Extremely Intriguing State of CAA Article, a Must Read

[Polito]

Found this little gem perusing some of our fellow CAA boards, I believe specifically from a UNCW post - sheds some very interesting light on the state of this conference, the issues, the potential changes, impacts from other conference realignment possibilities, and confirms what I wager most of us already know, the present CAA commish and conf leadership is doing an absolutely terrible job.

https://extrapoints.substack.com/p/a-co ... oads-where


Change is very likely coming for the CAA... and probably very significant change - don't know when, but just a matter of time - and the COVID impact will likely only expedite it. And I'm not against some needed change at all, I think the landscape needs some course correction, especially the current CAA, but my focus is that I hope Rick Cole and HU are proactively strategizing the future - let's not get caught sleeping here. Have options ready to act on, and perhaps, even proactively act on them.

[HofstraPride1]

Very interesting read and certainly describes quite the chaotic scene among ADs. Not sure what will happen to CAA, but once the dust settles hopefully either way we are in a conference comprised of solid schools that are a decent geographic fit as well. Not sure what that will entail but I have faith in our AD being proactive to make sure we aren't left behind.

[Polito]

Pretty surprised this only has 1 reply???? You all not reading this whole thing? Some serious stuff in that article - here's the recap:

This conf has no identity.
The conf commish can't even describe it.
The conf AD's are not aligned.
The conf priorities are muddled.
The conf makes decisions without full buy-in from it's members.
The ASUN is looking to poach.
JMU is growing in frustration and very likely to leave in the near future, which would cause a large impact to multiple confs.

My add in: The conf commish sucks at the job and has hurt this conf rather than help it.


HP1, I do feel the same about Cole and HU being prepared, he gives that feel, and I hope that's the case. HU needs to be proactive and leading.

This conf needs change - not a fan of the half football half hoops focus. For HU the needs are obviously hoops, and prob need a conf that is focused there similar to how the A10 does now. There's a clear divide among the programs that have it and those that don't. Priorities will always be different and competing so I think this is something that needs to change.

The geography and / or size of many confs may need to change as well with the tightening of budgets due to COVID.

Bottom line to me is that the CAA as we know it is likely going to be short-lived, and my focus is assurance that HU comes out better / on top.

[HofstraPride1]

Pretty surprised this only has 1 reply???? You all not reading this whole thing? Some serious stuff in that article - here's the recap:

This conf has no identity.
The conf commish can't even describe it.
The conf AD's are not aligned.
The conf priorities are muddled.
The conf makes decisions without full buy-in from it's members.
The ASUN is looking to poach.
JMU is growing in frustration and very likely to leave in the near future, which would cause a large impact to multiple confs.

My add in: The conf commish sucks at the job and has hurt this conf rather than help it.


HP1, I do feel the same about Cole and HU being prepared, he gives that feel, and I hope that's the case. HU needs to be proactive and leading.

The MAAC makes a lot of sense geographically and would be perfect fit for hoops, but problem is the other non-revenue sports have limited scholarships and no full-time assistant coaches. If not for that issue I would say we join there.


This conf needs change - not a fan of the half football half hoops focus. For HU the needs are obviously hoops, and prob need a conf that is focused there similar to how the A10 does now. There's a clear divide among the programs that have it and those that don't. Priorities will always be different and competing so I think this is something that needs to change.

The geography and / or size of many confs may need to change as well with the tightening of budgets due to COVID.

Bottom line to me is that the CAA as we know it is likely going to be short-lived, and my focus is assurance that HU comes out better / on top.

The MAAC would be an ideal fit geographically and for mid-major hoops, but unfortunately their non-revenue sports have limited scholarships and no full-time assistant coaches. If not for that issue I would be all for joining MAAC.

[EvanJ]

The ASUN is looking to poach.

The ASUN is much worse in Men's Basketball and I'm guessing most sports, and it doesn't exist for Football. I can't seen any of the northern half wanting the ASUN, and the southern half has two schools that don't play Football, UNCW and CofC. UNCW fans don't like traveling north, especially considering the low attendance when they go to Northeastern and us. I could see UNCW and CofC leaving together, but would they go to the ASUN? UNCW hasn't been good recently, but they had great seasons like beating us in the 2016 Final. If Riller plays in the NBA, CofC will have had three teammates (along with Chealey and Brantley) who all played in the CAA, and I wonder if a CAA team has ever had that. The ASUN is the only conference in the southeast that doesn't exist for Football, so it could be hard for UNCW and CofC to get invited anywhere else. Just like us and Northeastern, the southernmost two have long travel in the CAA but don't play Football and don't have a good alternative.

The MAAC would be an ideal fit geographically and for mid-major hoops, but unfortunately their non-revenue sports have limited scholarships and no full-time assistant coaches. If not for that issue I would be all for joining MAAC.

