George Mason Basketball: VCU will leave CAA for the A10 on July 1st

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

VCU will leave CAA for the A10 on July 1st

Well it turns out VCU is leaving the CAA immediately and will join the Atlantic 10 in all sports on July 1st. So there's two more games George Mason will have to fill on their schedule for this upcoming season. VCU's president stated that they wanted to leave immediately and did not want to be a "lame duck" member of the CAA this season. If they announced a move for a later date, they would not be eligible for the CAA championship this season.

In the press conference today VCU officials stated that they estimated travel expenses increasing by only about $150K a year with the move and that there was a $700K entry fee to join the Atlantic 10. Add to that the $250K exit they must pay the CAA and the roughly $5 million they are forfeiting from the their 2011 Final Four run. Keep in mind that George Mason plays more sports than VCU and the travel expenses would have been more for them.

Fact remains that VCU feels the possible gain from this move greatly outweigh the losses. It's difficult to project what the A10 will look like in 2-3 years, especially with the Big East possibly losing members. It will certainly be weird having a CAA tournament in the Richmond without the Rams though.

Labels: schedule

18 Comments:

Christopher Hirsch said...: Best part about this? No more lame excuses for failing in Richmond in March.; 3:29 PM
gmuhoops said...: Yeah it will certainly be awesome to brag about the #15 seed we will earn from the CAA tournament...; 3:32 PM
letsrollnoles13 said...: Ya I hate this "Big East instability"...If VCU plays like they are playing, I sure they plan on leveraging that to become the next Big East member in the next few years. Sorry to see them beating us on the and off the court.

Hopefully this give some excuse to move the CAA tournament outside of Richmond...but do we know if the cool kids as Conference USA may want us to sit with them? CAA peopel are kinda lame.; 3:45 PM
BP99 said...: I really hope ODU stays...but they have such an awesome opportunity to get recognition for their football program, that I can't feel slighted by the move. Gonna be a very different feel to the conference with our two big rivals gone.; 3:49 PM
Christopher Hirsch said...: Tell me more of what will happen in the future...; 3:55 PM
gmuhoops said...: The CAA is stronger without it's best member? What would the conference's rank have been last season without VCU?

Spoiler: Shitty.; 4:00 PM
Christopher Hirsch said...: I missed the part where it was good last year with VCU.

Mason had a good out of conference schedule next year, that can help. You can play in a shitty conference and still get a decent seed. Its not unheard of.; 4:06 PM
airgold10 said...: Has it been confirmed yet that the tourney will still be in Richmond?

Yeah, OOC schedule will have be toned up a bit. Gonzaga and Davidson do it well though, we will have to follow their model. I remember the year after Davidson went to the Elite 8, they played #1 ranked UNC, as an away team, for their 1st game. They lost by 1, and in the weekly poll as #25 for just put up such a good fight against the best team in the country. We got our butt handed to us when we played at Cameron though after our F4 run, so don't know if we could handle those type of games.; 4:14 PM
BP99 said...: contract with the coliseum through 2014, it's likely to stay there because now it's more of a neutral site with VCU gone.; 6:09 PM
taylormade703 said...: Gonzaga, cough cough.; 6:54 PM
Bentley said...: you are clueless; 11:41 PM
Bentley said...: Pretty simple. ODU leaves next. CAA is down to 9 teams; maybe adds a, oh I don't know, Radford in for 10. RPI sinks like a rock. Can't schedule quality OOC anymore, lower quality of competition will direclty result in less media coverage, lower attendance (back to the 1-2k/game nights), 15 or 16 seed for the CAA champ in the NCAA just like it was in the 90s. That snowballs into recruits dropping Mason from their wish list, less than 1k in attendance... oh yeah, Hewitt departing when a better job offer at Bluefield College comes along.

To think VCU leaving is a good thing shows you know nothing about college sports. ODU, Mason, and VCU where the device that kept CAA basketball afloat. remove two, and you have a rock in the water. Bottom tier mid major here we come.

The last time the CAA evolved, Richmond and ECU departed to continue their growth. This time it is VCU and ODU and it was suppose to be Mason too - just a logical next step. Choosing to stay pat is like a AAA player getting the call up and saying to the big league team "Na, I'm good here."; 11:49 PM
Chris Paleczka said...: Interesting....

Smart said in a statement that VCU plans "to maintain our key rivalries with CAA teams, now and in the future," suggesting the Rams will at least attempt to schedule the Patriots and Monarchs in annual non-league games.

Looks like VCU will continue to try and schedule GMU/ODU.; 8:24 AM
gmuhoops said...: Don't forget to continue discussion on this on the message boards: http://www.gmuhoops.co/forum/forum.php; 9:47 AM
Christopher Hirsch said...: You do know that there other years that will happen than this upcoming season? That ultimately this decision can't be judged for at least 5-6 years. Look how much has changed, why are you so stuck on how things will be in 2012-2013? I am choosing to look at the bigger picture, beyond this season. None of us knows what the landscape will be in two years.

So you can keep crying and talk about how Mason is fucked, and I will look to see what actually happens, instead of assuming I know what will happen.; 12:26 PM
Christopher Hirsch said...: Memphis, Butler, Murray State; 12:33 PM
Dont_Block_me said...: You wrote a whole article to why it is in mason's best interest to stay in the CAA. Now you are going back on your word and saying sarcastically it will be awesome to be a 15 seed?; 12:01 PM
gmuhoops said...: Not true, I don't personally think it's in Mason's best interest to remain in the CAA. The point of that post was to show that GMU's and VCU's situations are much different and was trying to shed some light on the GMU officials rationale for the decision. And even in the title I had "at least for right now", doesn't mean that the time before now and if and when some move happens is going to great for mason basketball.; 12:41 PM

VCU will leave CAA for the A10 on July 1st

George Mason Basketball

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

VCU will leave CAA for the A10 on July 1st

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