I don’t really get it.
SBU already has CAA ties through football. It’s still going to be in a one-bid league with FCS football. What really changes? This is just the position that we were lined up to be in during the last wave of realignment had it not been for Hofstra overruling the rest of the conference. So we’re a decade behind our original scheduled plans then? Hardly encouraging.
I think it gives us access to slightly better student-athletes. We gotta move up for the sake of our basketball program. This isn't like moving to a low-tier FBS conference which would just add expense with little additional gain.
There is very little additional expense to making this move and some slight gain. The CAA at the very least gets you a non-16 seed in the NCAA tournament. The America East would always be the lowest in the pecking order. If we want to show we have aspirations of being something serious in the long-term I think this move presents an opportunity.
Ultimately I would love to see the Seawolves in the A-10 (if we go the basketball route), or the American (if we manage to build a solid football program), or screw it - even the Big East (we can dream, right? St. John's would never allow it though).
If you tell me 10-15 years from now the Seawolves will be playing in the A-10 I would be happy with that. and who knows - maybe we manage to grow our football program fanbase and end up playing in a Northeast based league with UMass, UConn, Buffalo, Delaware, Temple, Army.