Other than Siena and Monmouth, the MAAC gets very low attendance. They were average in Men's Basketball for a while before getting much worse. I have a big reason why Hofstra can't join every other conference in the northeast or why I don't want them to. I don't want Hofstra in the A10 because it has too many teams (currently 14) and harder opponents and more teams could mean some finishes in the double-digits, which we currently avoid unless we're last. The best match in terms of geography and Men's Basketball quality is the Ivy, which is now the only conference/league/association with only eight teams, but it won't expand. Using http://rpiratings.com/schoolaffiliations.php from 2018-2019, there aren't many Division I schools that are private, nonreligious, and don't play Football. Those schools are:

Boston University
Bradley
Denver
Drexel
Fairleigh Dickinson
George Washington
Hartford
Hofstra
Jacksonville (who dropped Football)
Northeastern
Quinnipiac
Rider

That's 12 teams, and Division I had 353 last season, so 12 was 3.4 percent. Of the schools that joined Division I this season or I read might join soon, I don't know how many of them play Football, but none are near us. The site doesn't list Abilene Christian or Incarnate Word as religious, but they have religious names, so I excluded them. I'm not saying the schools fit together in every way, but the area from Boston to D.C. includes nine of them, with Bradley, Denver, and Jacksonville as exceptions. Denver and Jacksonville say where they are, and Bradley is in Peoria, IL. Jacksonville is in Jacksonville, FL, and Jacksonville State is in Jacksonville, AL.

P.S. If you think we have long travel, Pratt Institute in Brooklyn is in a Division III conference with two schools in California!

In general it's easier to identify problems than solutions.

[HofstraPride1]

The Patriot League would be s great fit geographically and academically, although they probably aren't looking to expand anytime soon after adding BU and Loyola within last decade.

[HU87]

Is the A-10 plausible? Great hoops, good travel partners, and a level we've proven we can compete at. Also, I'd think we'd want to put in another strong season in hoops and then move UP a major, rather than down to the MAAC or ASUN.

[Mikey77]

Patriot and American East are the only other conferences that would fit for Hofstra. Not comfortable with the A 10 because of lacrosse, both men's and women's.

[HofstraPride1]

Patriot and American East are the only other conferences that would fit for Hofstra. Not comfortable with the A 10 because of lacrosse, both men's and women's.

Lacrosse wouldn't be an issue if we moved to A-10 as they would most certainly sponsor sport since would have us, UMass, Richmond, St. Bonaventure and St. Joe's as members and then would just need one associate member to reach the minimum needed for an at-large bid. While I would love the A-10, most likely it won't be in the cards unfortunately.

[stuball888]

With Covid and the strain it is putting on universities budgets for athletics I can see a mass consolidation for different regions What happens if college sports will not be exempt from Interstate travel So if we can only play in state here is my new Empire State conference
Hofstra
SBU
St Francis
LIU
Wagner
Albany
Siena
Iona
Manhattan College
Fordham

[Mikey77]

Not a bad basketball conference, but not sure there is a quorum for lacrosse.

[stuball888]

You only need 6 teams for a lacrosse conference and we have 7 in that group

[Mikey77]

True. Not sure Hofstra wants to be playing LIU, Sienna, Manhattan and Wagner every year. That conference in my view would be a huge step back for lax. Both athletically and academically the CAA is the best fit for Hofstra at the moment.

[stuball888]

This is only if we cant do interstate travel for sports Id rather play those teams than cancel the season

[Flying Dutchmen]

Frankly, that article didn't make much sense.

It was clearly football-centric which is fine, but opened with the CAA's decline in hoops with the losses of ODU/VCU/Mason. What was the ultimate point? The affiliate football members create instability? Is the CAA driven by football or hoops? I never really got the point the author was trying to make. CAA Football is just the Re-Badged A-10 Football league, which was created out of necessity for the 1-AA schools on the east coast whose primary conferences do not have football programs.It will always be inherently disjointed. It's been like that for 30 years, sure it could change, maybe another conference will want to take on the badge, but it's a wildly different league than the basketball conference.

The CAA is just a pawn in the bigger NCAA Football/Basketball landscape, but I think it's fair to say it's driven by basketball. Is ODU looking to come back? They opted out of football this year. If football was a money winner for ODU, they wouldn't have considered making that move. Elon and JMU have new hoops facilities, W&M committed to upgrading Kaplan, I guess the CAA could split on North/South lines, but overall, most of the hoops facilities in the CAA are good, and academics are strong. The 10 primary members seem to be somewhat in lockstep on that front. I think the CAA would be a conference looking to add schools rather than fall apart, unless travel becomes a larger issue. But overall, travel is easy on the east coast, especially compared to out west, I just don't see it as a major stumbling block for the CAA.

Also, I agree, the commissioner sucks!

[HUSID74]

CAA should take Albany and SBU as full time memebers then split into North and South divisions....DONE

[HofstraPride1]

CAA should take Albany and SBU as full time memebers then split into North and South divisions....DONE

I completely agree! Would only enhance the Hofstra-Stony Brook rivalry.

[triplec2195]

We could become the new Vermont in that alignment the roadblock to SBU's path to the NCAA tourney.

[HUSID74]

So true triplec! Vermont wouldn't be a bad add to the North-South split CAA as well.

[triplec2195]

So true triplec! Vermont wouldn't be a bad add to the North-South split CAA as well.

Vermont has found a good fit in the America East HUSID and we both know they have gotten fat over there winning the conference the past 4 years maybe with no end in sight. It's a good program and would be hard to believe they would be willing to leave this expressway to the NCAA tourney. They're a little like Iona who has won the last 4 years 2016-2019 tournaments in the MAAC. Maybe if it's not broke don't try to fix it. I wonder if we added strong basketball schools to the conference would it get us over the hump in terms of getting an at large bid(s) to the tourney??