If the George Mason Patriots want to leave the Colonial Athletic Association now, they'll have to pay four times the money to do so. During a meeting in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, the CAA's Council of Presidents approved an increase of the conference's exit fee from $250,000 to $1 million.
Among the items addressed by the Council in Tuesday's meetings:
Voted to increase the base withdrawal fee for a departing institution under liquidated damages to $1 million dollars. This increase does not apply to institutions that have already announced their withdrawal from the conference.
This means that the Va. Commonwealth Rams, leaving for the Atlantic 10 this year and the Old Dominion Monarchs, leaving for Conference USA next year will not be effected by this rule.
GMU was rumored along with VCU to be looking to join the Atlantic 10 back a couple months ago, but they decided to remain in the conference at least for now. With being just a basketball school in a conference that is seemingly putting more of its resources towards football, GMU looks like they are caught between a rock and a hard place in athletics.
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