It was a saving face thing, when has a saving face thing ever been confirmed by a school or conf? Never, I think. like Tk said this shows that it's on the money. CAA is lower on the poll even now, A10 still has richmond, vcu, la salle, that's why they still leave. caa is going to get? Socon schools? maybe, AEC schools, it could, big south schools sure, none are more appealing than the A10. Davidson is the only name out there for either conf if Davidson wants to travel.

what the hell is wrong here? the MWC is preaching to the A10 guy that the A10 is the better option for GMU

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Oh, I'm fine with this arrangement. It's a shame it didn't happen last year for an even more ridiculous '12-13 A10 season.

I just have a tough time believing the A10 told them no/wait, and I think there's more to this that spells further bad news for the CAA.

the caa will be fine. time to take from the SoCon again. They are down to 9 just like the CAA and CoC already made the jump. Again, time for CAA to establish solid geographically friendly divisions. 2 from SoCon to join the South 1 from the AEast to join the North.

The SoCon, America East, and the CAA need to come to some sort of agreement:

America East takes the Northern wing of CAA--Northeastern, Drexel, and Hofstra

The SoCon takes the Southern wing of CAA--Charleston, UNC Wilmington, and William & Mary

The two leagues then come to some sort of agreement as to who gets the 3 CAA schools in the middle--Delaware, Towson, and James Madison.

Personally I think Towson and Delaware would fit nicely in America East as they would be near UMBC, It would give America East a football league of: Maine, NH, URI*, Stony Brook, Albany, Monmouth*, Villanova*, Delaware, and Towson--not a bad assortment; and 14 members for bb and Olympic sports.

James Madison in the SoCon for football (along with Richmond as a fb only) would give the SoCon 10 fb schools--3 in VA, 2 in NC, 3 in SC, 1 in TN, and 1 in AL and in Olympic sports a North Division of VA and NC schools and a South Division with everyone else,

Article out of Charleston with comments from CAA Commish who says league Presidents discussed possible future expansion yesterday.Unclear whether FGCU is an expansion target.Link at http://www.postandcourier.com/article/2 ... ources=RSS

After some deliberation, I think the best course of action for CAA is to add three southern members in order to create a true southern division and ensure that Davidson joins. I'm thinking Davidson, Elon, and UNC Greensboro. This gives the league a set up like this:

North
Northeastern
Hofstra
Drexel
Delaware
Towson
James Madison

South
William & Mary
Elon
UNC Greensboro
Davidson
UNC Wilmington
Charleston

Travel within each division is reasonable and Davidson is right at the heart of the Southern Division so no reason to feel isolated. Davidson also gets a division with elite private schools, state schools that act like they are private, and two UNC campuses. To placate the northern members the southern wing should give them a vague promise to replace James Madison with a more northerly school if and when they go to FBS.

Here's what this alignment does for CAA football:

North--Maine*, New Hampshire*, Rhode Island*, Albany*, Stony Brook*, Villanova*
South--Delaware, Towson, James Madison, Richmond*, William & Mary, Elon

Not a bad set up for a 12-member league--but wait...if the NCAA considers 7 schools an FCS league there are a couple ways that CAA and America East could work together to secure two autobids for the group with America East sponsoring a spinoff league league made up of the Northern schools and Monmouth as a football only and/or C Conn St as a full member of AmEast. (If Wagner ever gets into the MAAC they could jump ship to AmEast fb too) For the southern, CAA football league all they would need to do is swap out UNC Greensboro for a fb-playing school like Wofford or Furman or have America East football add both of those schools I mentioned and keep Villanova in CAAfb with nearby Delaware and Towson.

Thoughts guys?

We know CUSA is very likely to replace Tulsa with WKU from the Sun-Belt.

Once this happens, a cursory look at the Sun-Belt shows that they will need a new #12,
prefereably one who plays FB, and prefereable ideally located to be Appalachian State's travel partner.
If JMU is looking to make the jump to FBS, this may be the ideal opportunity.

If I was a school being fought over by the CAA and the SoCon right now, I'm not sure which way I would lean, in terms of stability.
Honestly, I like the post above.... the American East, CAA, and SoCon have the right number of schools for 2 conferences.
The CAA should be dissolved, and the Northern members should go to the America East, and the Southern members to the SoCon.

AE is at 9 since adding UMass-Lowell. CAA has lost GMU, and may lose JMU which would drop it to 8. SoCon is down to 9 after losing ASU, CSU, and CoC.
CAA looks very vulnerable since losing from it's middle, VCU, GMU to A-10, W&M could finally go Patriot, JMU to the SUnBelt.

