In a historic move set to permanently change the course of Northeastern athletics, the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) announced on June 23 that the Huskies had joined the southern-based conference, effective July 1, 2006.
The CAA, which formed from the ECAC South in 1985, includes such schools as Delaware, Georgia State (entering 2006-07), UNC-Wilmington, and William ‘ Mary, and will now include Northeastern as its northernmost program.
With the move, the Huskies depart from the America East conference after 25 years of athletic competition. Northeastern leaves a lasting athletic mark in the conference having won more America East championships (17) in the last three years than any other conference member, despite having the fewest amount of sports represented in conference play (14 of 22).
Both of Northeastern’s basketball programs will immediately see a change in the level of play, where over the last five years, the average conference ranking for men’s basketball in the Colonial is 15 out of the nation’s 32 Division I basketball conferences while the America East’s is 26.
In women’s basketball, the difference is obvious as well, where the Colonial was ranked ninth and the America East 16th.
In the NCAA tournament, the CAA’s men basketball programs have certainly had their success. Since 1981, CAA schools have won 12 games over higher-seeded teams, including UNC Wilmington’s upset of Southern California in 2002.
In women’s basketball, Old Dominion and James Madison represent two of the top 10 winningest teams in the history of Division I.
Other Northeastern programs such as the field hockey and baseball teams will be largely affected by the move as well.
Since the championship began in 1981, CAA squads have won 10 field hockey national titles, which amounts to nearly half of all titles won. Baseball teams in the CAA have lifted the league to be ranked as one of the nation’s top five conferences in four of the past seven seasons.
Both soccer programs are traditionally ranked in the top 10 conferences in the nation, while the conference annually has teams ranked among the top 20 nationally in cross country.
Northeastern coaches were surveyed on the move to the CAA and the effects it will have on their respective programs.
The News: How do you feel about the move?
Neil McPhee (Baseball manager): It’s a catch-22 for us in particular. I love the direction the department is moving in. To go to a much more competitive, higher-end baseball conference is a great thing. That part is very exciting; to be in a conference that is probably a notch below the [Atlantic Coast Conference] and [Southeastern Conference].
For us, it’s a big challenge to go into this conference. I think we’re in a position to get to the point to where we can compete with the best teams in that conference. At the present time, we would not be embarrassed with our last few teams over the years.
The catch-22 is that, can we be as successful as we were in America East? That’s the big question. Honestly, I think no. It’ll take a little time to improve in some areas, in order to be competitive with the top half of the Colonial.
Overall, my feeling is that I’m extremely excited. It’s a great move for NU and the field of college athletics. Dave O’Brien’s first comment to us when he came here was that the future of college athletics is to look south.
Another example is [Boston College] moving to the ACC. From what we can see, across the country, there is a movement to solidify athletic programs. This move certainly solidified NU into one of the better conferences in the country.
The News: Competition-wise, how do you think things will change?
McPhee: Clearly, the teams we will face in the Colonial, on average, will be stronger programs than the programs of America East. Their resources are greater than most of the schools we’ve competed against.
Let’s face it, their recruitment area, being a southern-tier conference is stronger. When they recruit a baseball player, they have more advanced and developed players. Natural athletic skill an athlete is born with is not different in the north, south, east or west but the development of southern players is more advanced than northern players. Going down there, we’ll know we’ll face that kind of talent. With that being said, some teams in New England and the northeast area, have proven over the years that they can compete at higher levels of collegiate baseball. Rutgers is one of those teams. Based on their schedule, they’ve been able to compete with the Miamis of the world.
Rutgers, and BC more recently, have also competed well against a lot of those high-end college baseball programs. The feeling is that when you look at the basic resources, recruiting elements, school itself, location and facilities and with our field being upgraded, it’s an incredible attraction to play in the northeast corner.
We need to improve some of the resources. Additional scholarship money, full-time assistant coaches, things of that nature. It won’t be done overnight. The program itself has to be involved in raising funds that will allow us to do those kinds of things. The potential is definitely there to compete for top players.
The News: Do you foresee any problems based on the move, such as travel?
McPhee: Travel problems will not be as severe as one would think. There will be a north and south division, and away trips will not be longer by a significant amount. We have already been to Delaware, Long Island, and Binghamton, N.Y. So we add an hour or two to our trips. You’re not talking about a significant difference. There is certainly a difference though, and it’ll be a little longer when we head down to the North Carolina area, we’ll need a plane and it’ll cost more money. We realize this, and don’t see it as a major factor.
The News: How great is your knowledge of the teams in the CAA?
McPhee: We’ve already faced Delaware, Towson and Hofstra. We know about UNC-Wilmington and frankly, we’re definitely competitive with them and they are one of the better programs in that conference. On any given day, with one of our good pitchers, we could definitely compete.
The News: How do you feel about the move?
Sherman Hart (Track/cross country head coach): I love it. It makes us a little bit more competitive in terms of going after different programs in the Colonial conference. I know the coaches; I’m friends with them. Trash is already being spoken between us. I’m enjoying the fact that we are moving to the Colonial conference, because it’ll give us more of a challenge.
The News: Competition-wise, how do you think things will change?
Hart: The competition will go up. We’re a team that can meet that challenge though, very quickly. Coming in, I see us as one of the top three teams right off the bat, judging from what we’ve seen. We can see these teams much more than other teams around here. George Mason and William ‘ Mary will go after us from day one. But we’ve seen each other enough that there is a love-love, hate-hate relationship. [CAA teams] think that we’ll add a lot to the conference.
We’ll make the championship run a lot more fun, and we’re all very excited. We found out at the end of May and it’s just an exciting time for the program and a big step for all of us.
The News: Do you foresee any problems based on the move, such as travel?
Hart: Not at this time. We stepped up our programs this year when we went to Florida and Philadelphia. The problem is that we’re used to having both an indoor and outdoor championship. They don’t have an indoor championship and that will not help us, because we enjoy the indoors being in New England. But outdoors, we’ll be prepared for travel. Six out of our eight meets this past season were on the road.
The News: How great is your knowledge of the teams in the CAA?
Hart: William ‘ Mary and George Mason are definitely the top two teams in the conference right now. Those are the teams we have to beat coming into the conference. We’re competitive with both programs. It would have come down to half a point between the three of us in the championships based on our times. We’ll have to measure up to those teams right away.
The News: How do you feel about the move?
Cheryl Murtagh (Field hockey head coach): I think it’s great for our team. It’ll help us to be more nationally competitive, and our team is pretty excited about it. I know a lot of the teams; we’ve played William ‘ Mary, Old Dominion. We haven’t played Richmond in a little while, but we’re familiar with Delaware and Hofstra. It’ll be tough, but it’ll raise our level of play.
The News: Do you foresee any problems based on the move, such as travel?
Murtagh: We’re going to Michigan and we’ve played Ohio University. We went down to Virginia last year. We’ve done that kind of travel.
The News: Will this change Northeastern’s recognition level?
Murtagh: I called a coach in Virginia recently, and he didn’t really know us. He thought we were Northwestern, so this move will change that and I hope it will give us more recognition.
The News: How do you feel about the move?
Willette White (women’s basketball coach): I’m excited. I’m really excited, I think it’s kind of with the vision of the University trying to get into the top 100.
I think the competition is going to be tougher, but its one of the better conferences in the country. I think we’ll be competitive.
The News: Do you forsee any problems, like travel?
White: Travel is going to be tougher, it’s going to be plane flights instead of bus rides now, but I think it’ll be fun.
This definitely improves our recruiting areas, though.
