Seawolves Fans

Quote from: Redwyn on August 10, 2023, 02:30:53 pm

Quote from: Hammertime on August 10, 2023, 02:17:48 pm

Quote from: ry1nik on August 10, 2023, 01:52:14 pm

The CAA seems to be morphing into an America East version of FCS football

The CAA is finished. First they make name change, that I find bizarre and wrong, and now they bring in a school like Bryant. Who’s next. Wagner???

Look, I'm not happy with a lot about SBU....but I'm totally fine with this. I think it makes sense.

There was a clear need for one more northern member to make CAA football "whole" and make travel reasonable. Remember, URI was very close to dropping scholarship football and I'm sure programs like Maine and UNH (both solid football programs in the CAA) didn't like the idea of regular travel to Campbell. A round number like 16 is a very reasonable number to build divisions around. It ALSO means that every member gets 7-8 conference games against their regional opponents, making it less challenging to get an ALL D1 non-conference schedule in place, with an FBS game and 2 non-conference D1 opponents.

I'm not sure where the hate is around Bryant either. It's ranked academically ahead of Monmouth, Marist, St. Bonaventure, Siena, and several other regional brands, it has obviously put a TON of money into athletics, its endowment is a few million less than that of Providence, and it has recently had a good deal of success and notoriety.

Yankee:
Maine
New Hampshire
Bryant
Stony Brook
Albany
Rhode Island
Monmouth
Villanova

Dixie:
Campbell
Elon
Hampton
William & Mary
NC A&T
Richmond
Delaware
Towson

So long as you make sure that Delaware and Villanova play each other yearly, I think every member would be very satisfied with that type of travel arrangement.

Me personally: I'd rather see Bryant joint for all sports as well. A better addition with a greater athletic commitment in my opinion than U Albany. It would give a geographic partner to Northeastern, which has always been a bit of an outlier.

I know why the CAA is doing this as well, however. Diluting the conference and bringing in schools just because of their geography does nothing for the RSI of this conference. Schools like Bryant, and NC A&T severely weaken this conference.

Obviously, the CAA doesn't care about the athletics of the institution, but more about close proximity to other schools to play.

If you are comparing conferences. The larger conferences don't pay like this.

I don't necessarily agree that Bryant football dilutes the conference. I also would argue that there are really no other good options that aren't in stable conferences to add. Who else is left? FCS is consolidating like the FBS into conferences that can compete, and conferences that can't. The classic "competitor conferences" are the ones that are stable vs. expanding: MVFC, Big Sky, CAA and SoCon. Southland used to be another, but I argue that their best pieces are now in this United conference that's trying to get to FBS. Then you have a few conferences that are mission-based and generally stable: Patriot, Ivy, MEAC/SWAC.

The only "poachable" players are in the Big South/OVC, NEC, Pioneer, or D2. I looked through the list. There is NO ONE you would want to add from there. Robert Morris is the only program with mild regionality, but I lived in Pittsburgh, it's not a program you want in the CAA.

My **guess** is that this move to 16 is consolidating the CAA to make it as prepared for re-alignment as possible. The only school of that group that has a prayer at this current iteration of FBS is Delaware, and they don't seem to be keen on moving (and if they do, expect Howard to fill the gap). As has been speculated before, when the power programs fully depart the NCAA, there will be reconsolidation of football along regional lines since the money won't benefit nation-wide conferences at this level. The CAA will be ready for this, and potentially competitive in that environment.

I think that is a very reasonable plan, and for the same reason I expect to see 2 more full members added. My guess is that they're Albany and Bryant.

Quote from: Hammertime on August 10, 2023, 02:17:48 pm

Quote from: ry1nik on August 10, 2023, 01:52:14 pm

The CAA seems to be morphing into an America East version of FCS football

The CAA is finished. First they make name change, that I find bizarre and wrong, and now they bring in a school like Bryant. Who’s next. Wagner???

Look, I'm not happy with a lot about SBU....but I'm totally fine with this. I think it makes sense.

There was a clear need for one more northern member to make CAA football "whole" and make travel reasonable. Remember, URI was very close to dropping scholarship football and I'm sure programs like Maine and UNH (both solid football programs in the CAA) didn't like the idea of regular travel to Campbell. A round number like 16 is a very reasonable number to build divisions around. It ALSO means that every member gets 7-8 conference games against their regional opponents, making it less challenging to get an ALL D1 non-conference schedule in place, with an FBS game and 2 non-conference D1 opponents.

I'm not sure where the hate is around Bryant either. It's ranked academically ahead of Monmouth, Marist, St. Bonaventure, Siena, and several other regional brands, it has obviously put a TON of money into athletics, its endowment is a few million less than that of Providence, and it has recently had a good deal of success and notoriety.

Yankee:
Maine
New Hampshire
Bryant
Stony Brook
Albany
Rhode Island
Monmouth
Villanova

Dixie:
Campbell
Elon
Hampton
William & Mary
NC A&T
Richmond
Delaware
Towson

So long as you make sure that Delaware and Villanova play each other yearly, I think every member would be very satisfied with that type of travel arrangement.

