Dec. 3 – Old Dominion 69, Northeastern 59

The Monarchs prove to be too much as Northeastern can’t keep pace in the season’s CAA opener at Matthews Arena.

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Dec. 6 – Bradley 79, Northeastern 68

Northeastern commits 23 turnovers in a sloppy road effort, losing 79-68 to Bradley, dropping their third in a row.

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Dec. 18 – Princeton 71, Northeastern 62

Turnovers once again plague the Huskies as an early 2nd-half run propels Princeton to a 71-62 victory at Matthews Arena.

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Dec. 20 – Louisiana Tech 56, Northeastern 53

The Huskies led for the majority of the 2nd half, but gave up the lead and committed costly turnovers late, leading to the their 5th straight loss, 56-53.

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Dec. 22 – NC State 88, Northeastern 59

NC State pulls out to an early lead, proving too much for the Huskies in a rout, 88-59 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

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Dec. 30 – Northeastern 53, Vermont 51

In a contest that was close all afternoon, Joel Smith hit a buzzerbeater to give the Huskies a 53-51 victory.

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Nov. 11 – Northeastern 82, Boston University 74

The Huskies and Terriers played an overtime thriller to start the college basketball season on Friday, with NU taking home the 82-74 victory.
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Nov. 14 – UMass 83, Northeastern 67

The Huskies trip west to Amherst on Monday didn’t go as planned. The Minutemen jumped out to a big lead before cruising to an 83-67 victory over Northeastern.
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Nov. 19 – Northeastern 64, Southern Illinois 57

Most of the action in the Huskies’ victory over SIU came in an exciting, back and forth first half before a second half riddled with fouls and free throws.
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Nov. 26 – Northeastern 78, St. John’s 64

Joel Smith got the Huskies out to a strong start, but Northeastern allowed the Red Storm to get themselves back in the game before Bill Coen’s squad pulled away for the upset win.
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“I didn’t really understand (Northeastern coach Bill Coen’s) decisions, and I had several conferences with him,” Pierson said. “He couldn’t really explain to me why my role had changed, either. So my family and I decided that moving on might be best.”

• Burlington Free Press: Northeastern’s Pierson confirms transfer to UVM

From a Northeastern release:

For Northeastern, this will be the second-ever appearance in the Great Alaska Shootout. The Huskies earned a spot in the 1986 championship game after defeating Louisville and Utah State in the opening rounds. In the title tilt against Iowa, Northeastern legend Reggie Lewis scored 29 points, and narrowly missed a double-double with eight rebounds. Iowa, though, shot 70 percent to secure the victory.

The 2012 tournament field includes four teams that made trips to the postseason in 2012: Alaska Anchorage (NCAA second round, Div. II), Belmont (NCAA second round), Loyola Marymount (CollegeInsider.com quarterfinals) and Oral Roberts (NIT first round).

The tournament format is an eight team, bracketed championship. The addition of this tournament adds several components to Northeastern’s out-of-conference schedule. Currently, the Huskies host Boston University, Vermont, UMass, La Salle, and UNC-Asheville while traveling to face Princeton.

2012 Carrs/Safeway Great Alaska Shootout Schedule (Northeastern)

• November 21 – Northeastern vs. UC Riverside
• November 22 – Off-day
• November 23 – Northeastern vs. Alaska-Anchorage or Belmont
• November 24 – Northeastern vs. TBA

Over the past few days and weeks, there have been whispers then roars of VCU and George Mason leaving for the Atlantic 10. Those were followed by vehement denials from both athletic departments, as well as CAA commissioner Tom Yeager in a conference call on March 26. In that call, the league’s head honcho stated that there had been no conversations between any of the Colonial’s 12 members and any other conference, and that there had not been any discussions with other institutions about adding to the CAA’s roster of universities.

Just days after that call, CBS Sports reported that Georgia State University was a “leading candidate” to join the Sun Belt Conference. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, GSU Athletic Director Cheryl Levick informed Yeager of the talks after the March 26 media teleconference. Yesterday, Brett McMurphy followed up his report from last week with a statement that administrators within the Sun Belt and its schools had voted to invite the Panthers to join their ranks, though no invitation had been formally extended. The AJC’s Doug Roberson wrote on Tuesday that, according to Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson, such a vote had not taken place and that a previously scheduled trip to GSU’s Atlanta campus on Thursday had been postponed. It was expected that the formal invitation would be offered at that time. An earlier article from McMurphy is what heated up the talks of VCU and George Mason leaving for the Atlantic 10, along with current Horizon League member Butler.

