Thinking long-term, the CAA is a bit vulnerable in terms of their numbers.

Delaware and JMU are top FCS programs and rumors constantly have them contemplating FBS (are they really, or is it just bloggers saying that ?)
GMU has done well in NCAA BB, however the program could take a huge hit if the coach were to suddeenly take a better job elesewhere,
or his crop of top players graduate / leave for NBA, etc. (it's tough to keep a mid-major BB program up near the top...)

Right now they are at 9 schools. For the long haul, they don't want to be in position of flirting with 8 or less, or schools will start looking elsewhere,
like rats jumping off a sinking ship. Where does the CAA look for replacements ?
SoCon has some quality schools, but they would be tacked on to the southern end of the CAA, and Davidson made a determination that it's more attractive to stay put.

CAA has some northern schools that become increasingly isolated if the CAA expands southward.

A potential solution -
I see AE as CAA's sister conferences - they have a bit of geographical overlap, and each conf. has 4 FCS schools in the CAA FB league.
Merge and re-allocate schools into N-S divisions. Reduce travel for schools at extreme northern & southern ends of the merged group.
The numbers go up to 17-18, and if a few schools ever contemplate going elsewhere, it's much less of a big deal for a conference that size.

I think the GMU flight risk is smaller than you think. They already lost their coach to Miami. It will take good things form GMU before someone comes calling for a retread like Hewitt.

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Say UMass goes to CUSA or BE, then who is the option? GMU was all but in until 2 schools left the A10 so they didn't want to have 15. Creighton is an option but Omaha is so far away I don't know if they'd go.

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I was referencing Tute's mention of GMU having to worry about losing their coach. Since they already lost their coach to Miami, and Hewitt being the replacement, it's less of an issue. But yes, if the A10 lost a school, I'm sure GMU would be high on the list. With the Butler addition in the midwest, along with St. Louis, Xaiver and Dayton, all of a sudden a replacement from that region isn't a stretch, like a Creighton.

But for the CAA, they best hope CofC makes the move manana. Striking out with all 3 targets will be tough to swallow. But the CAA that we knew is no more, regardless. No VCU, no ODU. That's like the Pac-12 losing UCLA and USC and having to look at New Mexico and UNLV as replacements. Those 2 schools did a lot for the CAA, sad and tough to see them gone.

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Andy Katz is reporting that College of Charleston BOT is expected to vote to join the CAA this Saturday morning at their 9:30 am ET meeting with an announcement expected on Saturday.Link at http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketb ... ssociation

Being that Katz's sources are all within the CAA, I think I'll hold off on making this official on the site. Would think at least a single source from within CofC, coming off the Davidson rejection, might be a good call.

CofC joining might actually make more sense now than in the past. Now, without ODU and VCU gone, CofC will have a better opportunity to do well. They also have mentioned the goal of increasing out-of-state enrollment from northern states, similar to what they did in the 90's when CofC had their national run.

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Article out of Charleston discussing this morning's College of Charleston BOT meeting.Will we need to wait until tomorrow to find out if Andy Katz is right?Link at http://www.abcnews4.com/story/19862552/will-the-cougars

Article out of Hampton Roads with comments from CAA Commish regarding College of Charleston/CAA situation at http://www.dailypress.com/sports/dp-spt ... 1700.story

Looks like Andy Katz may not have been entirely accurate in his story regarding a College of Charleston BOT vote and announcement on saturday last.However,that school did announce it is in membership negotiations with the CAA.
Here is article out of Burlington(previously posted in another thread)discussing whether or not Socon member Elon might also be interested in starting up membership negotiations with the CAA at http://www.thetimesnews.com/sports/elon ... ns-1.38436

I really don't know how Elon has become ground zero for CAA speculation. I don't see a good move for them at all. Sure it would mean better basketball but that also comes with considerable more travel. On the football side it just means they will just be traveling further away to get pummeled. Joining the CAA will not cure their football woes---unless of course they are looking to downgrade their football to non-scholarship or something like that.

The longer the CAA continues to protract this expansion wait the more likely we are to see the Patriot sweep in and take schools like William and Mary who are concerned about the viability of this league. Should the Patriot begin a new raid then I would expect America East to either jump in and take what they want and/or put an offer out for partial merger with UNC-Wilmington being left out.

Did College of Charleston get cold feet? It sounded like this move was all but a done deal.

The vote was to permit CofC to negotiate with the CAA. That could be code for "join the CAA if the CAA waives entry fee and pays SoCon exit fees".

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I don't think anything has been made official but I'm going to guess that East Carolina will probably be moving their Olympic sports to CAA and become UNC-Wilmington's travel buddy.

Isn't Charleston coming? ECU would make 11. They need 1 more

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Report says ECU (sports other than FB) invited to join CAA.

http://wtvr.com/2012/11/27/acc-sues-mar ... ck-to-caa/

This "report" did NOT state that ECU had accepted such an invitation.
If ECU applied to CAA, then it's a foregone conclusion....
But could this have been an unsolicited offer ?