Monmouth is better from a competitiveness standpoint. Fairfield or Quinnipiac don't move me at all in that regard. With the addition of Stony Brook, I'm fine with Monmouth not being a complete institutional fit, because they should make our men's basketball better.

EDIT: clarified men's basketball, because Quinnipiac women's basketball would be a quality add.

I doubt that there is any mutual interest between CAA and Quinny. Fairfield though I get it. Good school. Good other sports. But lately I’m wondering if Northeastern thinks of Fairfield as peer. But if they want a travel partner, Fairfield is the best option.

Academics matter, whether anyone wants to admit it or not. Monmouth makes JMU academics look good. They immediately became an outlier. And yes Monmouth is better than average for men's basketball so that doesnt hurt, but to me it has to be more than a single sport being above average to move the needle. Are they close to Drexel, sure, which is not a negative, but for the whole conference I just dont see it. Makes perfect sense for Monmouth, but not the CAA. If sports eventually become regionalized, in Olympic sports, Monmouth becomes a worthwhile school for mens basketball only.

Again its not meant to be so negative, I like the fact the CAA has been out front making moves versus sitting back and seeing what happens. And if Monmouth created that opportunity for others to start moving, then its a worthwhile tradeoff. But down the road if other additions lower the academic standing of peers, then current members like NU or W&M etc will have less reason to want to stay put

Monmouth is absolutely above average in men's tennis, women's field hockey, and women's soccer, and arguably above average in men's and women's lacrosse and women's softball. Not to mention that they've have some football success in a conference that probably wasn't very exciting for a New Jersey school. This isn't a one-trick pony, this is a solid mid-major level athletic program.

They don't need to make sense for the conference as a whole. They need to make sense for the northern half of the conference, and in that regard, I can't see Monmouth as anything but a quality add. It's a school that's at least in the relative consciousness of the average Drexel student, and lord knows that DAC attendance needs all the help it can get. I'm glad to have them.

Interesting twitter thread. A10 adding lax and would have the 4 schools (Richmond, St. Bonaventure, St. Joseph's, UMass) along with 3 associate members (Fairfield, High Point, Hobart). This likely kills the rumors of two potential CAA candidates: Fairfield and High Point?

(03-26-2022 03:07 PM)ibby10 Wrote:  

Interesting twitter thread. A10 adding lax and would have the 4 schools (Richmond, St. Bonaventure, St. Joseph's, UMass) along with 3 associate members (Fairfield, High Point, Hobart). This likely kills the rumors of two potential CAA candidates: Fairfield and High Point?

The next add without football is likely going to be from the South, so I don't see that Fairfield was a really possibility. High Point would have been a second choice option if other schools didn't bite, so that leads me to believe there is a better option coming on board from the South.

It’s likely CAA is waiting for Howard to make up its mind. Football number doesn’t need to be even.

Howard spending $785m on renovation and new construction:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education...struction/

I wonder if they are spending anything on Burr gym or athletics.

(03-27-2022 12:55 PM)ibby10 Wrote:  It’s likely CAA is waiting for Howard to make up its mind. Football number doesn’t need to be even.

Howard spending $785m on renovation and new construction:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education...struction/

I wonder if they are spending anything on Burr gym or athletics.

I agree

Howard as #14 in the south with Hampton and A&T makes sense

(03-27-2022 09:38 PM)solohawks Wrote:  I agree

Howard as #14 in the south with Hampton and A&T makes sense

That would indeed make sense. But so would Albany as a full member if the CAA has plans to expand upto 16 schools. Maybe the #16 to pair up with Howard could be Norfolk State.

In the end though, it would be a bit complex to balance out both north and south divisions. Because on the football side, on the northern part, it has at least over 4 football only schools (Albany, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Villanova) with 3 non-football schools (Drexel, Hoftstra and Northeastern); while on the southern part, it has only one football only school in Richmond with 2 non-football schools in UNC Wilmington and the College of Charleston.

Basically as of this moment, the north flank is expanded from New England to the Mid-Atlantic plus Delaware, while the south flank is expanded from Maryland to Virginia to the Carolinas.

(03-29-2022 12:46 PM)jlog3000 Wrote:  

(03-27-2022 09:38 PM)solohawks Wrote:  I agree

Howard as #14 in the south with Hampton and A&T makes sense

That would indeed make sense. But so would Albany as a full member if the CAA has plans to expand upto 16 schools. Maybe the #16 to pair up with Howard could be Norfolk State.

In the end though, it would be a bit complex to balance out both north and south divisions. Because on the football side, on the northern part, it has at least over 4 football only schools (Albany, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Villanova) with 3 non-football schools (Drexel, Hoftstra and Northeastern); while on the southern part, it has only one football only school in Richmond with 2 non-football schools in UNC Wilmington and the College of Charleston.

Basically as of this moment, the north flank is expanded from New England to the Mid-Atlantic plus Delaware, while the south flank is expanded from Maryland to Virginia to the Carolinas.

I don't think you get another northern team until Howard or a southern school is added to establish a true southern division.

The imbalance you speak of for football doesn't matter as much as their is no Championship game and as long as schools get games against their rivals, divisons will be irrelevant

Even if there were a championship game, there is nothing preventing CAA Football from having different divisions from the CAA proper. The distribution of football-only schools does not matter when it comes to CAA expansion.

