CAA Conference Rumors

[HUSID74]

Not sure why it hasn't been picked up on these boards but there is significant talk on other member boards regarding the CAA...see UNCW.

Speculation has JMU leaving (good riddance) for the Sun Belt to play lousy FBS football.

This has prompted speculation that the CAA is looking to morph into two divisions; South and North, to ease travel costs for all sports. It has also been speculated that the CAA is in discussions to add UNC Greensboro to the Southern Division and add Fairfield and Monmouth to the North.

I for one would whole-heartedly welcome these changes.

Should make for an interesting winter.

What do all of you think?

[stuball888]

The Big South is a decent fit for JMU the question is will Delaware or Towson leave the CAA also for football Could the MAC or conference USA entice these schools to leave the CAA

[Jojogunne]

Sounds good to me. FF already plays MLAX in the CAA.

[triplec2195]

Logistically this would be good for us and we play Monmouth often anyway. Fairfield hasn't really had really good basketball teams lately I don't think but still a good fit. Thanks for informing everyone HUSID PERSONALLY i DON'T READ OTHER schools posts. Important info.

[HUSID74]

The Big South is a decent fit for JMU the question is will Delaware or Towson leave the CAA also for football Could the MAC or conference USA entice these schools to leave the CAA

Nope...not happenin'

[EvanJ]

The Big South is worse than the CAA in Football and Men's Basketball. JMU wouldn't go there.

If JMU leaves and UNCG, Monmouth, and Fairfield join, Towson would be in the South, and I don't know if they would like that. Without playing every opponent twice, I wonder if there would still be travel partners. If teams play division opponents twice and the other division once, it will be 16 CAA games, which would be unusually low. The amount of conference games is trending up because conferences with fewer than ten teams have gone up, and conferences with too many teams for a balanced schedule have gone up from 18 to 20 conference games. If the amount of CAA games remained 18, teams could have a three season rotation with the other division with two teams they play twice, two teams they play at home, and two teams they play away. When the CAA went up to 12 teams in 2005-2006, they made a six season rotation. Each team had five permanent partners, and for the other six teams they played them home only, away only, and both in two seasons each.
Going to four teams in the other division would let travel partners stay. They would be Northeastern and Fairfield, us and Monmouth, Delaware and Drexel, Towson and W&M, Elon and UNCG, and UNCW and Charleston. You could argue that the UNC state schools should be partners, but they will be in the same division, and Elon and UNCG are much closer to each other than either one is to UNCW. Northeastern and us would be closer to our travel partner. Towson would be farther from their travel partner. They're closer to Delaware and Drexel than to JMU and W&M, and they're 214 miles from us and W&M according to Google Maps.

Edit: W&M fans say they, UNCW, Elon, and Charleston will go to the Southern Conference (SoCon), which would leave the CAA only with teams that came from the America East. Among teams north of Virginia other than Fairfield and Monmouth, CAA fans have talked about adding, Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC, who isn't near any other America East team), Stony Brook, and Boston University.

[HofstraPride1]

Not sure why it hasn't been picked up on these boards but there is significant talk on other member boards regarding the CAA...see UNCW.

Speculation has JMU leaving (good riddance) for the Sun Belt to play lousy FBS football.

This has prompted speculation that the CAA is looking to morph into two divisions; South and North, to ease travel costs for all sports. It has also been speculated that the CAA is in discussions to add UNC Greensboro to the Southern Division and add Fairfield and Monmouth to the North.

I for one would whole-heartedly welcome these changes.

Should make for an interesting winter.

What do all of you think?

I would be all for adding Fairfield and Monmouth for geography reasons and they are also solid academic schools. Less enthusiastic about UNCG and would prefer Furman, Wofford or High Point in south

[HofstraMathew]

https://richmond.com/sports/college/caa ... 6ac6e.html

Looks like the first domino for the CAA might be official by the end of the week.

[Jojogunne]

So JMU is hosting the WSOC playoffs tomorrow and Sunday. What happens if they announce their move on Friday? Would they still host the championship on Sunday?

[stuball888]

Jojo dont you mean mens soccer Elon is hosting womens soccer CAA tournament

[Wags]

https://richmond.com/sports/college/caa ... 6ac6e.html

Looks like the first domino for the CAA might be official by the end of the week.

Gonna miss JMU. Hofstra has had some fun, memorable games with them.

The CAA is just being consistent with its bylaw the way it did when ODU left, but it's a terrible bylaw. Teams should be able to compete for titles in a conference if they haven't left yet, regardless of future plans. Imagine if Hofstra was told it couldn't have defended its America East title because it was going to the CAA.

Even D’Antonio sounds like he doesn't want to enforce the bylaw, but begrudgingly has to:
"It’s not my job to determine whether it makes sense or doesn’t make sense. It’s my job to make sure the bylaws are enforced the way they’re written.”

[triplec2195]

https://richmond.com/sports/college/caa ... 6ac6e.html

Looks like the first domino for the CAA might be official by the end of the week.

Gonna miss JMU. Hofstra has had some fun, memorable games with them.

The CAA is just being consistent with its bylaw the way it did when ODU left, but it's a terrible bylaw. Teams should be able to compete for titles in a conference if they haven't left yet, regardless of future plans. Imagine if Hofstra was told it couldn't have defended its America East title because it was going to the CAA.

Even D’Antonio sounds like he doesn't want to enforce the bylaw, but begrudgingly has to:
"It’s not my job to determine whether it makes sense or doesn’t make sense. It’s my job to make sure the bylaws are enforced the way they’re written.”

This is just a very SPITEFUL RULE PERIOD!!

