CAA in freefall?

What exactly did NBC Sports Network buy when it signed a big contract to sway the Colonial Athletic Association away from ESPN?

I know what they thought they were getting: A somewhat overlooked mid-major conference with teams stretching from New England to Georgia and with some presence in a few larger markets like Atlanta, Washington, Philadelphia and Boston. A league that produced that scrappy George Mason team that surged to the Final Four in 2006, followed five years later by Virginia Commonwealth's five-win march to Houston.

I also know what they didn't think they were getting: A one-bid league whose 2013 tournament champion was rated so low that it had to play another team for a 16 seed, meaning it was one of the four worst teams in the NCAA field.

But that is what the CAA had become even before George Mason made its announcement Monday that it was joining VCU in the Atlantic 10. For the low $1 million exit fee, the Patriots bought their way out of a league that is falling apart and found themselves in a multi-bid conference that will afford them an outstanding cross-river rival in George Washington and a rekindling of hostilities with VCU.

What really hurts the CAA in this particular departure is that it is one of the 1985 founding fathers that is leaving for greener pastures. The College of Charleston will be added to the league this summer, but that was already planned as a way to replace VCU and two other departing schools, Old Dominion and Georgia State, which had to take a big chunk of disrespect from the CAA this year.

I searched in vain for the final figure that the CAA got from NBC, but I gave up because the stories published in February 2012 simply noted it was an undisclosed amount that commissioner Tom Yeager said was significantly more than the league was getting from ESPN. As a VCU alumnus moving west that spring, this sounded great to me. At least 12 basketball games plus the semifinals and finals on national TV (albeit NBC Sports Network) and a bone thrown to the football schools in the form of at least five games.

But then a funny thing happened. VCU bolted for the Atlantic 10, and I didn't really care about the CAA anymore. The Rams actually made the switch a year earlier than they had planned after the league decided to enforce a provision that said any school that was leaving the CAA would be ineligible for its postseason tournaments. I felt bad that Old Dominion (moving to Conference USA) and Georgia State (which is headed for the Sun Belt) could not get into their new leagues in time for the 2012-13 season.

How far did the CAA fall in just two years? In 2011, after a six-session league tournament featuring 12 schools, victor Old Dominion was joined by regular-season champion George Mason and VCU in the NCAA tournament. Yes, the inclusion of VCU, which placed fourth in the regular season and lost in the CAA final, was somewhat controversial until the Rams went on a run that ended at the Final Four in Houston.

Fast-forward two years and the CAA tournament ended its decades-long run in Richmond with a three-session program that featured seven teams. Third-seed James Madison won the title and was the only CAA team invited to the big dance. After winning a game in the First Four, the Dukes lost to top-seeded Indiana.

Why were there only seven teams in Richmond two years after there had been 12? In addition to the departure of VCU, and the lack of an invite for ODU and Georgia State, UNC Wilmington and Towson did not meet academic standards, so they were also not eligible to play. While I am impressed that such rules now exist, it made the tournament a ghost town when compared to the past few years.

As of next season the CAA will stretch from Massachusetts to South Carolina, and the once-Virginia centric league will be down to just two schools in the commonwealth, James Madison and William and Mary. The tournament is headed for Baltimore, despite the fact that just one school -- Towson -- is in Maryland. And who knows if it will be eligible to play?

As other dominoes continue to fall, it will be interesting to see if the CAA can resurrect itself, or just ends up divided among other leagues that want/need new members. Considering the bevy of recent changes, its survival is on the line.