I think the A-10 may figure on losing St. Louis, and either Dayton or VCU in nextt BE expansion. If so, A-10 may look to add one more to go with GMU.
Ultmately, that may cascade into the CAA losing a non-FB school.
Should the AE start making back-door arrangements to re-take control of CAA FB ? THey could enlist help of URI, Richmond, Villanova to do so.
That would strip CAA of leverage over Stony Brook.

The scheming between A-10, AE, CAA, MAAC, NEC, and SoCon is really going to heat up.

America East:

Maine/New Hampshire
Vermont/Mass-Lowell
Albany/Binghamton
Stony Brook/Hofstra
UMBC/Towson
Drexel/Delaware

Football only: Villanova, Monmouth, Rhode Island

Northeastern joins George Mason in the Atlantic 10 as the 12th team. James Madison goes to the Sun Belt.

SoCon
Samford/Chattanooga
UNCG/WCU
Davidson/Elon
Furman/Wofford
Charleston/Citadel
UNCW/William & Mary

Football only: Richmond

NJIT gets left out in the cold.

wbyeager -

This seems like the IDEAL outcome, and I bet if you asked the various presidents and ADs if they could be happy if this were implemented tomorrow,
the vast majority would say YES in a heartbeat. It would end all of this uncertainty and result in 2 nice regional conferences with minimal travel.

But how can they pull it off ?

SoCon has to take the lead and invite all of the southern CAA flank as a group.
If they can make that happen, then the northern CAA members are sitting there on a tee, and the AE has a driver in it's hand. Done deal.

However, if CAA tries to go first, and starts cherry-picking the other conferences, this will end up being an awful mess.
One encouraging thing is that last summer, when the CAA tried to raid the SoCon, only CoC budged...
and the other SoCOn members already knew ASU and GSU had one foot out the door.

Therefore the SoCon needs to hold tight, and if JMU jumps to the SunBelt in a week or so, UNCW and CoC will feel so isolated in the southern extreme of the CAA,
they should be willing to entertain proposals from the SoCon. I think WIlliam & Mary too, unless they open a dialogue with the Patriot, as has been rumored.
Richmond will react last to situate their FB in some league that looks appropriate.

If William & Mary moves to the Patriot expect them to also pick up Villanova and Richmond as fb only members. If that occurs Villanova would be in the same league as fellow Big East member Georgetown and Richmond (who might end up a BE mbr) would stay with in state fb rival W&M plus join fellow A10 member Fordham. That would give the Patriot League 10 fb teams which is a nice number for FCS conferences.

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

W&M makes so much sense for the Patriot, but don't they bungle it and tap BU. It's such a northern conference that I don't know if W&M would go if they even could do so. Richmond football helps a bit, but not for all those other sports where the closest game is almost 200 miles away.

While I used to hope for William & Mary to go to the Patriot I really see them either:

A) Being in the Southern Division of the CAA if the CAA can raid the SoCon first --OR--
B) Being a member of the SoCon if the SoCon is able to act before the CAA

With James Madison being a huge wildcard and the CAA's northern schools looking out for their interests I'd give the SoCon a 60% chance, CAA a 30% chance, and the Patriot a 10% chance.

The CAA can't serve two masters. If they value their football, they need to stop stonewalling the northern schools for all-sports invites and tell the likes of N'eastern, Hofstra, and Drexel that it's either "deal" or the door.

But if you must cater to the likes of programs who tell you they'll make good members with a football program, then pull the football program and stink up the hoops with it, then it's SoCon or bust, and let the northern football schools build their own conference...which they could easily do now.

You have programs like JMU and Delaware who are studying FBS viability. You have Richmond's and Villanova's who probably have no loyalty no matter what long-term course is laid. Then, you have the Towson's and W&M's...stuck in the middle between a more northern league or southern one.

The CAA right now looks like the Big East did.

An ugly hybrid with too many different factions:

1. Southern non-FB schools
2. Northern non-FB schools
3. Some FCS schools that probably want to stay FCS
4. Some FCS schools that want to go FBS.

The most sensible thing is to let the various groups go their separate ways.
1. to SoCon
2. to AE / MAAC, A-10 if really lucky !
3. to SoCon, AE, A-10
4. to Sun-Belt / MAC

I really hope the CAA doesn't try to survive by tearing apart another geographically sensible conference, but I expect they will try...

Yeah, it's kind of like mid-90's Big East.

What's to stop the northern schools to withdraw and AE to sponsor football? There's four already there...URI would follow, and I'm sure Monmouth would appreciate something closer to home? Any of the others: Villanova, Richmond, Towson, or Delaware...that's icing.