Looking at Some Potential Targets for CAA Expansion
While most JMU fans still have plenty to say about the recent departures from the CAA, it’s time to look forward. With VCU gone and ODU on its way out, there are some big holes to fill. Both schools had solid hoops programs that were perennial contenders for the league title. And despite only playing one year of CAA football, ODU estabsilshed itself as a program to be taken seriously. In addition to those losses, the CAA will need to replace Georgia State a program that brought a lot to the table as well nobody cared about anyway. Plus, Rhode Island will be off to the Northeast Conference in 2013, leaving CAA with 8 football members and 9 for all other sports. There are plenty of schools that the CAA is rumored to be targeting for expansion. Let’s take a look at a four of them and the odds of each joining the league.
Stony Brook University
Location: Stony Brook, NY (Long Island)
Size: 24,594 students
Rumors of the CAA scooping up Stony Brook have been floating around online for months. Its a large state university that is located less than an hour away from Hofstra. Like a lot of the schools in the SUNY system, its somewhat of an unknown to people outside of the Northeast. It’s a solid school with a good athletic program. Its teams play in the America East Conference, except for its football team which plays in the Big South. Last year, the football team won the Big South and made it to the second round of the playoffs. In hoops they won the regular season title, before falling the conference tourney. The did secure an NIT bid however. They’re a solid investment for the future, something Glenmore Investment would probably support.
Odds: 5-1
Appalachian State
Location: Boone, NC
Size: 20,222 students
The Mountaineers are probably the “dream” option for a lot of JMU football fans. They’re a powerhouse program with outstanding support and several National Championships in the trophy case. They currently play in the Southern Conference, a league whose fans claim (unconvincingly) is every bit as good as the CAA in football. The Mountaineer hoops program leaves a little to be desired though. So while the addition of App State would cement the CAA as the top FCS football league in the land, the hoops team would do little more than fill a slot. And with the school (and it’s fans) already declaring its desire to go FBS, a move to another FCS conference might not go over well.
Odds 12-1
College of Charleston
Location: Charleston, SC
Size: 9,866 students
C of C doesn’t have football, so this move would be made primarily with hoops in mind. And it would be a solid addition to the league. The Cougars are currently members of the Southern Conference along with App State. While not a house-hold name, C of C has a proud basketball history, reaching the NCAA tournament 4 times in the 90’s. They haven’t been back to the dance in a decade, but they were a consistent winner under former head coach Bobby Cremins. Doug Wojick will take over for Cremins next season and look to build on a 18 win campaign. Adding Charleston would be enticing for UNCW, who are left hanging without any other CAA schools in the Carolinas. It also would make for a very nice road trip for CAA fans.
Odds: 8-1
Davidson College
Location: Davidson, NC
Size: 1,890 students
Davidson has a football program, but their addition would be more of a move for hoops. And honestly, I didn’t even know they had a football program until I just Googled it, so this would really be a hoops focused addition. Davidson has a very strong and relatively well known mid-major hoops program thanks to alums like Seth Curry and former head coach Lefty Driesell. They also sent Denzel Bowles home with a loss in his final game as a Duke, in the opening round of some low-rent post-season tourney 2 years ago. The Wildcats currently compete in the Pioneer League for football and the Southern Conference for all other sports. Football would need to improve dramatically to hang in the CAA. With 11 NCAA tournament appearances including one last season, the Davidson hoops team would be a shot in the arm to a rebuilding CAA. The school’s small size might be a factor that works against the CAA though.
Odds 10-1
This just makes me more upset. All these choices suck, frankly. I saw that our athletic department is taking a “holistic approach”. Given the outstanding success of our men’s basketball program, the dream season the baseball team is having this year, and the fact that our wrestling and archery teams haven’t lost a match in 8 years, maybe we should look into a conference with Mary Baldwin, Hollins, Sweet Briar and RMWC?
I was looking for something more like this: “We just poured a ton of money into a really nice football stadium. Lets face it, our football team is not only a national powerhouse, but it drives the entire athletic department. Therefore, we are going to move forward in a way that makes the most financial sense (aka we’re going to find a good fit for the football team) while maintaining the academic integrity of our institution (which is why people come here).”
I digress…. let’s look at the garbage that was mentioned as new members:
Stony Brook- Historically our early season cupcake. They are the the best friend a walk-on ever had because it ment you got to actually play that weekend. I thought they were division II (?)
Crappy Appy- Only good option. They will never leave the SOCON. To be honest, I don’t blame them. I have been the biggest SOCON basher for years, however the combination of adding crap teams like Ga State (and possibly any of the teams mentioned above), plus the disintegration of the CAA, plus the idiotic concept of “non-football members”…. I wouldn’t leave the SOCON either. Actually….maybe JMU/UDel/Bill & Gary should consider leaving the CAA and joining the SOCON.
C of C- I would end the discussion at “doesn’t have football”. If we can finally purge crap like VCU (and hopefully Mason), why on earth would we replace them? At least C of C requires higher than an 8th grade reading level for admission. That would be an upgrade.
Davidson- The football program for all intents and purposes is Division III. The only reason they “moved up” (about 10 years ago) was because the NCAA required them to because of the basketball program. That being said…at least they have a football team. The basketball team would wipe the floor with the CAA, except for possibly Mason (who’s going to leave anyway). They also wipe the floor with the pioneer league, and get a bid to the big dance almost every year. Not sure why they would move to the CAA. No benefit to them.
Unless the SOCON busts up, or Wake/Duke/ECU/Marshall get kicked out of the BCS, or Adriana Lima walks into my office right this second and begs me to have her next child…… we need to start shopping around at the BCS level, even if that means trying to create a new BCS conference (which was the original plan for JMU before U-Tex prematurely tipped the dominoes last fall).
