CAA Expansion

[ProudofPride]

Hampton is expected to join the CAA in July 1. Stony Brook and Monmouth are also being targeting.
I take it this means President Poser isn’t blocking SBU like Rabinowitz did.

https://twitter.com/JonRothstein/status ... 30722?s=20

[CTDutch]

No mention of Fairfield. This sucks. Hampton?? Really?

[EvanJ]

Hampton is 35 minutes from W&M, but they wouldn't be travel partners unless Towson and Elon become travel partners, and they are 5:20 away according to Google Maps. If Towson is paired with W&M and Hampton is paired with Elon, that's 3:18 and 3:43 for a total of 7:01. If Towson is paired with Hampton and W&M is paired with Elon, that's 3:35 and 3:29 for a total of 7:04.

[HUSID74]

No mention of Fairfield. This sucks. Hampton?? Really?

CT Dutch if you go on the Drexel board on CNBBS there is a tremendous amount of speculation regarding expansion. The talk if of expanding to 14 teams and north/south divisions.

There are many schools mentioned including Fairfield as they currently play lacrosse in the CAA...IONA is even mentioned!

[Polito]

Sigh...

Look I appreciate that the conf would shift a bit more north, and I imagine this is about splitting into 2 divisions, which would certainly make travel cost better for all. I def get that.

But this won’t move the dial for the conf or benefit HUs actual success - what it does is add more to the road of winning the conf champ. If JMU leaves, and they should because they’re one of the only schools with vision, know-how, and balls, then let them and replace them… with ONE team.

Expansion for mid majors does nothing except make it harder - no big tv contract is coming from this. This conf has no real leadership to put any trust in to making moves like this into any big boost.

And why Why WHY is HU helping Stony Brook on their success path???? HU can’t even elevate itself for goodness sake, yet it’s going to fuel their program growth??? LOL that’s genius. Can’t make this stuff up.

Why the heck do they want to join when they have football? So they will be hoops only? Again, WHY?

HU is already on its way to another 20+ year drought, squandering talent like usual, this will only make it tougher - imagine all the future bone headed losses against these teams? Imagine Newsday when SBU makes it over HU beating them in their own conf? How much will the conf rank fall from these moves?

There is only ONE thing that matters when you have no football, and that’s the NCAAT for men’s hoops. That’s it. Nothing else makes a bit of difference. And this move does not help that one bit for HU.

[HUSID74]

Sigh...

Look I appreciate that the conf would shift a bit more north, and I imagine this is about splitting into 2 divisions, which would certainly make travel cost better for all. I def get that.

But this won’t move the dial for the conf or benefit HUs actual success - what it does is add more to the road of winning the conf champ. If JMU leaves, and they should because they’re one of the only schools with vision, know-how, and balls, then let them and replace them… with ONE team.

Expansion for mid majors does nothing except make it harder - no big tv contract is coming from this. This conf has no real leadership to put any trust in to making moves like this into any big boost.

And why Why WHY is HU helping Stony Brook on their success path???? HU can’t even elevate itself for goodness sake, yet it’s going to fuel their program growth??? LOL that’s genius. Can’t make this stuff up.

Why the heck do they want to join when they have football? So they will be hoops only? Again, WHY?

HU is already on its way to another 20+ year drought, squandering talent like usual, this will only make it tougher - imagine all the future bone headed losses against these teams? Imagine Newsday when SBU makes it over HU beating them in their own conf? How much will the conf rank fall from these moves?

There is only ONE thing that matters when you have no football, and that’s the NCAAT for men’s hoops. That’s it. Nothing else makes a bit of difference. And this move does not help that one bit for HU.

First of all, JMU is already gone so that ship has sailed. Secondly SBU was only one of some 10 schools mentioned...the most prominently mentioned about joining for the North is Monmouth which would be a good addition...there will need to be a Southern school added and many have been mentioned.

I for one like the idea of two divisions, a North and a South. Play in your division a home and home and one game per year in the other. We need to build our local rivalries and there will be less travel involved for the schools and the fans.

As for a bid to the NCAA who knows? Maybe with 14 schools we just might get two!

