(01-25-2022 04:31 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(01-25-2022 02:04 PM)ShakeNBake Wrote:  

(01-25-2022 12:19 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  

(01-25-2022 11:30 AM)ShakeNBake Wrote:  

(01-25-2022 10:28 AM)The Cats Wrote:  I can't see how CoC, Elon, & UNCW will be happy with these adds....

You got that right. As an Elon alum please have mercy on us and let us back to the SoCon!

You would know this better than me as an alum, but my understanding is that Elon gets a LOT of Northeast students (sort of the downstream version of Duke). According to the Elon website, after North Carolina (which is only 25% of enrollment), the top home states for its students are MA, NJ, NY, VA and PA. It's essentially the northern half of the CAA footprint. Considering this, Elon may be quite happy with the setup. CoC and UNCW are public schools with a lot higher in-state enrollment, so they're in a different boat.

The Administration may be happy with it but I'm not. Yes, Elon does have a large NE student population but does it translate into high attendance when they play at Northeastern or Hofstra? Heck, Elon can't even get students to attend home games now. Why would they attend a game while living in Boston or NYC? These students that come south to attend college have no passion for college sports or loyalty to their school. It's four years and out never to return except for an occasional homecoming weekend.

That may be true, but the administration is what matters. They're looking for students that are able to pay full freight $40,000 per year tuition at Elon without any need for scholarships or financial aid. Those students are located disproportionately in the Northeast corridor. That's simply a much bigger deal to administrators than attendance - those are real dollars (massive tuition money) compared to pennies (sports attendance) in the relative scheme of things for a school like Elon. (It might be different if you're a P5 or Big East school.)

Now, being in the CAA in and of itself isn't going to directly draw Northeast students. I don't think anyone could ever show that data. However, administrators truly do believe in additional "touch points" in the geographic regions that they target: visits by student recruiters to schools, advertisements, alumni events, etc. Whether you agree with it or not, sports are a big part of that (and frankly much more visible). Administrators are ALWAYS going to weigh that heavily in this day and age. It's honestly way more important for private schools with a national student base (such as Elon) compared to state schools in a world where overall college enrollment is declining.

Frank,

Please be sure to tell this to David. He thinks schools earning $1B in tuition will go bankrupt because they aren't making $20M in TV revenue.

so i guess there are no exit fees or significant notice needed to leave the MAAC and AE?

(01-25-2022 10:31 PM)gosports1 Wrote:  so i guess there are no exit fees or significant notice needed to leave the MAAC and AE?

When you have essentially no league media revenue to distribute, and only a single credit/year, there isn't anything to withhold. Most of the rest of the distributions are to the schools for academic and other benchmarks.

(01-25-2022 10:31 PM)gosports1 Wrote:  so i guess there are no exit fees or significant notice needed to leave the MAAC and AE?

MAAC is free to leave with three years’ notice (which Monmouth isn’t giving) and otherwise it’s $1 million in liquidated damages. Not so much as to prevent them from making a strategic decision to orient more toward football and the Mid-Atlantic region.

I think the real get for Elon with the CAA is exactly what others have said: students from the northeast, and maybe ones who may have to pay closer to sticker price. And I think there is something to be said about sharing conference space with names like Northeastern, W&M, Drexel, and Delaware, and in football with the likes of Richmond and Villanova.

CAA could wither away (doubtful), but I don’t think Elon cares about any bridge back to any southern conference. The northeast is their bread and butter. Being an outpost or outlier probably isn’t on their radar unless the money arm are southerners who are ticked about the travel and opponents. But considering Elon made the jump, I don’t think that’s who comprises of said money arm.

"D'Antonio not ready to commit to #CAAFB moving (back) to N/S divisions full-time, as has been reported and speculated with additions of Hampton, Monmouth. He did go so far as to confirm that CAA Football's regular-season schedule will continue to be comprised of 8 conf gms/team."

(01-26-2022 09:20 AM)The Cats Wrote:  "D'Antonio not ready to commit to #CAAFB moving (back) to N/S divisions full-time, as has been reported and speculated with additions of Hampton, Monmouth. He did go so far as to confirm that CAA Football's regular-season schedule will continue to be comprised of 8 conf gms/team."

I can’t imagine those northern schools barely getting the chance to make trips south of PA or DE. Divisions would probably piss more than a few programs off. But enough to do anything about it?