If Georgia State does leave in 2013 as one source reported, it would mean the school’s football team will compete in the CAA for just one season before jumping. Regardless of the timing of the invitation and departure, it seems as though it is simply a matter of when rather than if.

According to conference bylaws, and confirmed by Yeager in the March 26 call, any school that has announced that it is leaving the league will not be eligible for the conference’s playoffs the preceding year. Since it is a new program, GSU would also be ineligible to compete for a Sun Belt championship and would be ineligible to play in a bowl game during the 2013 season.

They would also not be allowed to participate in the 2013 CAA basketball tournament, which could feature only nine teams with possible NCAA sanctions coming against UNCW and Towson due to issues with the Academic Progress Rate.

What isn’t clear is how much Georgia State will have to pay in order to get out of the CAA. For years, the conference’s exit fee has been set at $250,000. Recently, there have been increased talks of upping that fee to seven figures, in the range of $1 million to $1.5 million. That number would be comparable to the $1 million that Temple University is expected to pay the Atlantic 10 when it leaves for the Big East, in addition to the $6 million that the school will pay the Mid-American Conference, where Temple football had been competing since 2007. If Georgia State receives its invitation this week, before next week’s expected vote to increase the exit fee, they could save upwards of $1 million by announcing its exit early. Some sources say there will be a vote in the early half of next week, while others confirmed discussion but denied that a vote was actually scheduled.

Multiple sources have said that the idea of increasing the fee is not a new one, as administrators from at least one of the major Virginia schools have been spearheading the effort for a year or more. The move reportedly has overwhelming support among conference athletic directors and presidents, and while not unanimous it should easily pass. Between that information and the fact that the CAA will be doling out its annual checks from the NCAA that are especially large as a result of the conference’s success, including VCU’s Final Four run, in the 2011 national tournament, it seems unlikely that VCU or GMU would leave. One source also said he was told that Butler would be the only addition to the Atlantic 10, replacing Temple, and that neither VCU nor George Mason would be leaving the CAA anytime soon. A source also cited the conference’s Virginia base, with five members from the state and the basketball tournament being held in Richmond, as additional reasons that both schools would stay.

Once Georgia State leaves, the Colonial Athletic Association will be left with 11 full-membership schools. Only five of those remaining members sponsor a football team, including Delaware, James Madison, Old Dominion, Towson, and William & Mary. There are an additional five associate members in CAA Football, including Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Richmond, and Villanova. However, Rhode Island will be dropping down to the reduced-scholarship Northeast Conference and will leave the CAA with nine football teams. From a scheduling perspective, that would allow each team to play every other team once during the season and play three non-conference games for an 11-game slate.

On the basketball side, things are a little bit more complicated. It is unclear whether or not the conference would look to add another university to replace Georgia State or if it would sit on an odd number of members. Though the current membership consists of both public and private schools, large and small, and geographically ranges from Boston to Wilmington, N.C. once GSU leaves, finding a strong fit could still prove difficult. Presidents and athletic directors would need to find a school that philosophically matches the ideals of the 11 remaining universities, both academically and athletically. Among others, some names that have been bandied about include Boston University, University of Rhode Island, Stony Brook University, Fordham University, George Washington University, University of Richmond, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, College of Charleston, and Coastal Carolina. For various reasons, some more obvious than others, many of these schools have been dismissed as unlikely to leave their current affiliations for Colonial membership or to be accepted by CAA institutions. One source fully expects that UNC Charlotte will eventually join Georgia State in the Sun Belt, as the 49ers have plans to field a football program beginning in the 2013 season.

There are still many questions left to be answered, and additional sources have been contacted for more information. Others have declined comment. As more information becomes available, it will be posted on wrbbsports.com. For up-to-the-minute information, follow @CAA_FCP and @wrbbsports on Twitter.

