Bryant football feeling ripple effects from shakeups at top-tier conferences
Please don’t read this as a criticism of Chris Merritt.
Bryant’s football coach made his remarks on Thursday in good faith. The Bulldogs held a press conference at Beirne Stadium formally announcing a move to the Coastal Athletic Association beginning in the 2024 season, and Merritt concluded the program at the podium.
“Honestly speaking, my focus and thoughts right now are on the Big South and the [Ohio Valley Conference],” Merritt said. “We want to finish out ‘23. But come November, we’re going to roll up the sleeves and get after it.
More: New frontiers for Bryant football this season as Big South reconfigures
“We look forward to a great future in the CAA.”
The irony, of course, is this — Bryant has yet to play a game since the Big South-OVC merger was completed, and it’s already announcing a departure.
These decisions are made well above coaching staffs throughout the country. Conference commissioners and university presidents, with a financial balance sheet provided by network executives, are in charge. You appreciate Merritt and his assistants remaining focused on the task at hand while wondering whether or not their heads are spinning along with the rest of ours.
NCAA athletics has always been one large, intertwined ecosystem. The dominoes just tend to fall a lot faster, and often more unexpectedly, in 2023 than ever before. Most thoughts of loyalty or regional fits have been all but eradicated by the eye-watering sums of money on offer.
“Intercollegiate athletics as we know it is embroiled in a time of significant challenges and impending change,” CAA commissioner Joe D’Antonio said.
The true power brokers atop the food chain, the SEC and the Big Ten, dictate the terms at the behest of their multimedia partners. The Big 12, ACC and, with basketball leading the way, the Big East have managed to preserve themselves sufficiently. The Pac-12 has been sliced to ribbons and could cease operations as we knew them at any point.
The ripples from these larger leagues make their way down. The Bulldogs are entering their third conference in as many years — it will soon be a fourth since establishing football and elevating from Division II in the late 2000s. They’ve been on an extended search for something more permanent since leaving the Northeast Conference in all sports.
“This is an opportunity for Bryant football to put itself on the stage with the best programs in FCS football,” Merritt said. “We’re excited for that opportunity.”
Bryant’s move to the America East, a league that doesn’t sponsor football, forced a detour to an alternate path. The Bulldogs found a temporary home in a Big South that was already in flux. Hampton and Monmouth left for the CAA in 2022 and were joined by former rivals Campbell and North Carolina A&T in 2023.
Those departures put the league’s automatic FCS playoff berth for the conference winner at stake. A marriage with the OVC was hastily arranged and that new configuration debuts next month. How long it might last is anybody’s guess.
The immediate reality — Bryant will play league road games this season in Illinois, South Carolina and Missouri. Football travel is relatively convenient compared to other sports — quick turnaround, generally on the weekends. But it would seem to be a more difficult recruiting pitch to make when parents and family members are outside comfortable driving distance of both home and road games throughout a given season.
“There’s an incredible synergy that we have when we look at things like academics, competitiveness and, of course, geographical fit with the CAA,” Bryant athletic director Bill Smith said.
The CAA has expanded over the past decade in the wake of its own departures. Old Dominion and Georgia State stayed for a combined three years before leaving for the Sun Belt. James Madison, a longtime power both atop the league and nationally, joined the Bulldogs and Monarchs in the FBS ranks in 2022.
“Three years ago, the CAA began a planning process that was focused on its future success,” D’Antonio said. “Specific was its desire to find a more sustainable and competitive model.”
Why was the Sun Belt in the market for new additions? Alabama-Birmingham, Central Florida, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, North Texas and South Florida are all among past members of that league. The Knights are one of the realignment winners over the past decade, parlaying success on the field and a growing market in Orlando all the way up to the Big 12.
Follow all that? Merritt made mention of the school's long-term look toward 2030, with the Bulldogs set to construct a new Convocation Center that will sit alongside their football field. Facility upgrades have been a constant in Smithfield over the past two decades and don’t seem ready to slow at any point soon.
Which visiting programs will enjoy those in the coming years? Fill those schedules out in pencil, not permanent marker.
On X: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Bryant football program will leave Big South for CAA next season
