Fightin’ Christians and Great Danes to the CAA – seriously
Ok, ok, I know we said we’re done with realignment till JMU shits or falls back into the pit toilet that the CAA is rapidly becoming, but when news that a school we considered a whole lot more like Radford than JMU back when us old guys were applying is joining, you can’t just let that hang out without addressing it. Elon, yes the former Fightin’ Christians, now Phoenix, is leaving the SoCon for the CAA tomorrow. And word is new CAA Football member Albany will now be joining in all sports as well. Woo. frickin. hoo. Needless to say, good ole Tom Yeager isn’t letting that sweet, cushy, overstuffed conference commissioner paycheck fall by the wayside without a fight.
Look, we don’t mean to offend Elon, and word is its a much-improved school academically that we all know has a beautiful campus and actually fits fairly nicely in the CAA footprint, not to mention they had as many NFL draft picks this year as the Dukes (1) but to paraphrase @adesai30 today, thus completes the Atlantic Sun-ing of the CAA.
Seriously, the CAA is working hard to ensure it’s own survival. And if that maintains the AQ status for NCAA tourneys, we can’t begrudge them doing so even if it means splitting their soul into seven pieces and hiding the parts in magic trinkets tucked safely into Northeastern’s 1000 year old hoops facility. But again, this is no longer a group that even remotely resembles a group of peers for JMU. Elon is another smallish private with zippy realistic possibility for being anything else. Albany is, well, Albany.
That said, it doesn’t hurt to take off our lilac-shaded glasses every once in a while and realize that somewhere there’s a CUSA or MAC blogger probably getting ready to write this same piece if the JMU rumors pick up again. Only difference is that they are wrong but just don’t know it. JMU would be at or very near the very top of any of the three conferences that have realistically been discussed as options for athletic budget, academic reputation, facilities, attendance, and mascot badassness, so maybe I’ll put those spectacles back on!
Anyhow, the CAA is dead. or a pit toilet. Either way, it’s time to get a damn move on. June can’t come fast enough.
I’d 100-times over prefer Elon over bush-league schools like Albany and Stony Brook.
I also take exception to your comment “somewhere there’s a CUSA or MAC blogger probably getting ready to write this same piece” Rediculous. JMU is a more legit School than anything in the MAC, and 90% of C-USA.
School legitamacy is a key factor in aligning conferences. It entails more than just athletic prowess. It includes national reputation (i.e. people have heard of it), alumni base, academics, print/internet publicity (thanks, JMU Ladies), and a number of other factors.
That being said, I think JMU is more on par with a school like ECU, and WELL above pond scum like ODU, Northern Illinois, UAB, LA Tech, Kent State, etc.
No offense 2004, but if you ever compare JMU to ECU again, I will become very angry an do absolutely NOTHING since this is the Internet. Don’t push me to that point! There is not a school on the East Coast I have less respect for academically than EZU. Wait that’s wrong, ODU. In terms of athletics, I see the comparison but it ends there.
What a joke the CAA has become….why not just go ahead and add VMI and LIberty and call it a day.
Get High Point and Longwood on the phone STAT!
Elon, not Furman or Wofford? Not who I would have picked from the SOCON.
If you are going to have to get a school, I think Elon is a solid choice. My brother went there, so I follow them a little. They’ve been crashing into the top 25 in football over the past 5 years. The school is definitely on the rise.
As far as the CAA, it’s hanging on, no question. If you go back to the beginning of the CAA (after the ECAC-South days), the CAA was sending one school to the tourney. Once the field went to 64, the one team would be a 14-15 seed.
So, now the conferences with more prestige went from 8 to 14 teams, it makes sense for the CAA go back down. My biggest beef, is our school should have realized this, and jumped ship like UR, ODU, VCU, and GMU. Now I have to watch ODU play football in a BCS conference. Uggh…
channeling my inner child hood board game self — the chute to complete athletic irrelevance gets steeper by the day; no ladder in sight…..sigh.
bridgeforth stadium, aka matthews’ mausoleum.