CAA expansion has arrived!

The Stony Brook Seawolves and Albany Great Danes are coming the CAA in 2013---but they are only bringing their football teams.  Their other sports will stay in the America East Conference.  This is good news  for CAA football.  It gives this league 10 members for football and they will be able to play either an 8 or 9 game conference schedule.  It also means that their are still 3 spots open in the CAA for non-football schools.  The CAA is also reportedly in talks with Rhode Island about staying around for football instead of following through on their plans to depart for the NEC.

Let's break this down:

The desire to keep Rhode Island, an 11th program, surely means they have a 12th in mind.  My money is on a cooperation with the America East and the CAA to bring Central Connecticut St--a lone state school in the private school NEC--to the America East for all-sports and to the CAA for football.

This would give a depleted AmEast a much needed 9th member and, should the CAA keep the Rhode Island Rams football program, a northern division of 4 New England schools and the 2 New York schools and a southern division that includes the Midatlantic and Virginia schools.

Another possibility is that one of the three all-sports members that the CAA has their eyes on has a football program they would need to bring with them and that is football member #12.  I think this possibility is doubtful because most every school they would be going after would rather be moving to the SoCon and the SoCon will surely have some openings coming open should Charleston and Davidson (and possibly UNC-Greensboro as well) defect to the CAA.

The Ripples:

The NEC takes a huge hit but not a deathblow.  The loss of Albany, Rhode Island, and Central Connecticut State leaves them with just 7 football schools.  Picking up Marist would be a good option for them.

The Big South is in even bigger trouble--Stony Brook drops them to 6 football members and I see the SoCon taking another 2 maybe even 3.  Their only hope, as I've said before, is to get the non-scholarship and emerging programs in the South to join them in a non-scholarship/low scholarship league.