Where would Albany fit in the A10 or CAA?

[DaneFan2k3]

Alright, so the topic of possibly moving to scholarship football and joining the A10 or CAA was brought up in another thread here, and was basically put upon the lips of the athletic director as fact.

 

So, we will run with the speculation and start a new thread on the possibilities.

 

I can only assume that this would be a football-only move, as evidenced by the following information.

 

Let's start with the A10. Here is how it will look next year:

 

A 10

EAST

Charlotte

Saint Joseph's

Temple

Massachusetts

Fordham

Rhode Island

St. Bonaventure

 

WEST

Saint Louis

Geo Washington

Dayton

Richmond

Xavier

Duquesne

La Salle

 

I took those divisions from the basketball page on ESPN.com and threw the two new schools where they logically (to me) belong. I suppose GW is more East than Charlotte, so maybe there will be some realignment. (And if you think about it, why is Bonaventure East while La Salle, in Philly, is West??).

 

In any event, if you assume that both UAlbany and Stony Brook would join this conference, and that no other schools leave, you're looking at a 16-school conference. That would be as huge as the Big East.

 

Looking at the CAA:

 

Old Dominion

NC Wilmington

VA Commonwealth

George Mason

Drexel

Hofstra

Delaware

Towson

James Madison

William & Mary

 

That would become a 12-team conference, where you likely would have to split into two divisions for basketball, since 22 conference games is too many.

 

----------------

TRAVEL

 

Geographically speaking, there are problems I think with both conferences.

 

In the A10, you have some long trips to Saint Louis, Charlotte, Xavier, Dayton, Richmond, GW, Duquesne, Bona. Respectively those trips are 1,207 miles (16 hours), 767 (12 hours), 719 (11 hours), 683 (10:30), 496 (7:40), 475 (7:20), 388 miles (6:30), 329 (5:30)

 

For your non-revenue sports, like soccers and field hockey, baseball, etc., you would be hard-pressed to bus to any of those opponents.

 

 

It doesn't get much better in the "abbreviated" (pun intended) CAA, with long trips to UNCW, Delaware, JMU, W&M, Towson, GMU, VCU and ODU.

 

I am too lazy to look up the exact locations of each of those schools, but you have Eastern NC, Delaware (duh), Maryland, and a bunch of schools in VA. So you're looking at trips to VA of around 7 1/2 hours, give or take.

[WCDBvoiceofUA]

I think A 10 is more a football only move. I don't think A-10 in other sports is in the cards for Albany. At least not in the near future. Next Year Northeastern is joining the CAA. If the CAA can draw Albany, SBU, Maine and UNH the CAA can start a football conference and maybe split into north and south devisions in other sports. Plus rumors from the Boston Globe today that Boston U. might be joing the A10 if St. Bonaventure is booted. I think that Albany should take steps before biting off more then we can chew. Let's dominate A-East while there is still an A-East left. However, I do like the steps that Dr. McElroy is taking knowing that the America East might not be around for too much longer, and we can all thank the jerks in the ACC for starting all of this realignment crap. Sorry Im a Big East guy that still bitter.