Urban Barrister

Looks like it's official. The announcement is expected tomorrow. Surprised no one else posted about the announcement already.

http://blogs.ajc.com/georgia-state-s...join-sun-belt/

Lots of talk about SBU being a candidate to replace them in the CAA. Looks like the falling dominos have arrived at our door . . . .

mainejeff

LOL.......posted at the same time.

Yeah.......Stony Brook is on the way out IMO.

UNHFan

I applaud GA State for making a good decision and one that make geographical sense! What a nice change!

umainealum

Well who says you can't go home...GA State was one of the original founding members in 1976.

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UMaine - the epitome of mediocrity

Proud supporter of an AMERICA EAST team that made a coaching change...

i saw a seawolf once

i hope not. if SBU goes i will have to go find a CAA board and explain to them why SBU is the best team in their league.

umainealum

Here you go:

http://boards.caazone.com/forumdispl...CAA-Discussion

Have fun...

__________________
UMaine - the epitome of mediocrity

Proud supporter of an AMERICA EAST team that made a coaching change...

SaltySeawolf

Ive been to that board - they seem to be real uptight there. Im not likely to get the acceptance I got here.

UVM Hoop Cat

Salty, you'd get lit up like the 4th of July over there.

Much more civil over here- that said, give it a whirl. After all, that very well could become your new conference board.

__________________
"Let's win this game for all the small schools that never had a chance to get here"
- Hoosiers,
& UVM mens basketball NCAA's 2005

z8-Minutemen

No way Stony Brook gets into the CAA. I don't think the CAA wants any more America East teams. Northeastern was CAA caliber, but Stony Brook is not. I would rather us add Vermont or BU if I had to pick an AE team I would want in the CAA. College of Charleston is the top choice right now, second is Coastal Carolina. After that, then maybe Stony Brook will be considered.

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Dallas Cowboys- 5 super bowls and counting...

UMass Minutemen- 8 tournament appearances, 1 final four. Alumni: Julius 'Dr. J' Erving, Marcus Camby

Northeastern Huskies- 7 tournament appearances. Alumni: Reggie Lewis, Jose Juan 'JJ' Barea

i saw a seawolf once

salty would never leave you guys...

I am not an expert on Northeastern so please enlighten me on why Northeastern is CAA caliber and SBU is not. 25000 enrollment, full scholarship football, excellant facilities(basketball arena hopefully within 2 years) and nyc media market. not saying we get in but SBU is pretty attractive. to be honest i hope we dont considering SBU would never get to an NCAA basketball appearance if that happened.

Redwyn

Count me somewhat confused by this post.

If I surmise the CAA position properly, they're looking for an all-sports member with dedication to athletics and - perhaps most importantly in this case - football. Evidence to this dedication is the near guaranteed prospect of VCU and GMU bolting, and a soon to be 9 team Football League that - past VCU and GMU - has given the CAA most of its pedigree. It's also nearly guaranteed to by why the CAA has its nifty NBC Sports contract. But...and I'll give you credit for being an informed poster even though I've never read anything you've written here....you pimp a program that has turned down the CAA not once - but twice - and will NEVER sponsor that sport.



But perhaps more absurd is that you purport that better fits for the CAA are Vermont and BU - both programs with no football and the latter with an anemic basketball following. Not only do they not have football, they have HOCKEY - a sport whose sponsorship has proven crippling in terms of financial commitment to other sports in all but the BCS-level New England programs. UVM has a great basketball program...but how long has it been since they've started planning that new arena? In terms of peripheral sports, neither have baseball and both are marginal at best in Lax (BU is just starting a program, and UVM is a doormat, nothing more)...in short, they don't fit the CAA football footprint one bit and would add nothing to the league.

Now I don't know everything. But I do know that when you think about what sports to emphasize, you need to go with where you wallet takes you. That's how you justify spending. Big spending sports - even at the 1-AA level - should be your priority. When you're a league whose majority spends that type of money, your priority should be to reinforce that sport.

