The Colonial Athletic Association has contacted GW about joining its league, The New York Times reported Sunday, with sources also saying the A-10 is also actively seeking to add new members to its ranks.
The move is a sign of the growing instability in collegiate sports conferences, highlighted by the departures of Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Texas Christian University from the Big East. The Times says officials from “basketball-heavy leagues” like the C.A.A. and the A-10 are watching the actions of the major conferences while exploring their options to add potential new members.
The article adds that Stuart Rabinowitz, president of C.A.A. member Hofstra University, and the president of the C.A.A. Council of Presidents and Chancellors, has contacted GW, as well as A-10 rivals Charlotte and Richmond and Boston University, to “gauge informally their interest in joining the C.A.A.”
“There’s a lot of informal conversations going on,” C.A.A. commissioner Tom Yeager said to the New York Times. “Athletic directors are running into each other in the press box on Saturdays, and I think it’s a nonstop topic of conversation. We’re not going after anyone.”
The article also states that the Atlantic 10 is reaching out to different universities about joining the league, including District-rival George Mason and upcoming BB&T Classic opponent Virginia Commonwealth University, both currently C.A.A. members.
The C.A.A. is an NCAA Division I college athletic conference, comprised of 12 members across the East Coast. It already has A-10 ties- in 2007, all of the Atlantic 10’s football programs joined the C.A.A. football conference on a football-only basis. The league has produced 16 national champions in five different sports, and George Mason and VCU became the first two programs from the conference to reach the NCAA tournament Final Four in 2006 and 2001, respectively.
The C.A.A. also counts several A-10 universities among its associate members, including St. Joseph’s (men’s lacrosse), Dayton (women’s golf), Massachusetts (men’s lacrosse), Rhode Island (football), Richmond (women’s golf, football) and Xavier (women’s golf). Rhode Island will be leaving the C.A.A.’s football conference for the Northeast Conference beginning in 2013.
