Article discussing decision by Northeastern University to drop FB.Link at http://www.delawareonline.com/article/2 ... 002/SPORTS

FCS MB thread discussing future of CAA after loss of Northeastern at http://www.anygivensaturday.com/showthread.php?66559

This opens up some interesting possibilities.

CAA was to expand to 14, with ODU and Georgia State.
Unfortunately the rivalries broke such that Georgia State would be shoved into the North with a goofy hybrid schedule.

Now the CAA will be 13. They could go to 16, and move Georgia State to the South where it belongs, if they add 3 northern teams and go to 16.
Obvious candidate #1 - Fordham. The Patriot League called their bluff on scholarships, so Fordham (A-10 for everything else) seems poised to say "Adios !"
Obvious candidate #2 - Stony Brook. AE conference for most stuff. Went to the Big South to build up their number of scholarships. The Big South arrangement is obviously temporary, scheduled to end after 2010. Travel for Stony Brook in the Big South would appear to be tedious, at best.
Candidate #3 - not so obvious. But the two most likely candidates would be: Albany (AE, plays NEC FB), and Duquesne (A-10, plays NEC FB)

So this would be the 16-team alignment:

CAA FB

NORTH ----------------------------------
Maine (AE)
New Hampshire (AE)
Massachusetts (A-10)
Rhode Island (A-10)
***Fordham (A-10)***
***Stony Brook (AE)***
***Albany (AE) OR Duquesne (A-10)***
Hofstra (CAA)

SOUTH------------------------------------
Villanova (Big East)
Delaware (CAA)
Towson (CAA)
James Madison (CAA)
Old Dominion (CAA)
William & Mary (CAA)
Richmond (A-10)
Georgia State (CAA)

I think that could be a happy arrangement !
Yeah only one team gets the FCS [CAA Champion] automatic bid, but 4-5 others could get some of the 10 (possibly soon to be as many as 120 at-larges... so there is not a concern about the conference being "too big".

Tute79, thanks for the post.

Article out of Minuteman country regarding the CAA situation at http://www.gazettenet.com/node/251706

Blog article out of Providence discussing CAA situation.Apparently the CAA AD's will discuss the situation tomorrow via conference call. Link at http://sportsblog.projo.com/2009/11/nor ... rns-d.html

Fordham MB thread discussing Northeastern/CAA situation at http://fordhamfans.smfforfree.com/index ... 165.0.html

is northeastern interested in remaining in the caa for all other sports? if not i would like to throw in coastal carolina's name in the hat for caa #12 for all sports. charlotte would be my top choice but i don't see them wanting it for all sports so coastal would be a great school with a quality, young football program with ton of potential

I don't get the impression that Northeastern is looking to bolt the CAA.
Obviously the CAA would prefer to have a (football-playing) all-sports member, but Northeastern views themselves as just exercising their prerogative to slash costs by terminating the Men's football program (like most of the schools in the MAAC).

Coastal Carolina has been looking to "upgrade" from the Big South, and were lobbying to get the slot in the SoCon that ultimately went to Samford. They could "form a bridge" between UNCW and Georgia State in the CAA, but Georgia State may have FBS aspirations or may be looking to move to teh SoCon themselves at some point, since they are so isolated geographically. If the Big South sort of "grows up", and their football league becomes more competitive, maybe Coastal will feel less inclined to leave. The Big South is at 11 right now, and would probably like team #12 to be a football-playing school. When Campbell was added, I assume they committed to a long-term plan of upgrading their football to scholarship FCS and moving football from the non-scholly Pioneer to the Big South.

So, bottom line, I don't see a vacancy in the CAA. The CAA football league, however, could be looking to expand.
I see Fordham and / or Stony Brook being approached in the very near future...

i agree and i think that fordham will probably take northeastern's spot in the northern half of the football conference. stony brook and albany also are options. although... adding another southern school (like say app st. or coastal) would allow a more favorable alignment in the caa north by allowing both nova and deleware to move north while keeping ga st. in the south

Maine
UNH
UMass
URI
Hofstra
Deleware
Villanova

Towson
JMU
WMU
ODU
Richmond
App St/ Coastal
Ga St.

13 team all sports CAA though would be a bit unwieldy though

The CAA considered Coastal but eventually chose both Northeastern and Georgia State (after CofC rejected the CAA).

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quinn, do you see any other shakeups in the caa? what i think will happen is fordham will take northeastern's football spot while everything else will be business as usual as it seems that northeastern does not want to leave the caa.

that's the likely scenario. Could also see a push by Stonybrook.

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Would Georgia State be interested in the Sun Belt/FBS in the future? If football proves to be popular enough, they have the Georgia Dome already there. They are in the middle of the Sun Belt footprint (and in fact were once Sun Belt members).

I would think that Georgia St. will stick to the plan and try to eventually upgrade. But they'd probably try to find a way into CUSA. Figure at that point, 1-2 CUSA schools will likely have moved on.

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both charlotte and ga st are likely cusa candidates in my opinion once they get their programs going as both have clearly stateed a desire to go 1-a. ga st could also go in the sunbelt in the mean time, as the sunbelt is looking at having 11 members, as they could be a solid fit in either conference. charlotte would be an odd duck in the sunbelt and i don't really think they would leave the a10 for any conference but cusa or big east.

i do think that down the line once these east coast programs upgrade you will see a cusa split or a new conference formed, depending on what (if anything) the big east decides to do as right now the cusa is a big marriage of convenience and necessity.