(08-13-2022 10:39 AM)GreatDane96 Wrote:  

(08-12-2022 09:28 PM)dan10 Wrote:  Albany is also a great aeast team. I hope the league keeps its focus on decent to good academic institutions while keeping it basically an I95 league. Easy travel and the ones not along the highway are super common flights from anywhere. Adding an outlier to that mold like Albany would be a downgrade for the conference profile. Some of the recent additions cant sit too well academically for some (W&M, NU and maybe even Delaware)

Laughing about the Albany academics comment here. For real? You may want to check your facts on that statement. If Albany joined today, they would be literally in the Top half of the league (if it expanded to 16) by any reasonable measure. ON USWNR rankings, which I am not a huge fan of in general, Albany would slot in RIGHT behind Hofstra at #8. On sheer prestige (overall academic rankings, Carnegie research, etc), Albany would slot in at #6...directly behind Drexel.

Let me just add that due to some serious criminal behavior (that administrator is currently awaiting sentencing on multiple federal charges due to what I am about to tell you about), Albany's CNSE (Nanotech program) was taken from it and given to nascent SUNY Poly. That removal dropped Albany from being ranked in the low 100's with more research expenditures than Stony Brook. Currently, talks are underway between the Governor, NYS Legislature, Albany, and SUNY Poly to return that program to Albany. With that return, Albany's R&D will grow by 200-250 million, brining it's annual spend to nearly $400 million...surpassing Buffalo and Stony Brook...both AAU institutions. It would be, by far, the most in the CAA.

Even if that move does not occur, which of course is always possible with politics, Albany would sit fifth in the CAA behind SBU, Delaware, Northeastern, an Drexel (by $5 million), in that order.

As for travel, I posted this elsewhere and you commented on it as well, going up I-95 to, let's say, Fairfield is literally a wash (20-25 minutes longer to Albany). This would account for all teams that would bus to Albany but for Stony Brook (hour more to Albany but a trip they have made since...forever). As for Northeastern, Albany and Fairfield are literally equidistant but the traffic risk to Fairfield is far worse.

As for Airports, Albany's International Airport is 8 minutes from campus. All CAA South teams would have to take a connecting flight for the limited times they play the CAA North, with Albany on the schedule. To Monmouth, Fairfield, and Stony Brook, the CAA South can get direct flights but for some schools (W&M and Hampton) that requires an 1-130 hr drive to Richmond. After landing, that requires an 130-145 drive to Monmouth, Stony Brook, or Fairfield (if they joined)...WITHOUT the notorious traffic.

So I am not really sure what you mean about travel being longer to Albany.

I ask this question: What school fits your mold that could be added in the North? Quinnipiac? Fairfield? Neither fit the mold you speak of at all....but honestly, I think the CAA North, if it expands...and I don't think it will for a bit, if ever, will be down to Albany or Fairfield...with Albany having the edge due to Football.

I'll address the past paragraph since I have no issue with the rest. Howard was/would be the likely add to the northern division and i'm not convinced they're out.

I have no opinion on any other northern adds except to say the CAA has become far more attractive to a lot of schools on the east coast. And the way ESPN is going I could easily see the A10 dropping in payouts from ESPN to bring on the CAA and make them equal. That seems to be the direction ESPN is going overall. And if the payouts to the Sunbelt are made the same as those to the AAC and the A10 is the same as the CAA, there will no longer be a need for schools to jump conferences. That will also allow a better geographic alignment since there will be no financial incentive to be in a conference with a bad geographical footprint.

ESPN seems to c