The CAA's expansion

Today, the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) added a one million dollar exit fee for its member schools wanting to leave the conference. I think this new exit fee (it was previously 250k) provides some insights into what direction the CAA is now headed, and the schools they will target.

First, it solidifies the current CAA member' commitment to the conference and to FCS football. I don't see any current members that play football, now leaving for the FBS in the next 5 years, after having just voted in an extremely high exit fee. While, CAA Football has a separate charter from the CAA, and technically a school could look to move up in football and leave their other sports in the CAA, I just don't see any FBS conference inviting a FCS school to move up, and only bring football. I believe any FBS conference would want and demand all sports for such a move.

Second, this new exit fee, combined with the approval of a revised revenue distribution plan that will allow schools to keep more of any earning from the NCAA basketball tournament, indicates to me a renewed emphasis on basketball vs football for the conference.

What does this mean for the SoCon? First, I think it completely eliminates the possibility that either ASU or GSU would now consider the lateral move to the CAA, given their desire to move to FBS. However, any of the current SoCon football schools, that have no immediate plans to move up to FBS (such as Elon) may consider this option.  The CAA certainly fits the footprint for the majority of Elon's student population. As for  basketball only schools (Davidson, CoC, and UNCG) temptation may be hight, considering the renewed basketball emphasis of the CAA and 5 million dollars that VCU left on the table when they departed for the A-10 that will now be distributed to the CAA's membership.