mainejeff

First off.......there's no need to call me "Jeffie" (it's creepy).

Secondly, everyone knows that the CAA will end up as a hodge podge (again) of publics and privates, hoops and football, North and South.........that's not a recipe for long term stability and everyone knows it. If Stony Brook can gain entry into the CAA Football league then that might be enough for them, after all ODU and Georgia State proved that you CAN receive an FBS invite out of the CAA and that might be good enough for the Stony Brook administration. Also, now that BU is gone Stony Brook will now be THE major power broker in AE. But then again, they might never get to the College World Series out of AE..........oh yeah, they did.

By the way........how many NCAA bids has NU earned in the CAA (all sports) since you left AE??? (Football doesn't count )

oldvmter

those smaller mid bb and fcs football schools are making moves based on the athletic dept. priorities in terms of sports.
teams that want to recruit and compete in bb should think twice before jumping.
outside of uvm and sbu the ae is that weak in bb.
considering the unknown changes the ncaa is about to bring into fcs football, moving because of football today is jumping the gun.

UNHFan

Ok now moving forward what is the timeline for the Aeast to annouce their moves that I assume they have been working on for a while? If that Burlington article is correct and the SBU talk is only for football in the CAA that makes me happy and would love to see the Aeast add a few more teams.

oldvmter

well, that depends on sbu.
some schools are more than happy to play bb in one conf. and fb in another (if they are not fbs div1).
if the caa is ok with this arrangement and sbu is not nervous about the future, fine. if sbu is nervous about their current arrangement, the ae better get cracking. i would suggest targeting schools that care most about fielding competitive bb and have reasonably good academics.
if their is little action and uvm starts looking for a mid conf. for basketball, we have a problem.

NU Hoop Fan

And what league IS a modicum of stability? Other than the Ivy and until yesterday, the PL? What league, other than the Ivy and PL, and maybe the MEAC/SoCon is geographically compatible?

Even the Big 12, the Big 10, and the SEC - which are amalgamations of public and private schools have no stability.

We're in a league we have chosen to compete in, with an Athletic Director who is more of a sociologist than a business person - that's our fault, no doubt. We're not unhappy in the CAA...

NU has won bids in Field Hockey, and that's about it.

__________________
Today is the first day of the next 86 years!

oldvmter

hmm...
let me restate that post.
the ae should get cracking now even if sbu stays.
nuhf...
be nice. after all, you're back where people care.
as far as bu entering the patriot, many observers are more surprised the patriot is welcoming them into their conference and not surprised bu is jumping at the opportunity.

oceandogs

I think/hope Stony Brook has a long future as an all sports member in the AE. If Stony Brook plans to eventually go FBS, they'll still need a conference to house the rest of their sports and the America East is the best option. The CAA has a $1 million dollar exit fee, increased travel costs, and no more bids. All sports the CAA really doesn't make sense to me.

oldvmter

fbs is a long jump at this level.
if a school can recruit football players from the south (including florida), the midwest and/or california, it is possible.
without national recruiting for a team in the northeast, it is a bit pie in the sky.
but i would agree that the caa is a dead end street. once you're in, you have no way out except through the exit fee.

oceandogs

Stony Brook recruits Florida, Texas, and California. They finished last year ranked 16th in fcs. The stadium needs to be expanded for fbs football to be a possibility, but the team is competitive at a national level in 1AA.

mainejeff

I'm telling you right now.......AE (as is) is much more stable than the CAA is/will be. Still way too many schools with varying interests, goals, and geography to make it work long term. As I've said.......if Stony Brook can gain CAA Football membership.......it would benefit them to stay in AE.

oceandogs

Agreed. I'm actually quite bullish on the AE if they can keep the SUNY's together.

mainejeff

Good synopsis. Yeager is gonna have to pull a major rabbit out of his behind to make this all work for the CAA.

oldvmter

oceandogs,
i was unaware of their recruiting territory. thanks for the info.
but fbs is a big task. the money and recruiting needed is in another league.
hopefully, they can continue to excel in the other sports as well while they continue to develop the football program.

Urban Barrister

Here's an interesting article from a couple of years ago that I stumbled onto while looking for more news on the current conference changes:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/4...east-expansion

It talks about the idea of the Big East affiliating itself with the AE to create a "Little East" that the BE could use to groom future members. The author envisions adding Buffalo, Delaware, Fordham,
UMass, CCSU and even URI to the current mix of schools.

Granted, it"s one helluva pipe dream, but it's one of the more creative ideas I've seen. It also touches on the value of keeping e SUNYs together, something I hope SBU recognizes as they consider their next move.

Majestic Mapp

Yeah, the AI is a little concerning. Supposedly Maurice Watson wouldn't have gotten into Penn or Bucknell. Penn wanted an 1820 SAT and Bucknell probably wanted something similar.

http://blogs.dailypennsylvanian.com/...rris/#comments

That said, and as NUHF has reassured, I think BU was already recruiting decent student-athletes so the effect may be minimal.