[Sly Fox]

I know quite a few of you guys hang out over at AGS, but there is a buzz around an upcoming meeting of the CAA bigwigs just four days before Christmas. The 4 northern football affiliate members of the league (Maine, New Hampshire, UMass & Rhode Island) are trying to see what they can work out with the rest of the league to make life palatable after the departure of Northeastern and Hofstra.

There are discussions of the possibility of the 4 northern schools splitting off. While that wouldn't automatically have implications for us it certainly wouldn't hurt.

[SuperJon]

While that wouldn't automatically have implications for us it certainly wouldn't hurt.

Actually it could hurt us.

It could hurt us a lot.

[Kolzilla41]

While that wouldn't automatically have implications for us it certainly wouldn't hurt.

Actually it could hurt us.

It could hurt us a lot.

Are you alluding to SB leaving?

[SuperJon]

Absolutely I'm alluding to Stony Brook leaving. That would be terrible for this conference and for us right now. Sure, possibilities may open up in other leagues if the CAA schools split, but the only thing that's practically guaranteed is Stony Brook going to that new league.

[Sly Fox]

Depending on time of departure, Stony Brook leaving wouldn't necessarily have any effect on anything. And of course if we were bolting ourselves then we really wouldn't care where the Seawolves landed. Nobody is moving anywhere in 2010 so that only leaves 2011 under the SBU-Big South contract.

[Kolzilla41]

At least we get one year of an auto bid.

[SuperJon]

We'll be fine auto-bid wise even if SBU leaves, but two problems come up:

a) They are the only top 50 program in the Big South other than us right now.
b) We are then relying on PC to stay Division I which is questionable at best. I know they say they want to stay up but sometimes money talks.

[Sly Fox]

By the time the moratorium is lifted, current conference alignments may mean practically nothing. The crazy thing is how fast this shaking tends to go down. Everybody talks about possibilities for years and then in the course of just a few days everything goes nuts. I'm just glad we have positioned ourselves to be attractive in the next round.

[LUconn]

Question about the Big South. It is used to get into this level of athletics. I think that is fairly well known and the BSC itself uses that to it's advantage occasionally to get membership numbers to where it needs to be. But given that this is common knowledge, why don't they impose a prohibitively hefty early exit fee? The Big East only recieved a few million when it lost it's 3 members to the ACC, but they raised them significantly on the new teams that were added.

[Sly Fox]

Because I don't know of any Big South school that would have an interest in voting for such a fee. You can be sure none of the schools with money (LU, CCU, WU, VMI) would be down and it would make it tough to attract new schools. The Big South is what it is.

[SuperJon]

Stony Brook has a multiple million dollar fee if they choose to leave before their contract is up.

[LUconn]

Well there you go. I don't understand how that could be worth it for them to leave although I admit I'm not really very familiar with FCS level income/loss. Could the difference between what they make (or more likely lose) now, vs what they would make/lose in some strange Northern conference be worth those millions?

[SuperJon]

Stony Brook's contract is up after 2011. They signed a four year deal.