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Conference Realignment: College of Charleston to discuss membership in CAA

The College of Charleston voted on Friday to begin talks with the Colonial Athletic Association, exploring the possibility of the Cougars becoming full members in the conference.

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College of Charleston votes to begin membership talks with CAA

The College of Charleston voted on Friday to begin talks with the Colonial Athletic Association, exploring the possibility of the Cougars becoming full members in the conference. College of Charleston is currently a member of the Southern Conference, and the Friday vote by the Board of Trustees was not a vote to move out of that conference, but rather simply to begin initial discussions with the CAA.

CAA Commissioner Tom Yeager, however, would like to bring Charleston into the fold as soon as possible (via Dave Fairbank of The Daily Press):

"We'd like to move as quickly as we can, but we recognize that they have some Southern Conference obligations," Yeager said. "When you get into these things, the conference from where the school's leaving desires to move on, and the school and the new conference want to focus on their partnership and moving forward. It's in everybody's best interest to move as quickly as possible."

The CAA is trying to add a school and round the conference out to 10 members by the 2013-14 school year. Old Dominion and Georgia Southern will depart next season, dropping the current number from 11 to nine. The Cougars would certainly be another asset in men's basketball.

Charleston's vote is to explore the costs of making a move. Travel expenses appear to be an initial concern for the BoT, as they would be the southernmost school in the reconfigured conference. They also want to better understand the exit fees for departing the SoCon.

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Davidson will not join CAA, according to report

Davidson will not join the Colonial Athletic Association, according to Chris Dortch.

Davidson was officially invited to join the CAA in July. The CAA is trying to replace Georgia State, Virginia Commonwealth and Old Dominion. Georgia State is headed to the Sun Belt, Virginia Commonwealth is going to the Atlantic 10 and Old Dominion is slated for Conference USA.

Sports Illustrated's Luke Winn broke down the pros and cons of the potential move when the idea floated around in May:

The CAA would offer slightly more money and more TV exposure, but no guarantee of better NCAA tournament positioning -- and Davidson's travel costs, which are affordable in the bus-trip friendly SoCon, would skyrocket due to all the flights required to visit CAA opponents in the north. And then there's the issue of competition: Where would the Wildcats stand in the CAA's new hierarchy?

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Conference Realignment: VCU Will Join Atlantic 10 July 1

The Va. Commonwealth Rams made it official today that they will join the Atlantic 10 conference effective July 1, 2012. They will be participating in the Atlantic 10 in all sports for the 2012-13 academic year. VCU president Michael Rao spoke at a press conference that lasted only about 15 minutes to address why they are accelerating their plans to join the conference.

The Atlantic 10 has premier universities across the board and that includes athletics. The ability to recruit and retain student athletes will be sufficiently enhanced because of this move.

This move does come with a price however, the cost for joining the Atlantic 10 will be a hefty $700,000 dollars. For some universities that's not much, but for VCU that's a big price to pay. Rao and those in the athletic department hope that new revenue from the Atlantic 10 will help offset that cost.

Rao also took time during the press conference to address the conference they are leaving in the Colonial Athletic Association.

We have the utmost respect of Tom Yeager and his leadership team as well as the other institutions of CAA.

The move leaves the CAA in flux. The Old Dominion Monarchs have been rumored to possibly be leaving the conference to join the Sun Belt Conference in 2013. So if those two leave the CAA the George Mason Patriots would not have as much competition and the conference would be much weaker.

Even more discouraging for Mason fans is the report from CBS Sports via the GMUHoops.com blog that the Patriots were passed over for the Rams, despite being in a larger media market and also having a close rival in the George Washington Colonials.

For more on the Rams and Patriots basketball programs, stay tuned to SB Nation DC. For all your college basketball news and notes be sure to check out SB Nation's NCAA hoops hub.

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