[HUSID74]

For more on this topic you can visit the Drexel boards...considerable discussion...https://csnbbs.com/thread-933730.html

[HofstraPride1]

Mixed feelings as while Hampton is good geographic fit for southern division and has solid academics (36% acceptance rate), they are terrible in non basketball sports and would be big RPI drag in soccer and lacrosse. Monmouth I love and while Stony Brook would be great in terms of enhancing the rivalry, would rather they still in America East. Would much prefer Fairfield as the second northern school with Monmouth. Either way it would be positive for Hofstra to have north-south division setup.

[EvanJ]

A Drexel fan posted a tweet that Stony Brook is joining.

[Polito]

As for a bid to the NCAA who knows? Maybe with 14 schools we just might get two!

LOLOLOL

By adding Hampton and SBU??

Again, LOLOLOLOL where are the crying laughing emojis when you need them.

If that helps you keep the blinders on to sleep at night under a total falsehood, so be it, but pls HUSID don't drag the unsuspecting over-hopeful down that hole with you!

Either way it would be positive for Hofstra to have north-south division setup.

But why?? Some travel savings impact? Cool. That gonna move the dial? How much we talking? Anyone know? Yeah, I didn't think so. Where's the data to understand the true actual impact of such? Highly doubt that gets seen any time soon. And what will they do with "all" that money that will be supposedly saved? Doubt we'll see that anytime soon either.

It only makes HU's path to the tourney harder. So yeah, no, not a clear cut positive either way. Just the opposite when we're talking about what matters, dancing.


Oh and if I was Iona I would laugh the CAA right out of the room / off the zoom call on any convo to join this conf and ruin their basketball NCAAT powerhouse.

[triplec2195]

For more on this topic you can visit the Drexel boards...considerable discussion...https://csnbbs.com/thread-933730.html

There's a lot of info. being exchanged here and a lot of good points being made but let's not be naive here. We want on the one hand to have a conference that is somewhat close in proximity but also need to have enough schools to get an automatic bid. I would have no problem getting rid of the southern schools if we can align and keep our auto bid. Getting Monmouth here would be a win win but not Stony Brook. Let them stay where they're and we don't want to water down this conference with an inordinate amount of schools. This would make it harder to get in the tournament I believe and god knows we already are having a tough enough time getting there. Lets not fool ourselves with extra schools here we're not creating a new A10 that's going to get multiple bids. We're not going to get multiple bids we might have a better chance of winning a National Championship, lol. Why can't we just keep the same number of schools and if they can be strategically in the North then all the better.

[stuball888]

Let me put another view on this. with JMU leaving the CAA might bee looking for schools who have football. Monmouth and SBU foot that bill. what does each school bring to the table for the conference. Monmouth Basketball is solid and probably better than SBU. What can SBU bring to the CAA.that Monmouth canrt. Womens lax and womens basketball are better than Monmouth. It would probably be wash as far as the people in Richmond are concerned. Also SBU already plays football in the CAA. If SBU does come aboard who fills SBUs slotin Hofstras OOC. That would be LIU who we would play every year.

[HUSID74]

Stu, you're right about football but the CAA will want a football playing Southern school as well...I can see us taking Monmouth and Fairfield and a Southern school.

[EvanJ]

If Stony Brook joins, and we don't play St. John's or Fordham, the nearest schools OOC are Long Island, St. Francis (Brooklyn), Columbia, Wagner, Manhattan, and Iona. If we play four of them every season, one non-Division I game, and three games in a tournament, that's eight of the normal thirteen without non-tournament games against teams not in the area.

Would you want a round-robin tournament with teams from four conferences in four parts of the area? It could be us, LIU (Northeast, city part), Fairfield (MAAC, Connecticut part), and Princeton (Ivy, New Jersey part). If you want the New Jersey team to be closer, Columbia could replace Princeton, which would make Columbia represent the city and take LIU out, and the Northeast could have Fairleigh Dickinson. Alternatively, the Northeast could have Sacred Heart in the Connecticut part, and the MAAC could have St. Peter's in the New Jersey part.

