Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Elon to CAA

There have been rumors that Elon will leave the Southern Conference, and would be the fifth school to leave the league in the past six months, joining College of Charleston, Davidson, Georgia Southern and Appalachian State.

Breaking: Elon has called a press conference for 2 pm tomorrow (Thursday) to announce their move to the CAA. Albany is also expected to join.

At 2:14pm on Wed: 38s
Advisory just released for Thursday afternoon news conference on “important announcement about the future of Elon Phoenix Athletics.”

Jeff Hartsell, Citadel writer at the Post and Courier tweeted that Elon's board of trustees voted Tuesday to go to the CAA, and that Albany is also joining in all sports.

This would be a big blow to the league. They have been in the Southern Conference for the past ten years after four years in the Big South when they joined Division I, in 1999.

At 3:24 on Tuesday:
SoCon commish John Iamarino says hopes to make CAA decision within weeks, if not days.

This is what I said about Elon last year in an article I did, ranking the CAA contenders:

Elon: Pros- would get the CAA into the Greensboro/Winston-Salem/High Point market. Elon is also only 40 miles from Chapel Hill and Durham, giving them a footprint in that market. Have a rich base of alumni all over the East Coast (here in Charleston, they always bring a fan contingent). Are adding women's lacrosse, and are competitive in almost all sports in the SoCon. A very good school which would fit in the CAA for academics.

Cons- Small gym (Alumni Hall), only seats 2,100, one of smallest in SoCon. Does not have a big following outside of the Piedmont of NC (only people that follow them are alumni outside the area). Campus hard to expand. Only has one radio station on its network.

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