mainejeff

I'm sure at one time, Vanderbilt, Northwestern, Duke, Wake Forest, etc. could have been considered "head scratchers" in their respective leagues..........but they obviously bring more to the table than just athletics.

mainejeff

And I have to say.........the conference realignment talk over here is much better than the stuff on the CAAZone right now. More reasoned and insightful IMO.

If the CAA gets those 3-5 SoCon schools........once again, Delaware comes out smelling like a rose. I guess that you can't go wrong when you are perfectly located, have tons of money, a solid academic rep, a solid overall athletic dept. and a healthy football program. They and Towson have to like where they are sitting right now no matter what happens. They've got America East as their "red button" option if the CAA ever completely falls apart........and of course, Delaware might even have an FBS option (the MAC) if things fall right in the future and they choose to go that route. JMU is probably in the worst position as there really are no current options that perfectly suit their football program or their aggressive agenda of growing their athletic dept. The Northern 3 (Hofstra, Drexel, NU) are attractive enough academically and location wise to find a home somewhere, W&M (Patriot), UNCW (SoCon), George Mason (A-10) should all be alright as well if the worst scenario comes to fruition.

NU Hoop Fan

Wow, I'm actually agreeing with you on something.

Georgia State was the CAA's head scratcher the last time around, and I think it remained an enigma during its time in the CAA.

JMU is a significantly better academic school than many of us give them credit for, so they can bring that to the table, and they have a rabid (if not somewhat myopic) fan base. Their biggiest issue (as MJ points out) is geography. JMU allegedly has an offer to the MAC if they want one (but I hear it's somewhat of a package deal with Delaware).

As long as the CAA holds an autobid, I don't think it will fall apart per se - it may need to completely re-invent itself, but if there are 6 schools in the association, they'll be fine.

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UNHFan

Wow! This is a beautiful thing NU Hoop Fan and Mainejeff agreeing on something! World Peace is on the way next lol! I would love to see the CAA add SBU for football only to be selfish but keep them in the Aeast for all other sports. I'm intrigued from a football perspective of who could be coming to Cowell Stadium over the next few years. NU Hoop Fan you know much more about the CAA and your commish then I do but it seems to me he is handling this process. He has from what I have read been up front with other coference commisoners about which of their schools he is talking to and inviting. What are your thoughts?

NU Hoop Fan

I think I inferred this in another post, but Tom is going to handle things the "right" way. He's been the raidee and the raider before, and he is highly respected in college athletics - so there's no doubt in my mind he is treating each school and conference with the appropriate level of decorum.

I also don't think it's a secret that Jim Fiore's kept his mouth shut recently. I heard a rumor that he basically sent a message - either directly or indirectly - to Fiore that "this isn't how we operate in the CAA."

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BucBisonAtLarge

When Temple bolted the MAC, they created a problem for UMass. Temple's exit leaves the MAC (football) with an odd number. There supposedly is a stipulation that, in the event that Temple left, UMass might be turned out after 2014. This is an opportunity for JMU, Delaware or another playa to be named. For Madison and UD, I do not know if that would require relocating all programs, like Buffalo has, but one might think the CAA would have an opinion about that- or maybe not.

Redwyn

July 5th tweet by Jim Fiore: The hypocrisy in leadership decision making throughout D1 athletics is numbing & disappointing. Selfishness will be demise of our profession

Did anything nationally happen that day that would cause him to say this? Part of me worries that it means we won't see any SBU movement in CAA realignment.......

As far as my opinion on it: SBU seems to want FBS / bigger conference affiliation. My understanding is while All-Sports exit fees for the CAA have risen, football exit fees have not. If we do indeed want to move up in the next 10 years, I'd rather see us move to CAA Football and use the 1 mil towards infrastructure investment instead. AEC is fine all-sports, but Big South football is on its deathbed. We moved there for a logical reason, but we're now at the ceiling of that advantage. It's time to go.

ccd494

Vestiges of a previous era when you just played your neighbors. Some of the smaller schools stuck with the big state schools (Wake, Duke, Vandy), some fell to smaller conferences (Tulane), some dropped to lower divisions (Sewanee, Chicago).

Conferences made a ton of geographic sense, and people weren't necessarily recruiting nationally or in a facilities arms race.

UVM Hoop Cat

Reading between the lines it sounds like he's learned schools or administrators will be blocking him out of the CAA

On another note, His boss should really tell him to stop tweeting. I'd have stopped him a while ago- definitely now after a tweet like that. It's definitely not professional, and the guy needs to learn some humility.

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- Hoosiers,
& UVM mens basketball NCAA's 2005

mainejeff

I'm starting to worry more about UNH leaving than Stony Brook leaving. Also, i wonder if UNH and Maine to the CAA for all sports is a very remote possibility(?). Could that be what Fiore is referring to? So many questions.........

bosiydid

Sounds like Jim just got some bad news. As UVMCat said, someone save this man from himself, take away his twitter.

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Dane96

As DF said, I disagree. He is speaking the truth. No one is acting in a moralistic fashion with regard to administering athletics at the collegiate level. That said, he could be part of the problem.

What if the following was really going on:

Three weeks ago he comes out and says, "We are happy in the AE..." Now he says this. Some contend he is pissed off maybe that he was blocked into going to the CAA (again, it has been confirmed to me that there is indeed a troika of schools blocking SBU's entrance).

I submit that he could also be using this as a springboard to leave the conference. He can say, "Hey...we tried to get things done but the AE wouldn't do that...so we HAD TO LEAVE, though we didn't want to do so."

Maybe not a likley scenario...but you never know with this guy.

Aceinthehole

Right. What happens if SBU doesn't get into CAA Football? SBU and UA football remain on the outside looking in at UNH and Maine.

He can rightly say to UNH and Maine that we have 4 football schools in America East and we can likely add more (CCSU, Bryant, URI, etc.) - so how come UNH/Maine won't leave the CAA and help start AE Football?

I have a feeling the rift among AE schools could be pretty deep. Even the UNH AD's had public commnets that no one at the table trusts each other. And I don't see how the AE can add any members without a clear direction moving forward. The NEC isn't perfect, but QU, CCSU, or Bryant aren't leaving a stable home for what appears to be a very fractured conference.

UVM Hoop Cat

Time will tell. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out. As of right now, Fiore is someone I want sitting at my poker table and on the opposite side of my trades.

I feel like the best way to leave a conference is the way BU did it- silently.

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"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

bosiydid

I've been asking all summer why would these teams leave the NEC? Listen, the AE has fallen very very far..if I were CCSU, QU and Bryant I wouldn't leave the stable NEC for this.

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