(03-29-2022 01:24 PM)solohawks Wrote:  I don't think you get another northern team until Howard or a southern school is added to establish a true southern division.

The imbalance you speak of for football doesn't matter as much as their is no Championship game and as long as schools get games against their rivals, divisons will be irrelevant

That I can understand totally in that regard. But I wasn't suggesting a championship game per se. Maybe they would have both division champs as automatic bids for the FCS playoffs. However, my point was about that would be in a scheduling balance standpoint and in a travel cut purpose standpoint. Let's say the CAA gets 14 teams with 2 divisions set. And the conference play amount of games is upto 7 instead of 8, which would be 6 against division foes, and 1 against the non-division foe, which would rotate in a 7-year span.

And for basketball, it would be basically 19 total conference games (double round robin against the 6 division foes, and one game each against the 7 non-division foes).

(03-29-2022 01:34 PM)jlog3000 Wrote:  

(03-29-2022 01:24 PM)solohawks Wrote:  I don't think you get another northern team until Howard or a southern school is added to establish a true southern division.

The imbalance you speak of for football doesn't matter as much as their is no Championship game and as long as schools get games against their rivals, divisons will be irrelevant

That I can understand totally in that regard. But I wasn't suggesting a championship game per se. Maybe they would have both division champs as automatic bids for the FCS playoffs. However, my point was about that would be in a scheduling balance standpoint and in a travel cut purpose standpoint. Let's say the CAA gets 14 teams with 2 divisions set. And the conference play amount of games is upto 7 instead of 8, which would be 6 against division foes, and 1 against the non-division foe, which would rotate in a 7-year span.

And for basketball, it would be basically 19 total conference games (double round robin against the 6 division foes, and one game each against the 7 non-division foes).

That setup for basketball is probably what they are shooting for

For football no matter how many teams I think they do a 3-5 setup with 3 permanent rivals and 5 rotating opponents. That gives the northern schools more frequent southern exposure

I agree with solohawks and jcohen42. Football number doesn’t matter. Scheduling in FCS is a little different than FBS. CAA Football could be scheduled in many ways (pods, north-central-south, 2 rivals, 3 rivals, etc.) and teams will have a chance to win whatever schedule thrown at them and still have a good portfolio for FCS at-large invite.

Next addition will likely be to strengthen the CAA all sports either athletically (Winthrop?) or DC+academics+prestige wise (Howard?). It’s probably a southern add. Could be from north too. But hearing A&T AD talk about North/South split as one rational for their move, I highly doubt a northern member. One northern candidate everyone talked about was Fairfield and they are leaving CAA lacrosse for A10. So that’s unlikely.

If football membership numbers don't matter, wouldn't be easier to boot out the football-only members and keep the core members (or schools who sponsor all sports, with football and basketball as the main priorities) in the league?

(03-29-2022 02:58 PM)jlog3000 Wrote:  If football membership numbers don't matter, wouldn't be easier to boot out the football-only members and keep the core members (or schools who sponsor all sports, with football and basketball as the main priorities) in the league?

Why would CAA do that?

First, CAA and CAA football are different entity. CAA football has its own entry and exit fee. Football-only members are not associate members. Each football-only member of CAA Football is a full-member of the football-only conference. Many of these football-only members are charter members of CAA football which evolved from A-10 football. They can’t be kicked out.

Full members who do not have football, such as Drexel, Hofstra, UNCW, etc., have no say in CAA football matters. The only caveat being, if CAA adds a full member who also has football, it automatically joins the CAA football entity, without requiring any vote from other CAA football members.

Second, many of the football only members are some of the strongest FCS teams. Nova, UNH, Maine, Richmond are excellent FCS teams and which makes CAA football one of the strongest FCS conferences, routinely sending multiple at-large teams to the FCS playoffs. In the unlikely scenario all football-only members leave, CAA football becomes extremely weak, one-bid football conference.

Third, some of these football-only teams have decades of history playing each other and with some of the CAA full members such as W&M, Delaware, Towson etc. Both sides want to continue to play each other.

In conclusion, CAA full members, with football, do not want to see football-only members leave. CAA full members, without football, have no say in it. And football-only members probably don’t like diluting CAA football with Hampton and Monmouth but have no choice. A&T on the other hand has strong football tradition…nice addition to CAA football.

No offense to the great danes, but I really dont think Albany would add anything as an all sports member. If we have to add a north team I hope it goes in a different direction than Albany. The I95 corridor as a league makes a whole lot of sense. Adding schools in the middle of nowhere wouldnt seem constructive.

Curious, why would Fairfield leave the CAA for lax? That new A-10 just doesn't seem as competitive as the CAA - do they see it as an easier path to an autobid? I guess travel is a little better, but they still would have to go to Virginia and NC with that alignment...

If Fairfield wanted the easiest path to an autobid, they would simply play MAAC lacrosse. It may be that the CAA pushed them to join for all sports if they wanted to continue in CAA lacrosse, and Fairfield didn't want to commit. Maybe Fairfield just likes being with UMass for lacrosse. Maybe Fairfield just wants to be associated with the Atlantic-10 name brand. Hard to say for sure, really.

Maybe Fairfield thinks that being in the A10 for lacrosse would help them get in the A10 for all sports in future!