/m-foo ... m-cam.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I really feel that Baylor is making some large strides towards relevancy. For a mid sized private school...they have been doing well in the last five years in major sports. In minor sports they have always been solid. An on campus stadium should really help their game day presence on national tv.

Sorry for the side track.....
Back to the CAA.

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Fan of:
State of Texas
Southwest Conference
Big XII

No where. I was discussing UMass' approach of "wait and see what transpires" with the American before they pull their basketball/other sports out of the A-10.

Hence the "I don't think..." part.

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Article out of Hampton Roads(previously posted in another thread)with comments from SBC Commish who says that JMU has recently indicated that they are not interested in joining the SBC and "may" not be interested in jumping to FBS if they do not receive an invite from a conference "like" the MAC.Link at http://www.hamptonroads.com/2014/04/sun ... remain-caa

I'm not sure if this is adequate or not, but I just wanna give a try. What would happen if conference realignment was today, but involving the CAA? Currently, the CAA membership consists with the following:

Delaware (w. fb)
James Madison (w. fb)
Towson (w. fb)
William & Mary (w. fb)
Col. of Charleston (n-fb)
Elon (w. fb) (coming in 2014-15)
Drexel (n-fb)
Hofstra (n-fb)
Northeastern (Mass.) (n-fb)
UNC-Wilmington (n-fb)

I would say that the CAA should focus on having full members with football and put aside with the non-football members. So I was thinking that the CAA should raid the America East and grab the full members whose football programs are in the CAA, such as:

SUNY-Albany
Maine
New Hampshire
Rhode Island (from the A-10)
SUNY-Stony Brook

Also, the CAA should bring along Vermont and SUNY-Binghamton. That would leave the AmEast to raid on the Northeastern U.S. D-II conferences (such as the Northeast-10, the CACC and the former NYCAC turned ECC).

As far as the non-football members (excluding Hofstra, Drexel and Northeastern), CoC should join either the Big South or re-join the A-Sun, while UNC-Wilmington should be either in the Big South or in the SoCon.

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Florida State Seminoles fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)! 2011-12 ACC men's basketball conference tournament champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football Atlantic Division champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football regular season champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football conference bowl tournament champions; 2014 NCAA D-I FBS BCS national champions; 2015 ACC baseball conference tournament champions!

they would have and should have added Albany and Stony Brook but Hofstra blocked it.

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I can understand your opinion about this. But I hope you read everything before just responding in a short answer like this one. However, what about if Drexel and Hofstra (from the same former AmEast core group of schools with Delaware and Towson) were out of the equation, then Albany and Stony Brook (possibly Binghamton) will jump ship to the CAA?

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Florida State Seminoles fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)! 2011-12 ACC men's basketball conference tournament champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football Atlantic Division champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football regular season champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football conference bowl tournament champions; 2014 NCAA D-I FBS BCS national champions; 2015 ACC baseball conference tournament champions!

Why would they be out of the equation, you can't say they're out w/o a logical explanation. I read the rest but no one is downgrading. Binghamton got busted by the NCAA real bad, haven't been the same since.

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You have any other logic ideas for expansion since Old Dominion and Georgia St. left to join FBS? Besides, my sole intention was to see the CAA as a pure football-sponsoring all-sports conference, not as a hybrid conference.

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Florida State Seminoles fan for life (mostly on football, basketball and baseball)! 2011-12 ACC men's basketball conference tournament champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football Atlantic Division champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football regular season champions; 2012, 2013 & 2014 ACC football conference bowl tournament champions; 2014 NCAA D-I FBS BCS national champions; 2015 ACC baseball conference tournament champions!

Maybe I'm off, but wasn't there a bit more bad blood between some of those old AmEast schools, which cleared the way for the split? It might be why Maine and UNH don't enter into these convos, much in the same way Vermont just sits out there.

Article out of Hampton Roads with comments from AD of CAA member JMU regarding his schools plans for a possible future FBS move at http://hamptonroads.com/2015/10/espn-ga ... s-will-fly

James Madison had an opportunity to play FBS but they thumbed their noses at the prospect at beginning in a conference like the MAC or Sunbelt. If James Madison wants to move up they can't have a C-USA or bust attitude. Take a Sunbelt invite and start there. Eventually, there will be some realignment moves that offer James Madison a chance at C-USA but I think a lot of people are turned off by the way they treated the Sunbelt and bridges might already be burned.

Strategically, the best plan might have been to get the FBS football up and running in the SunBelt,
however there are a lot more factors to look at.

Right now an an FCS school, JMU's athletic budget isn't that large, and joining the SunBelt means
that their Olympic sports would have to make a ton of trips to Texas.
Their nearest rival in the SBC (pre-CCU) would have been Appalachia State, and then some schools in Georgia and Alabama.

(In CUSA, they've got ODU, Marshall, WKU, and UNC-Charlotte.
(but a lot of Texas teams there too).

Both conferences are rather Texas-centric. I'm not sure JMU's move to FBS isn't ill-advised.
It seems more like a despearte attempt to keep up with ODU.
In FBS, their financial resources will be stretched and their travel will be much worse than in the CAA.
They would give up a lot, for some perceived grab at "football glory".
I think all their other sports would be better off in the CAA.

The G5 FBS conferences are NOT flush with money; you have to be in a P5 conference to really reap in the big TV $$$.

It's true that both C-USA and Sunbelt membership would require travel to Texas but divisional play would minimize the number of trips. Let's take a look at basketball for instance:

C:USA--
4 Texas schools so you are guaranteed to need to make a weekend trip annually to play two games (other two Texas teams played at home)
another annual weekend trip to play 1-2 of the following: UAB, USM, LA Tech (1 or 2 of those schools would visit JMU)
either a flight to Miami to play FAU and FIU or a flight to Nashville to play MTSU and WKU over the weekend. (Home and Homes against eastern division opponents)
Charlotte, Marshall, and ODU are all bus trips (Home and Homes against eastern division opponents)

SBC--
2 flights to 2 of the following 3 destinations: Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas (3 of those 6 schools will be visiting JMU)
an annual trip to Alabama to play Troy and USA
an annual trip to Georgia to play GA Southern and GA St
a drive to Coastal Carolina

Yes, it's a fair amount of flying but as it stands now JMU is probably flying to Boston, NYC, and possibly Philadelphia for CAA games.