Me personally: I'd rather see Bryant joint for all sports as well. A better addition with a greater athletic commitment in my opinion than U Albany. It would give a geographic partner to Northeastern, which has always been a bit of an outlier.

What makes you think the conference will realign itself? The commissioner is on record saying he does not want north/south divisions and likes seeing all the teams play each other. You dont join a better conference to save money on travel costs and if you need to you probably should have stayed where you were.

https://udreview.com/reports-delaware-open-to-leaving-caa-for-move-up-to-fbs-conference-destination-yet-to-emerge/

Quote

Judging by reports this month, the University of Delaware is sprucing up its athletic front door, which could open to a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) conference — that is, should the conditions be right in the eyes of university leadership empowered to determine action on what would be the biggest move in athletic department history.

While no single FBS conference has been linked to an invitation the Blue Hens’ way, Delaware is continuing to push in the realm of facilities that make it plenty FBS-worthy. The university is in the midst of quiet fundraising for a project that would, at the fan level, reimagine Delaware Stadium’s north end zone seating structure. Additionally, it would construct a new indoor facility beyond that seating, relocating team offices and locker rooms in the process with modernization relative to existing Delaware Field House accommodations.

Delaware has yet to publicly launch fundraising efforts for this phase of athletic complex renovations (its second since the Whitney Athletic Center construction), but it has twice referred to “an upcoming facilities project” in the course of announcing “major gift” athletic department donations. The first such donation came from retired NFL player and Delaware product Nasir Adderley and most recently, the language was used by the university in its release sharing news of the gift by fellow football alumnus Matt Nagy.

Also rumors on conference realignment board is that Charleston may join A10 next year, but waiting to announce in order to not get postseason ban.

If Delaware and UMass do move to the MAC, we can do lot worse than riding their coattails to MAC. Add another eastern school like Albany/Towson and it’s a decent league. Highly doubt that we would be proactive though.

Quote from: Chairman of the Board on September 18, 2023, 09:34:29 pm

https://udreview.com/reports-delaware-open-to-leaving-caa-for-move-up-to-fbs-conference-destination-yet-to-emerge/

Quote

Judging by reports this month, the University of Delaware is sprucing up its athletic front door, which could open to a Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) conference — that is, should the conditions be right in the eyes of university leadership empowered to determine action on what would be the biggest move in athletic department history.

While no single FBS conference has been linked to an invitation the Blue Hens’ way, Delaware is continuing to push in the realm of facilities that make it plenty FBS-worthy. The university is in the midst of quiet fundraising for a project that would, at the fan level, reimagine Delaware Stadium’s north end zone seating structure. Additionally, it would construct a new indoor facility beyond that seating, relocating team offices and locker rooms in the process with modernization relative to existing Delaware Field House accommodations.

Delaware has yet to publicly launch fundraising efforts for this phase of athletic complex renovations (its second since the Whitney Athletic Center construction), but it has twice referred to “an upcoming facilities project” in the course of announcing “major gift” athletic department donations. The first such donation came from retired NFL player and Delaware product Nasir Adderley and most recently, the language was used by the university in its release sharing news of the gift by fellow football alumnus Matt Nagy.

Also rumors on conference realignment board is that Charleston may join A10 next year, but waiting to announce in order to not get postseason ban.

If Delaware and UMass do move to the MAC, we can do lot worse than riding their coattails to MAC. Add another eastern school like Albany/Towson and it’s a decent league. Highly doubt that we would be proactive though.

How many prestigious, nationally acclaimed universities are in the MAC? Exactly zero. It would be a money suck with no real benefit. The funds could be put to better use elsewhere at SBU.

Delaware to CUSA for the 2025-26 season?

Pete Thamel on twitter said an announcement could be made over the next few days.


IMO this really sucks for the CAA and Stony Brook. The only all-sports flagship state university other than Stony Brook is leaving the CAA. We are slowly getting stuck with mid-tier state/private universities. The only public school with a solid academic reputation left would be W&M which happens to have a terrible athletic program

Increasingly regretting this move to the CAA even though I was on board since day I.

Perhaps CAA Football + America East was the better combination for us after all.

I hope the CAA doesn't continue to backfill with crappy programs.

Delaware to CUSA for the 2025-26 season?

Pete Thamel on twitter said an announcement could be made over the next few days.


IMO this really sucks for the CAA and Stony Brook. The only all-sports flagship state university other than Stony Brook is leaving the CAA. We are slowly getting stuck with mid-tier state/private universities. The only public school with a solid academic reputation left would be W&M which happens to have a terrible athletic program

It's a matter of timing. If we were ANY good and Heilbron knew what he was doing Football would be firing on all cylinders and we'd either be moving up with Delaware, or had gone FBS with JMU when they moved.

We've allowed ourselves to get completely lapped. Liberty, Coastal Carolina, JMU, and now Delaware are all FBS and have left us behind....

This is goddamn EMBARASSING

Pretty crazy Temple plays at Lincoln Financial and had only 10,000 in attendance against a really good Memphis team. Rutgers (and maybe Syracuse?) is the only hope for Northeast college football.