…and don’t tell me that “there just isn’t a TV market in Harrisonburg”. Nobody lives in Blacksburg, either.
I actually think all these schools are good options, and I like the BU option that was mentioned in your twitter link today as well. Increasing the academic and basketball standards of the conference are definitely the best options financially.
Has JMU ever even played Stony Brook in football? I can’t find any mention of it anywhere. I was sort of turned off by the idea of adding Stony Brook at first to, but I don’t think it would be that bad. They have an improving football program that won a playoff game last year and the hoops team is decent. I’m not sure what other schools out there could bring a competitive football team and hoops team to the table. Unless the Southern Conference starts to crumble, I don’t think it’s likely any of those schools joining the CAA.
And despite the fact that lots of JMU fans want the CAA to think “football first”, basketball is going to be a huge factor in expansion. There very well might be schools added that don’t even sponsor football.
The CAA needs to re-stock with schools which are similar in size and geography with the existing member institutions. No new members which are not also football members should be addded, period.
Those considerations rule out Davidson, which is an excellent academic institution but at 1,800 students is far too small to fit into the CAA. JMU is more than 10 times the size of Davidson!
Those considerations also rule out Charleston, which lacks football. Forget it.
Appy would be wonderful, and adding them would allay some of the very real damage our egos and morale have suffered from the losses of VCU and ODU, but it makes little sense for them to come into the conference, or for us to take them, if they’re planning to go FBS within, say, the next 5 years. It makes great sense if JMU, Delaware et al plan to go FBS en masse within the next 10 years.
Stony Brook is not a bad option. At 24,500 students, and as a public university, they fit our profile. Their football program will improve after a few years in the CAA.
UNC Greensboro has also been mentioned as an option; I would rule them out because they lack football, or at least I think they do.
Coastal Carolina has also been mentioned, but frankly their lack of a demanding academic profile would make their addition a kick in the gut to most other CAA schools.
Though the DNR says they’re not in the mix, and though I’m sure mentioning them will elicit a lot of the usual stupid comments, I would like to put a plug in here for Liberty. That school has made great strides both academically and in athletics, and they’d be a fine addition to the CAA. I don’t give a damn whether you like Jerry Falwell or conservative politics in general — that’s irrelevant. The only downside I see to adding Liberty is that they, like Appy, and like every other major FCS program in the East besides JMU, has made noise about going FBS.
CORRECTION- I stand corrected. I was thinking about Lock Haven, not Stony Brook. As far as I’m concerned though, they are the same. SB only made the playoffs because they let more teams in last year.
John has an excellent point about The Fighting Falwells. They actually would be a really good fit. I completely forgot they existed.
Update- In case anyone was wondering, Adriana still has not shown up 🙁
Apparently Davidson plays hoops in the SOCON already (didn’t know that). So do UNCG and College of Charleston.
You can strike all 3 off your lists, b/c with all the teams coming and going, you’d be crazy to leave the SOCON for the CAA right now.
Ok… what if we keep the CAA at 10 teams, but require them to be members in all major sports (i’m sorry, but to be a “basketball only” member is just un-american). Kick Mason and UNCW out. Keep W&M, UR, JMU, Towson, UDel, UNH and Maine. Bring in Liberty, VMI, and some other northeast school like SB. Thoughts?
In writing that, I just realized how bad things are. If I was an Administrator at Maine or UNH, I’d be looking for a way out of the CAA ASAP since all the short (inexpensive) trips (UMass, URI, Nova) are extinct.
CAA Football is technically an entirely different entity than the CAA for all other sports. There are no basketball only members. There are football only members though (UNH, UR, & Maine). The CAA isn’t going to get rid of Mason, because they are far too valuable from a name recognition standpoint thanks to the Final Four run.
You might be right about teams being crazy to leave the SoCon for the CAA, but the CAA pulled a similar move poaching the America East conference about 10 years ago. If the Sunbelt expands and offers Georgia Southern or App State a bid, then the CAA should pounce on the best remaining SoCon schools.
Hmm. A poster at AGS is convinced the CAA has contacted Elon and is also interested in High Point, Cleveland State and Wright State. None of the last 3 have football teams.
Elon, High Point? Count me out.
The more I read the more depressed I get. I have been wishing for a Conference USA invite for years and ODU comes in a steals our invite. Now we are looking at FCS scraps to fill our once dominate conference that will soon be down to 8 football schools.
Only if we can poach from the SoCon can this be salvageable. Otherwise we go from smack talking to begging to be let in the SoCon
Yeah, this last week has been anything but encouraging in a lot of ways. I’m trying to keep the faith, but some of these names being thrown out as potential CAA replacements aren’t too inspiring. At this point, I’m really just hoping that FSU and Clemson leave the ACC and the dominoes start tumbling again. Obviously, I don’t think the ACC will come calling for JMU, but it might open up other opportunities that Bourne and company think are worth jumping for.
Realistically, the football dream needs to take a backseat for now. It’s a perfect storm of problems trickling down from the top (BCS schools) that ultimately effect JMU, and the dominoes just didn’t fall our way. We might have been thinking FBS, investing in FBS, and preparing for FBS longer than ODU has, but they got selected and we didn’t. No amount of complaining or being angry is going to change that.
The other problem stems from the fiscally impossible task of JMU funding FBS football while complying with title ix and maintaining it’s current (or even a decreased) stream of revenue. This is a problem much deeper than sports, and I’ll just leave it at that.
In the meantime, inviting schools to the CAA that are either basketball-competitive with no football, or mediocre in both football and basketball is the best approach given the current circumstances.
A lot of the suggestions I’m seeing here are just unrealistic given the current climate, and it’s the job of our AD and conference commish to make the best realistic choices.