CAA Drops out of Bracketbusters effective 2012-13 season

[DoubleJayAlum]

For reference, the CAA was 15th in RPI this year.

NB: A handful of schools from other conferences (apparently including the MEAC and the WCC) participate in BracketBusters on individual contracts.

In fairness to the CAA, they were down this year as compared to their norm.

I thought all of the WCC, outside of Gonzaga, was involved.

This really, really sucks. If St Mary's and Murray St are on the otherside of the home/away grouping, you are screwed.

This does open up some scheduling opportunities with the CAA though. We should contact them immediately about some sort of scheduling arrangement. At least until GMU and VCU depart, there are still some quality schools. Maybe with their new TV contract, we can get a challenge type event like we had with the MWC and The Mtn Tv network.

[pafan]

Only two WCC teams were in the BB last year: Saint Mary's (CA) and Loyola-Marymount.

[achrist70]

The CAA doesn't usually have that outstanding of an RPI mainly because they have such terrible bottom dwellers, the Valley on the other hand is usually able to keep their bottom 3 or 4 in a respectable range. This is still a huge loss for the Valley when it comes to the bracketbuster because the CAA was the conference able to give the better teams from the Valley a decent RPI game. I really think that the Valley should attempt to get a deal like this one, maybe with the CBS sports network, in an attempt to keep the championship game on CBS

[BirdmanBB]

What sucks is that the valley is stuck in a real bad place right now. If we were to up and leave in order to negotiate a tv deal somewhere else, we would lose out on having all those games on espn3, which I think is picking up steam and personally enjoy.

It would be nice if ESPN could throw us a bone and let us get out of it, but I doubt that would happen. What would be nice is if they dissolved this thing and worked out a better mid major challenge for their network instead of a bracketbuster.

At the very least, I hope ESPN takes the share of CAA games for their network and throws some more our way.

[BirdmanBB]

http://espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/57612/3-point-shot-caa-gives-up-bracketbusters

1. Colonial Athletic Association commissioner Tom Yeager said he was well aware that signing a new agreement with NBC Sports would likely mean the end of the CAA’s involvement in the ESPN-sponsored BracketBusters, beginning in 2013. “We are disappointed but we understand the business,’’ Yeager said. He said that the benefits of signing with NBC outweighed the risks of losing a spot in BracketBusters. VCU coach Shaka Smart agreed that no longer participating in BracketBusters wasn’t good. The CAA has had some of the best wins in the event, notably by George Mason, VCU and Drexel.

They make a good point about the BB getting them some good wins. Without the CAA though, this event has been extremely weakened. I wonder what will happen to the CAA in the future if VCU and Mason leave for the A10. When their contract runs out with NBC, will either they or ESPN even want to cut a deal with them? The conference will be weaker.

The CAA will need to replace quality games for their conference now that they are no longer participating. Even if it isn't a "challenge," I could see some sort of scheduling agreement develop between the MVC and CAA. Mainly because the CAA could get desperate to find quality games without having to take a buy.

[Jet915]

Stating the obvious but a Yahoo article highlighting how crappy Bracketbusters is...

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger-college-basketball-blog/caa-lack-involvement-further-diminishes-appeal-bracketbusters-062736195.html;_ylt=Ag51P9tBShXWYgPUM5bKL5revbYF

[TheAsianSensation]

This is a pretty simple situation. If Elgin wants to hold teams accountable for their non-con SoS, he needs to hold himself accountable and bail on BB.

There's no more value in this setup:
The CAA is gone
The WCC is diminishing their participation
Obviously, the MWC, A-10 were not a part of it to begin with
The WAC remained loyal, but they're about to get bludgeoned by the MWC in realignment, so they're about to be an also-ran conference
Horizon is loyal, but Butler is big-timing the event now, like Gonzaga did in the past
There's actually good value in the MAC East programs, but ESPN keeps giving the majority of them to the MAAC and CAA teams
The MAAC itself isn't consistent in participation
One potential spot of value: San Diego St in the Big West, but that's only if SDSU wants in. They could ask out of BB and get away with it; they've already convinced the league to alter it's league schedule format

I think the MWC/MVC Challenge is going to be dead (the negotiations they're having with CUSA are a mess, so we'll see). If the CAA holds onto VCU and Mason, a challenge with them is the obvious solution, and if we have to cater to their TV needs, it's worth it. CAA just lost Georgia State, so I'm not sure what their long-term makeup is going to be, but Elgin and Yeager need to be talking on some back channels as we speak about this.

[uniftw]

The CAA has been nothing but consistant with their RPI finish since 03


03-04 13
04-05 13
05-06 13
06-07 13
07-08 13
08-09 14
09-10 12
10-11 10
11-12 15

Like has been pointed out before, they'd be higher because the top of their league is very good....but the bottom of their league is very very bad.

RPI Team Conf Overall
38 VA Commonwealth 18-3 28-6
66 Drexel 18-3 27-6
82 George Mason 15-5 24-9
103 Old Dominion 14-6 20-13
138 Georgia St. 12-8 21-11
153 Delaware 13-7 18-13
172 Northeastern 10-10 14-17
213 N.C. Wilmington 6-14 10-21
254 Hofstra 3-16 10-22
261 James Madison 5-14 12-20
298 William & Mary 4-15 5-26
311 Towson 1-18 1-31

Once you get past ODU there is a pretty good drop in terms of level of play. I know UD and GSU finished with good records, but you can see by the RPI drop it's clear how they got those wins...plus look at their SOS (246 and 219 respectively).

GSU is gone for the Sun Belch conference. Towson set the NCAA record for longest losing streak...their one win was UNC-Wilmington (who actually beat ISUr in early Dec. to move them to 1-6)

If VCU and GMU bolt the CAA is much less impressive...couple that with the fact that ODU is "exploring" options how to move their football team to the FBS if the option comes up that leave you with Drexel..then UD and below. Long story short...the top half of the CAA is looking elsewhere and might be gone in the next 3 or 4 years.

Heck, outside of ODU, GMU, and VCU none of the teams have been consistent. Drexel, just a couple years ago, was at the bottom of the league and WMU and JMU were near the top.


Without the top part of the CAA the Bracketbuster system is a complete waste for the MVC (it's been argued it was with the top half of the CAA).

The MVC needs to drop the bracketbuster and set something up with the CAA (before it dissolves and hope it doesn't) or the A10

[unipanther99]

At this point, I'm wondering if it would be better to forget about Bracketbusters and challeges, and instead, add two quality teams to the conference and continue to play a full round robin, with conference games starting in mid-December.

[DoubleJayAlum]

Yeah, but the probem is finding two quality prograns to add. The two most reasonable expansion candidates, Butler and Slu, are headed to the A10 or have zero interest respectively. Nobody else inside of the current geographic footprint, that might have interest, is worth more than the NCAA tourney credits they will eat up.

We are losing the MVC/MWC challenge. Without CAA in the bracketbuster, we lose solid match-ups there as well. To a lot of schools in the conference, these two required games provided the best non-con home games. Elgin and the league office needs to act quickly to preserve schedule strengths or every team's non-con will, outside of exempt tourneys, begin to resemble Illinois State's.