Edit: With 12 teams, there doesn't have to be two divisions of six. There could be three pods of four, which is what the CAA does for Football, but will have to stop doing for Football if they get above 12 Football teams. Having two divisions of six and playing teams in the other division once would be a decrease to 16 CAA games. You could play two teams in the other division twice to make 18, but I prefer pods to get 18 games. Each team would play their own pod twice (3x2 = 6 games, you don't play yourself), one pod twice (4x2 = 8 games), and one pod once (4x1 = 4 games). Call the pods North (N), Central (C), and South (S). In a four season rotation, we could play:

1: C teams twice, host S1 and S2, go to S3 and S4
2: C teams twice, host S3 and S4, go to S1 and S2
3: S teams twice, host C1 and C2, go to C3 and C4
4: S teams twice, host C3 and C4, go to S1 and S2

If you make two divisions of six and play 18 conference games including playing two teams in the other division twice, teams in the same division would not have identical opponents. With my pod proposal, teams in the same pod would have identical opponents, with the only difference being what teams they host and what teams they go to in the pod they play once. If the CAA wants the CAA Tournament to have seeding in divisions, pods don't work. If the CAA seeds teams from 1 to 12, which is what I want, pods are fine. If my pods idea happens, I would prefer the standings to not be divided into pods.

[EvanJ]

A Drexel fan said Albany claims they have been invited to a 16 team CAA.

[HofstraMathew]

A Drexel fan said Albany claims they have been invited to a 16 team CAA.

16 teams!?!?!? Can't imagine this ends up well for us. Guess we need to see how everything shakes out but I think a 10-12 team conference was a good sweet spot to give us opportunities every year.

[CTDutch]

Seems like Stony Brook, Monmouth & Hampton

https://www.nj.com/setonhall/2022/01/mo ... ation.html

[EvanJ]

I hope it doesn't go up to more than 12. Monmouth is closer to us, Stony Brook, Delaware, Drexel, and Towson than to Northeastern, but Monmouth and Northeastern have to be travel partners unless we aren't partners with Stony Brook. Similarly, W&M and Hampton are nearby, but in order for them to be partners, Towson would have to be partners with Elon. It's possible the CAA eliminates travel partners but still does things like making every team that plays at us and Stony Brook do it both on one trip; the same for W&M and Hampton; and having teams play two of Monmouth, Drexel, and Delaware on one trip.

We were the only New York team when the CAA had five in Virginia, and now New York, Virginia, and North Carolina will be tied for the most CAA teams with two if nobody else joins. Every team except Elon will be near water.

I hope the CAA gets more local media coverage with three teams in the area. If each team plays the other two twice a year, that's six games.

[Wags]

Seems like Stony Brook, Monmouth & Hampton

https://www.nj.com/setonhall/2022/01/mo ... ation.html

At this point, the most likely scenario seems to be pointing toward this:

CAA North:
Northeastern
Hofstra
Stony Brook
Monmouth
Drexel
Delaware

CAA South:
Towson
William & Mary
Hampton
Elon
UNCW
Charleston

Maybe the best news for Hofstra and Hofstra fans with these potential moves is with two northern teams added and only one southern team added, replacing a southern team departing (so, a net of +2 in the north), it would make even more sense than ever to keep the CAA tournament as north as possible, like no farther south than D.C. rather than returning to Charleston, somewhere in Virginia, etc. However, with the league office still in Virginia, you never know.

I'm guessing they'll opt for the split divisions for travel reasons, but the CAA did have 12 teams with no divisions when Georgia State was still fairly new in the league and the conference tourney was still in Richmond. I would prefer to see as many teams as possible. Not sure rivalries would be any stronger than they are now (maybe with Monmouth and/or Stony Brook), but since HU already plays everyone twice already (in a year with no Covid cancellations), I don't think the rivalry angle is a thing to get too excited about with split divisions. Rather, I think it could become very stale playing the same five teams twice each and some others only once each year.

[HofstraPride1]

Those divisions make sense, although Towson def would get screwed being in southern division even though a better geographic fit in north. There is no way around it though it does not appear.