What if UMass and Georgia State stayed in the CAA?

[Lehigh Football Nation]

I find myself thinking about this as both UMass and Georgia State are experiencing growing pains/disastrous transitions (depending on your point of view) to FBS. Wouldn't things have been very different had they simply stayed in the CAA?

* Would both App State and Georgia Southern have gone to the Sun Belt? Would one, or both, have stayed behind?

* Would Albany have left the NEC? The CAA could have only taken Stony Brook and gone to a 12 team divisional format:

North: UNH/Maine/UMass/URI/SBU/Villanova
South: Towson/Georgia State/Delaware/Richmond/JMU/W&M

Maybe switch SBU and Delaware?

* Would the CAA all-sports conference have been more stable? Maybe not, assuming ODU would have gone anyway, but they would have had one more all-sports member down South.

* Would Georgia State and UMass been competitive in this CAA? UMass was always pretty good in the CAA, while Georgia State would have had more time to clean up the mess and get some more interest in their program.

In retrospect at a bare minimum it looks like UMass and Georgia State rushed their decision to go FBS, and they are paying for it. My question is, would FCS have been better off with them, or without them?

[Mattymc727]

One thing is for sure, neither of them would win the CAA title.

[State Line Liquors]

My question is, would FCS have been better off with them, or without them?

I think the league and FCS would be better with UMass in it for travel purposes in New England, and also for name recognition with a state flagship. I'll miss games with UMass.

Georgia State we are probably better off without, due to their location, poor quality of play, and lack of support. I welcome the idea of them now being the Sun Belt's problem.

Maybe Albany and Stony Brook would not have joined the league if UMass had stayed, but they're both welcome additions regardless.

As far as FCS a whole is concerned, I don't think it's really much of a significant impact one way or another.

[UNHWildcat18]

Umass was always good besides that last two seasons leading up to. We would have the perfect northern half of the caa with umass. Forget Georgia state, not a good fit in the caa regardless of if they cleaned up the program. Much happier with another team replacing them. Also I really do wanna see umass be successful but they are dumb for not taking any transition years to get real FBS talent on the field. Of course most fans and faculty know nothing about that which is why they are under so much fire for not doing well. Interesting post though LFN

[pike51]

Georgia State would be playing Chattanooga for the FCS title this year.

[dbackjon]

One thing for sure, my friends that were 30-year premium seat UMASS season-ticket holders would still be going to UMASS football games

[PAllen]

One thing is for sure, neither of them would win the CAA title.

Damn, beat me to it. I knew someone would have to say "they wouldn't hold up over the long grueling CAA conference schedule". xrotatehx

[Sandlapper Spike]

Ultimately, Georgia State probably wouldn't have changed much in terms of App State and Georgia Southern wanting to move up (particularly App). UMass certainly would not have.

[melloware13]

For next year, it would have resulted in a 14 team conference, probably split into North and South, with the divide between Villanova and Delaware. Main difference then would be amount of crossover games. It would almost make it worth considering splitting into AEast and CAA, but that would complicate the whole playoff process. Assume CAA keeps their 6 full members (GaSt, Elon, JMU, W&M, Tow, UD). AEast keeps their full members (Maine, UNH, Albany, SBU). URI and UMass would go with AEast while Nova and Richmond go with CAA, and maybe have a non-conference scheduling contract.