[stuball888]

Well it was voted upon by the presidents of each university just like the the 1 million dollar exit fee JMU has to pay the CAA when it leaves. I wonder where that money winds up?

[EvanJ]

We get the 1 seed in Men's Soccer unless we lose hosting UNCW and Northeastern wins at JMU. Northeastern trails us by 3 points, and they beat us, so they can get the 1 seed, and that was true even if JMU was eligible.

JMU said eight other conferences have teams announce they are leaving, and none of them were banned from conference tournaments.

[Jojogunne]

Jojo dont you mean mens soccer Elon is hosting womens soccer CAA tournament

Yes, my bad.

[Wags]

https://richmond.com/sports/college/caa ... 6ac6e.html

Looks like the first domino for the CAA might be official by the end of the week.

Gonna miss JMU. Hofstra has had some fun, memorable games with them.

The CAA is just being consistent with its bylaw the way it did when ODU left, but it's a terrible bylaw. Teams should be able to compete for titles in a conference if they haven't left yet, regardless of future plans. Imagine if Hofstra was told it couldn't have defended its America East title because it was going to the CAA.

Even D’Antonio sounds like he doesn't want to enforce the bylaw, but begrudgingly has to:
"It’s not my job to determine whether it makes sense or doesn’t make sense. It’s my job to make sure the bylaws are enforced the way they’re written.”

This is just a very SPITEFUL RULE PERIOD!!

That's exactly what it is. And yes, it's the schools who vote on it, but it's pretty shortsighted. What if another CAA member finds itself in the same position as JMU someday? Wouldn't that school want to compete for CAA titles on the way out? Why potentially hurt themselves with a bad bylaw like that?

[HofstraPride1]

Well it was voted upon by the presidents of each university just like the the 1 million dollar exit fee JMU has to pay the CAA when it leaves. I wonder where that money winds up?

Is a ludicrous archaic rule that needs to change asap! I feel for the student athletes who will suffer over a decision they had no say in.

[Polito]

I would agree it sucks for the kids... but JMU did this to ODU, VCU, and GMU, so that's the way it goes - they literally voted for the same thing was those 3 left. Amazing how empathetic people are all of a sudden for JMU - JMU doesn't give a rats ass about HU or the CAA. Again, crappy for the kids, but this is a business and life isn't fair.


HUSID, I've been calling attention to the landscape shifts coming to the CAA for a long time this has been a long time coming, and HU and the CAA have been sleeping IMO. Now scrambling for adds.

And all of you are excited lol - I think some of you are very misguided on what's good for HU. ADDING competition for HU to get to the dance is NOT a positive. This is an expansion that makes sense for the CAA, no issue with those programs from a conf perspective. From an HU perspective, guys, this stinks. HU doesn't need any more challenges to make the dance - it has a hard enough time on its own.

These 3 schools will do absolutely nothing to help HU, and will in no way shape or form help this conf get to a second bid, which would be the only other benefit. So all it does it make the road to the one bid harder.

The ONLY thing that matters is HU in the NCAAT. That is IT. All this other crap about local rivalry, conference balance, etc is nonsense. N C A A T - that is IT. And expansion with basic mids just makes it harder with no benefit at all. Conf rank won't even go up with these 3. It's weak, because the CAA is weak with weak leadership.

The only way this works out positive is if more leave and these 3 replace them and the number of schools stays the same. That I'll take all day. But you all that have this pipe dream of the A10 thinking that HU making the dance less is somehow going to help those chances, you're gonna be waiting your lifetime. HU needs consistent high level success to make itself attractive enough to leave this awful conference. Making the dance every 20 years is pretty pathetic and will not move the dial one iota. This is my biggest source of frustration with this program in the modern era - it absolutely has to dance more, and squandered opps to do so.

This U should be 100% focused on hoops in the dance - all out, all in, full on commitment to that singular goal. It should not be a nice to have, it needs to become an expectation. This conf is terrible. It's just evenly basic across the board. HU should be much more dominant IMO. But I know not all agree - however that doesn't matter, agree or not, HU isn't winning the conf nearly enough to make an impact, and conf expansion will only hurt that.

A lot on Speedy's plate to achieve - this program needs REPEAT trips to the dance. Not one and done for 2 decades. I think he has the potential, and the program is at least in a positive winning state... but the road is long still to get to where HU needs to be - forget Iona, HU can't touch them, but let's at least think Liberty!

The next era begins tonight - I may seem negative, but I assure you I am not - I am excited - and being real about how I see things - the potential here is huge, as Jay always said. HU Hoops can be truly one of the premier mids in the country. It is absolutely doable. We just need someone to lead it there.

[HUSID74]

Polito without a strong conference there is no dance for Hofstra! I know you don't go back that far but at one time we were in a conference the ECC which DID NOT GET A BID to the Dance and of course we won that lame conference one year.

In this current landescape ITS ALL ABOUT CONFERENCE AFFILIATION. Sure I would like to be in the A10 but that ain't going to happen unless Fordham finally does the right thing and moves to the Patriot.

[Polito]

I will concede that conference strength absolutely makes a difference in NCAAT seeding. So for that, this kind of thing can make a difference.

... but see Hofstra has to actually make the dance for it to matter.

As far as not having a bid, this is a complete non-issue - you're referencing something from a lifetime ago. EVERY D1 conf winner gets an auto bid, there is zero risk there unless the CAA falls below the member requirements.

This expansion is unnecessary, will add next to nothing in conf strength, make next to no impact on seeding, and will only make the league harder with more teams - zero benefit to HU. I maintain my position on that.

I am not excited one iota about adding competition that doesn't move the dial ... totally useless to me. All I want is HU in the dance. Repeatedly.