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[HofstraPride1]

Add Albany and SBU and make two divisions but it will never happen

Why do you say it won't happen when they are already on board for CAA football? I could see when Hofstra was having a cold war with Stony Brook but now there is peace so could see them maybe being receptive to them being added or at least not dead-set against it.

[The Shadow]

Adding SBU and Albany seems to be the best option. I really do not believe that the southern colleges will go along with only adding northern schools.

[stuball888]

When we went in 13 years ago the CAA was Virginia centric. Dont be surprised if JMU or W&M leave they would add another Carolina school. I can see the CAA becoming Carolina centric.

[Wags]

Add Albany and SBU and make two divisions but it will never happen

You could already have two divisions in men's hoops now:

North - Drexel, Delaware, Hofstra, Northeastern, Towson
South - Charleston, Elon, JMU, UNCW, W&M

Then, scrap the conference tourney, since it never draws well anyway (and probably won't draw that much better in Charleston).

In place of the the tourney, hold a best 2-of-3 championship series on the home floors of the North and South winners.

The only thing I wouldn't like about that is that the tourney is fun and like the NFL, you can possibly win a division with a worse record than a non-first-place team in the opposite division, and that non-first-place team would get screwed (which I hate with the NFL). But it sure would make the regular season a lot more meaningful than it is now, wouldn't it?

(this was in jest; I don't really mean this as a viable solution at ALL, by the way - just wanted to see how it looked in black & white).

[ProudofPride]

Looks like our women's team got overlooked on hosting the women's championship. Us and Delaware should've gotten priority since we have the best overall facilities including the practice facility. JMU is fine since the convocation center is a decent size, but how Drexel gets to host in their tiny gym is mind boggling. JMU has more attendance than Drexel's gym holds, and their fans travel very well, especially to the tournaments. At least our team plays well on the road, so hopefully not having home court advantage won't hurt them. The 3 that were chosen have much better attendance than we do.
http://caasports.com/news/2016/1/28/WBB_0128163451.aspx

[Polito]

To me this isn't so much about the impact to HU fan attendance, it will likely stay similar, although it can't be just ignored that there is now a significant cost increase - I mean let's be fair, that IS a factor...

But it's really about media exposure - it's tough enough to get the NY media to latch on for this tournament, even when HU is good, now we are hoping they go down to nowhere USA to cover this thing? Not likely - and to me exposure is HUGE and one of the most important things, esp for HU - say what you will, but the location in the NYC region does a lot of good for HU when they have something or someone worth giving ink to, like they do now - it can be slight, but even a slight additional dose of exposure up here is impactful

HU winning the AE and sitting on the back page of Newsday did a HELLUVA lot more for attention than anything on some Charleston gazette or whatever they have lol - I still have the one with Stormin Norman on the cover when it said 'America's Team'

At any rate, it's a beautiful destination and fine location/venue for the CAA. But I think it's time for HU to A) seriously explore options, with or without the others, and B) coordinate with the new coliseum folks to put in a bid for the next round - let's play the game

Either will take time, but I don't accept that neither are doable - they are. They just take the 'w' word!

[Flying Dutchmen]

Why would the New York media attach itself to the CAA Tournament even if it was held in New York? The A-10 tournament has been in Brooklyn the past few years, nobody seems to care, and they have more clout than the CAA. The best thing you can say about the A-10 tournament is that it's a true neutral site, because nobody shows up!

A lot of people seem to think Hofstra is getting slighted by this move. Like HUSID said, Charleston may be the only city who made a good offer to even host the tournament. Richmond seemed to offer as well, which might have been an interesting move, but Charleston was likely the more lucrative offer, and it's good to have a local fanbase in the building for at least one session.

I think the CAA Tournament in Baltimore has been somewhat of a failure. The first year, local promotion for the event was pathetic. The "Fanfest" consisted of Pizza hut giving away free slices of pizza in a park across the street from the arena. Locals who we spoke to blocks away from the Baltimore Arena had no clue what was going on, at least in Richmond they were aware of the tournament going on. I thought it was improved in '15, but the event still got pushed under the rug in a market like Baltimore. With Charleston, at least we have a better chance to me more relevant locally.

As for Hofstra leaving the CAA because the conference tournament is in Charleston, give me a break. Most of you would not show up if the tournament was in Albany (MAAC), half of you would not show up to the CAA Tournament if it was at Nassau Coliseum. Why do people feel so strongly about this? Nobody ever shows up for Hofstra, not even in the Hofstra Arena!! Last night's crowd was pathetic (again) and we're in first place!! The CAA Tournament should be held where the conference will the make the most money and get the best local push!

The local NY newspapers would cover the tournament the same if it was in Nassau County or Charleston. We might get an article in Newsday, a short blurb in the others, that we wouldn't get otherwise, but that's about it. If we win the CAA Tournament, we'll be on the back cover of Newsday, whether we play here in New York, Baltimore, Richmond, Charleston, you name it. The area around the Coliseum sucks for a tournament too, it's nonsense to believe hosting the CAA Tournament at the Nassau Coliseum is a good idea. Is everyone going to just visit Roosevelt Field while their waiting for their session to start?

If people want Hofstra to leave the CAA for other reasons, I can accept that, the MAAC seems like a natural progression, but it's a significant downgrade from what we have in the CAA. Where the tournament is held is nearly irrelevant for Hofstra, because we've proven time and time again, that win or lose, nobody cares.

[daHUPride]

KenPom - has:
JMU (74)
Hofstra (82)
W&M (83)
UNCW (84)
talk about parity - tho s league is tougher then I thought before the season started

[stuball888]

Even though we are #9 ranked conference. I think thats the highest the CAA has ever been ranked we are by RPI standards only a 1 bid league.

[Wags]

Even though we are #9 ranked conference. I think thats the highest the CAA has ever been ranked we are by RPI standards only a 1 bid league.

I think when VCU, Mason and ODU were still in the league, it might have been ranked as much 1-2 spots higher at times, but not sure about that.

To even be in the top 10 now, after the departure of those three teams, says a lot about the teams that are left and their abilities to maintain a high enough collective quality of play that still puts the league among the best in the nation.

[stuball888]

While the top is a little below the ODU, Mason and vcu standard the bottom is much better than in years past. That is why we are ranked so high. There is more balance in the conference this year.

[Wags]

While the top is a little below the ODU, Mason and vcu standard the bottom is much better than in years past. That is why we are ranked so high. There is more balance in the conference this year.

Yeah, aside from Drexel and Delaware, it's a deep league this year. Half of the conference right now has a very solid shot of winning 20 games this year. All 5 may not do so, but they could.

One thing to watch out for if HU ends up winning the league, Northeastern (tied for 7th right now) has been a major disappointment off of last year's tourney title, and could finish 8th. But if they start to suddenly figure things out in Baltimore, HU could have a much tougher 1/8 matchup than a CAA one seed should ever have for its first CAA tourney game. We'll see how things shake out, but it could be that by the end of this month, finishing second instead of winning the league might actually work more to HU's advantage or to anyone else who might still be in contention for the regular season title by then.