Duquesne president Charles J. Dougherty mentioned the A-10′s plans for expansion in an email he sent to his board of trustees explaining his decision to fire basketball coach Ron Everhart. The email was obtained by CBSSports.com. “The A10 conference itself is on the verge of a major improvement with the addition of new high quality university programs,” Dougherty wrote. “All of this amounts to an exciting professional opportunity for a new coach.”

On Wednesday, news broke that Georgia State was in discussions with the Sun Belt conferencel. The move would be primarily motivated by GSU’s football program, which since its inception has been thought of as leverage for GSU to move to an FBS-participating conference. A move, reported by McMurphy, would come as early as 2013.

The Sun Belt is strongly considering extending an invitation to Georgia State and the parties have had informal discussions. An invitation could occur in the coming weeks with Georgia State a possibility to be added to the league as early as 2013, sources said.

While Georgia State would compress the conference’s geographic spread, the loss of VCU and Mason on the basketball side would be seismic shifts for competitiveness in the league. Adding to the unease is the sense that Old Dominion and James Madison are beefing up football programs, aiming at the FBS. While most of the discussion is conjecture and speculation, it’s a fascinating glimpse at conference realignment which is still unfolding. Mike Litos, as always, has a calm and reasoned discussion about why a move from VCU and Mason won’t come for at least another few months.

Hockey got a dose of realignment talk on Wednesday as well. UConn, which had recently hired a consultant to evaluate its hockey program, is reportedly applying to become Hockey East’s 12th team in 2013, as reported by College Hockey News:

Connecticut is believed to be the first choice among a large majority of the conference’s athletic directors. It is a natural fit because it is a state school in New England, a la Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Mass.-Lowell and Vermont. And Connecticut’s women’s program currently plays in Hockey East.

A 12th team would move the number of conference game to 22 (teams would play each other twice each season), increasing the non-league games by 5. UConn’s main hurdle is its arena: they currently play at the small Frietas Ice Forum, which holds less than 2,000 spectators, inadequate for Hockey East’s arena standards.

Tonight’s title tilt will pit #1 Drexel against #2 VCU at 7 p.m. The Dragons and Rams both have 27 wins on the season, but it’s win number 28 that will send them dancing into March. The loser may still get in as an at-large choice, but that’s a scenario both squads would like to avoid.

For coverage of tonight’s game follow WRBB Sports and CAA Full Court Press on Twitter. Patrick McHugh, Andy Towne and Alex Faust will be inside the Richmond Coliseum to update you on the action.

CAA Women’s Basketball Tournament – First round
5:00 p.m. – Northeastern Huskies vs. George Mason Patriots
from Showplace Arena in Upper Marlboro, Md.
with Bobby Mullen and TBA
Broadcast on WRBB Sports Extra

Friday, March 9

CAA Women’s Basketball Tournament – Quarterfinal (If Necessary)
5:00 p.m. – Northeastern Huskies vs. James Madison Dukes
from Showplace Arena in Upper Marlboro, Md.
with Bobby Mullen and TBA
Broadcast on WRBB Sports Extra

Saturday, March 10

CAA Women’s Basketball Tournament – Semifinal (If Necessary)
2:30 p.m. – Northeastern Huskies vs. TBA
from Showplace Arena in Upper Marlboro, Md.
with Bobby Mullen and TBA
Broadcast on WRBB Sports Extra

Sunday, March 11

CAA Women’s Basketball Tournament – Championship (If Necessary)
12:30 p.m. – Northeastern Huskies vs. TBA
from Showplace Arena in Upper Marlboro, Md.
with Bobby Mullen and TBA

Though Northeastern’s season is over, Patrick McHugh and Andy Towne are still in Richmond for the tournament. Unfortunately due to increased media coverage from other outlets, we will be unable to do a running blog of the tournament from press row. Instead, check out WRBB Sports and CAA Full Court Press on their respective Twitter handles to stay updated on semifinal action.

Two afternoon games will take place today. Here’s how it looks:

2 p.m. – #1 Drexel vs. #4 Old Dominion
4:30 p.m. – #2 VCU vs. #3 George Mason

These are truly the best four teams in the conference, and considering the run the CAA has made in the NCAA Tournament in years past, it isn’t a stretch to say these teams could make a run into late March. It should be another great day of CAA basketball.