Oh, I think the A-10 will go back to 12, just not past it... Which means they're looking at 0-1-2 CAA members (until someone starts dominating the CAA/MAAC, then the A-10 could invite them)

I just think the candidates are going to be Mason, Siena, Belmont, Davidson

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Since the A10 looks like they will be at 12 next year with only Xavier and Butler leaving I bet the A10 stands pat for 13-14 and then takes next year to invite Mason and a northern School to join for 14-15.

This is good news for the CAA. They need to put the full court press on Davidson right now. Bring Elon along and promise them a southern division right away with JMU, W&M, UNCW and CoC. That should be very acceptable for Davidson. Then when GMU leaves you can plug in a northern school that is suitable for Delaware and the rest. I will feel a lot better about the CAA if/when they land Davidson. Hopefully App St. and Ga Southern leaving, along with reuniting with CoC pushes Davidson towards the CAA

So will the CAA's loss of George Mason change anything, or could the CAA stay at nine?

If Northeastern is headed to the A-10, then it might make sense to just add Albany and Stony Brook (already members in football) and stop at 10, and the CAA actually would have two members on Long Island.

Stony Brook/Hofstra
Albany/Drexel
Towson/Delaware
James Madison/William & Mary
C of C/UNCW

America East is then forced to add NJIT to get to 7 active Division I members, and then takes NYIT as a baseball-only member.

I think the CAA is in a tough spot. It seems unlikely that the southern schools would accept any more northern schools, as they got burned on the Hofstra and Northeastern additions previously. I think the southern schools would be very pleased if Northeastern went to the A-10. In any case, Charleston probably would not have joined without such assurances, because travel was a major consideration for them.

On the other hand, with now five CAA football schools in the northeast, I doubt that any southern scholarship football schools will join the CAA.

So that leaves southern non-football schools as potential candidates. Davidson, UNCG, perhaps Winthrop?

That's the question that needs to be addressed. When App St. and Ga Southern join the SBC in a year, will that be enough to make Davidson, Elon, and UNCG go. CAA still could use a 12th fb member. I'm not sure those 3 SoCon schools will be happy when the SoCon replaces the 3 they'll lose w/ Mercer, ETSU, Kennesaw St. and/or VMI.

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After what the conference pulled on ODU and GSU with these petty post-season ban things, I don't pity the CAA at all. They get duped by schools like Northeastern and Hofstra and use their football programs to gain entry into the conference, just to dump football and block northern all-sports expansion.

I think the CAA is about to lose its heart when GMU departs. And what's worse for the CAA is that, knowing them, they'll be so petty about this, they'll tell GMU that if they stay the next academic year, they'll hurt the kids by denying them the conference postseason. So, just like VCU before them, GMU will leave immediately and unceremoniously, and the CAA will have to scramble yet again to fill a huge hole. An urgency they wouldn't have if they weren't so g-d petty and small about these moves.

I suspect W&M is next, with JMU probably getting into the MAC.

Masslive article(previously posted in another thread)discussing report that CAA member George Mason will leave for the A-10.Article reports that A-10 has scheduled presser for 1:45 PM this afternoon to make the announcement.Link at http://www.masslive.com/umassbasketball ... in_at.html

its in the bylaws. they have had a chance to change them which no one wanted.


with the pending App St and Ga Southern announcment to the Sunbelt, now is the time for the CAA to make the sweatheart deal to Davidson. Pick your partner and a guaranteed southern division of JMU, W&M, UNCW, CoC, Davidson and their partner. That is not bad at all for travel. If the CAA cannot take Davidson from a weakened SoCon then yes they are in trouble if they want more Southern Schools. I think they can get it done.

I'd love to know what happened to make GMU change its mind. The A10 they refused last year was a better conference then than what they'll now join.

accseahawk, re: bylaws...we've been through that. Schools proactively choose when to withhold access. They proactively chose a date to preclude the outbound schools. Bylaw's an arbitrary calendar date and a vote, nothing more.

irregardless, im sure the CAA would rather have 1 million dollar exit fee than a lame duck year for GMU. The bylaws put the CAA in a position of power and give them the ability to maximize off a defection

I'm pretty sure the network televising the games disagrees.

GMU always wanted to go, but the A10 told them no b/c they didn't want 17 this year and 15 after the loss of Charlotte and Temple. When A10 was looking at Butler, VCU, GMU they thought they were only losing 1, but then Charlotte got the CUSA invite so they could only take 2.

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BW/WAC/MWC CHAMPS '77 '82 '85 '88 '89 '91 '92 '93 '99 '12 '13
'08 NCAA BASEBALL CHAMPS

Was the "secret rejection" ever confirmed? Everything GMU did publicly gave them the perception of choosing not to go to the A10, and it jived logically. I mean, there's saving face, but that always sounded like a scoop with an "I know a guy" origin.

It made sense for GMU to stay last year: there was still W&M and JMU to anchor the conference in VA, the Patriot didn't get W&M, Villanova wasn't going to upgrade football, the television contract looked decent, and the travel wasn't going to be exorbitant for their budget (and it would have been in the A10 big-time).

We all accepted it as common knowledge...and from the look of things we were right.

Both parties were very interested but the numbers just weren't right at the time.

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then they should pay the CAA more than the 1 million GMU did