The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Tournament basketball games at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City in March could be the final conference appearances for Monmouth University.
The Asbury Park Press and NJ.com reported Tuesday the NCAA Division I school in West Long Branch, Monmouth County, will join the Colonial Athletic Association in all sports starting in the 2022-23 season.
The Hawks currently compete in the MAAC in all sports except for football, for which they are a member of the Big South Conference. The MAAC does not compete in football.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Sunday that the CAA, based in Richmond, Virginia, is seeking to expand due the departure of James Madison to the Sun Belt Conference.
In addition to Monmouth, Stony Brook in Long Island, New York, and Hampton and William & Mary in Virginia would become full CAA members.
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“The MAAC is aware of media reports on membership realignment impacting the conference. NCAA Division I conferences are again in a period of membership changes,” MAAC Commissioner Rich Ensor said Tuesday in a statement on the conference website. “As I have noted before, the MAAC is not immune from this process of realignment which occurs periodically in college sports, usually driven by schools seeking better affiliation for their football programs. ... The MAAC continues to review potential membership expansion.”
The realignment could be a great benefit for Monmouth’s football program, which has competed in the Big South, comprised of schools predominately in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia, since 2014. The move to the CAA would allow regional rivalries with Villanova, Delaware and Stony Brook to form.
The CAA is actually two conferences with crossover: the full membership that competes in sports other than football, and CAA Football, an NCAA Division I Football Championship Series league that includes Richmond, an Atlantic 10 member in other sports. Stony Brook already is affiliated with CAA Football.
Without JMU, which will leave following this academic year, the CAA for nonfootball sports includes Charleston, Delaware, Drexel, Elon, Hofstra, Northeastern, Towson, UNC Wilmington and W&M.
CAA Football consists of Albany, Delaware, Elon, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Richmond, Stony Brook, Towson, Villanova and W&M.
Since James Madison’s November announcement that it was leaving the CAA, the league analyzed the feasibility of expanding and splitting into north and south divisions, with competition primarily intradivisional to reduce travel expenses.
The additions of Hampton, Monmouth and Stony Brook as full members would make the CAA a 12-school league. With Hampton and Monmouth added to CAA Football, that league would have 13 members.
The MAAC men’s and women’s basketball Tournaments will be held at Boardwalk Hall from March 8 to 12, the final year of a three-year deal with the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority.
NOTE: Press-area athletes who competed or are schedule to compete for Monmouth during the 2021-22 season include football players JT Cornelius (Southern Regional), David Dutra (Vineland) and Jabril Shakur (Pleasantville); field hockey player Reese Bloomstead (Ocean City); track athletes Michaela Baker (Ocean City), Isabella Leak (Egg Harbor Township), Annie Rutledge (EHT), Ahmad Brock (EHT) and Danny Fenton (Millville); baseball players Jake Catalano (St. Augustine Prep) and Joey Ventresca (Pinelands Regional); softball player Devin Coia (Vineland); and women’s lacrosse player Taylor Emmell (Cedar Creek).
John O’Connor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch contributed to this report.
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