In comes Stony Brook (which - by your post - you seem to know little about). I can't tell you they're the perfect addition. There may be close to 60-80 D1 programs better. But I can't really think of one in the potential CAA upgrade base (NEC, MAAC, AEC, BigSo, SoCon). But let me tell you what they do bring:

1. Nationally ranked 1-AA football program that features what was the #1 scoring offense at that level, upgraded with the acquisition of Marcus Coker, the #2 rusher in the BIG-10.
2. A basketball program with two 20-win/NIT seasons in the past 3 years, and who defeated Northeastern (your CAA-level program). We'll be moving into a 20 mil renovated facility with CAA-level seating in 2013.
3. A perennial men's Lax contender, and a program that was ranked in the top 20 4 of the past 5 years (this year being the first, and at this rate they may still make the NCAA playoffs). It also produced the #1 overall pick in both the MLL and NLL drafts last year.
4. A baseball program that's in the Mid-Major top 25 and was pimped by Baseball America to be just short of UConn for dominance of the Northeast.
5. A national top 10-20 Women's cross country program, and the 1 mile national champion. (not relevant to this discussion, but just showing that we're not anemic in olympic sports)

Oh, and we have the NYC media market, which we're making sincere effort to take a piece of with MSG games in basketball vs. Rutgers and upcoming football games against Syracuse and on national TV vs. Army.

So are we the most established program you can get? Not by any margin. Are we a perennial powerhouse with a nationally recognized name? Not yet, but certainly not an impossibility. Further, we're a large public that's framed similarly to existing CAA members ODU, JMU, Delaware, Towson, and William & Mary.

I'm not sure SBU is ready for the competitive level of the CAA. None of the AEC exiles were when they made the jump. But I'm positive that of all the AEC members, we're by far the most prepared right now and most acceptably fit the CAA model.

TerrierNation

I don't disagree with the premise of your argument that the CAA may be focused on 1-aa football, especially if VCU and GMU leave.

But how is hockey (presumably at a high level like Vermont, BU, UNH and Maine) someone "financially crippling" that it prevents these schools from investing in other programs and sports?

Hell, BU made 4 million in hockey last year...probably more than SBU made combined. Travel costs are low as all the teams are in New England.

Redwyn

I don't disagree. While I couldn't find a breakdown for BU, North Dakota's a pretty strong indication of what simple Hockey revenue does. It's a boon. I doubt SBU came close to that.

But in a way, all it shows is that I failed to elaborate on my point properly. You've stated hockey is a money sport at BU. I sincerely doubt MBB comes even slightly close to that amount. So why SHOULD the administration care about that sport? You have your money sport, and you're damn good at it?

So that begs the new question, one I've asked in reference to the A-10 as well - why WOULD a conference that doesn't directly sponsor Hockey WANT a program that very logically bases most of its income and resulting priority on a sport that has nothing to do with that conference? There's just no gain there. BU has made Hockey king...and frankly if I was their AD I'd want to run all the other sports as cheaply as possible while maintaining championship potential and maximizing the preservation of Hockey earnings - in comes the America East.

The AEC has a veritable conference base of programs whose priority sport isn't sponsored by the conference. Thus they all share the same handicap, and thus they all have the same low level of competition. I pimp SBU as the type of program that could move to the CAA for one major reason:

Their #1/#2 sports are both supported by the CAA, and revenues from increased attendance (due to the better known competition. Come now, Gardner Webb vs. William & Mary?) would likely drastically change the plane upon which both sports competed. Thus, everything goes up. Nothing suffers as a result of the move.

Only Albany has this trait, and they're just not there yet (though will be), and don't carry the media market (The capital district's population is ~850K, which is a little more than half of JUST Suffolk County's population. Even if there was a massive wall between Nassau and Suffolk county - which there just isn't - we'd have a larger market).

The question isn't potential. If BU decided to dump Hockey and go all in for MBB, we'd wait for the invitation from the A-10. It would come in seconds - BU has the pedigree, money, and national reputation. But that won't happen, because Hockey is king at Boston Univ. And thus the program - if it knows what's smart/good for it - will never move. You want a case study of a program who ignored logic and followed its #2 and #3 sport to a more expensive conference, costing it football? Look no farther than across town at Northeastern.

mainejeff

College of Charleston is a non-starter. They turned down CAA membership previously and they don't have a football program.

Coastal Carolina........seems like all the spring breakers want them, but I doubt that a majority of CAA schools want to add a trip to Conway, SC to their athletic budgets. They do have football though......so that probably keeps them in the running.

Stony Brook is the top candidate IMO due to just the right mix of academics, geography, football, and their commitment to improving their athletic dept. and facilities. They are not afraid to throw some money at athletics and the CAA should love that after witnessing the Northeastern/Hofstra/Drexel debacle.

mainejeff

Press conference at 2:00pm.

http://www.georgiastatesports.com/Vi...B_OEM_ID=12700