Tom Yeager is the only commissioner the Colonial Athletic Association has ever known. He’s been on the job since its inception in 1985.
In fact, Yeager is the longest sitting conference commissioner in the same job in the country. He’s seen the explosion of television, guided the conference through a difficult realignment (or two), and basked in the recent national success of its basketball and football programs.
Since the CAA is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, we thought it a good time to sit down and catch up with The Commissioner.
VSN: You know 25 years is a long time. Did you ever think you’d be here for this long?
Yeager: Oh no, no. Not in my wildest dreams. I never really knew how long it would be, but I would never have guessed 25 Years.
VSN: Of course, that means we’re obligated to ask when you see yourself retiring.
Yeager: I keep joking that I have too many coupons in my mortgage book to retire and I’ve got to whittle those down. I don’t know, though. Sometimes you think it is time for somebody’s new ideas, but as long as the people who employ me are happy, we’ll be here.
VSN: Has CAA Football met your expectations?
Yeager: Oh, it has exceeded expectations. It’s really a testament to what’s been happening on the campuses. We put our arms around the success of the individual programs and collectively brand and market them, but it is a direct result of schools taking football seriously and becoming national players. The fact that we have such as high concentration of successful programs has surpassed everybody’s expectations.
William & Mary is (ranked in some polls) and a playoff hopeful and they were picked fifth in the south division. And think about this: our fourth team to qualify for the playoffs the last two years was Delaware who went to the championship game and Richmond who won it.
It’s not just a single outstanding team, it’s a whole bunch of them.
VSN: Old Dominion starts football this year and Georgia State is right behind them. For lack of a better word, you are getting to an unworkable number of teams. What do you guys have in the works to deal with that?
Yeager: I think we are at the limit now in terms of our present structure or membership. When you get to 14 teams you are looking at 8 conference games in your division and two outside your division. That would mean some (players) would go through their entire college career and not play a team in the other division and something just isn’t right about that.
We’ve got so much going for us we’ll make it work, but if someone else starts football we’ll be restructuring. (It’s important) because there’s nothing like a football Saturday at these institutions.
VSN: The R word comes up frequently—realignment. Have you been in talks with other teams or conferences about adding/changing the CAA footprint?
Yeager: No. That’s all pretty well calmed down. It’s all top down and regional. I’m sure there’s movement below us and the west coast could realign tomorrow and it’s not going to reach us.
VSN: Speaking of similar geography, is there anything at all to the A10 moving its offices to Newport News?
Yeager: No, not that I’m aware of. That’s what it is (an office move).
VSN: All other logistics working out, would you welcome Richmond back to the conference to play basketball?
Yeager: That’s a decision that presidents make. I talk to Jim Miller on a regular basis about football, but we don’t talk about other sports. It’s a non topic of discussion. There are many other factors that would influence those discussions or not influence discussions.
VSN: Scheduling is a huge issue for mid majors and we constantly hear about these conference challenges. Have you recently talked to the Horizon or MAC about one with the CAA?
Yeager: One of the things that comes into play is that we have two games committed to Bracketbusters. Generally speaking the opponents we’d play (in a challenge series) are the ones we’re playing in Bracketbusters anyway. To a certain degree we’re getting that (challenge).
The problem is that while there may be some attraction for higher profile teams, it doesn’t extend all the way through. (Note: the implication is Butler/ODU may be a great game, but nobody’s thrilled with UNCW/Western Illinois.)
Coaches are already saying that we have two nonconference games committed (to Bracketbusters) and that they have to take care of other scheduling interests. The only reason the conference challenge works is that there’s television elements in it. If ESPN thinks it is a good idea we’d say ‘so do we’ but we just don’t have that.
VSN: So Bracketbusters is worth the effort?
Yeager: Oh very much so and it accomplishes what we were talking about doing (with the challenge). Our top teams are getting good games with Bracketbusters and with greater frequency. Besides, if a team has won six games they are going to be paired with someone that won six games in their conference. There’s no need to travel halfway across the country to see who can win their seventh game.
VSN: The end of the initial six year rotation for the basketball schedule is coming up. How did it work, and have you planned any changes?
Yeager: I think it’s worked all right. It starts with the point that our teams want to play 18 conference games, so you’re in some kind of hybrid schedule anyway. We’ve looked at divisional cut-throughs and they were difficult. By and large, the majority of conferences with more than 12 members are not in divisions for basketball so we’re not alone in this scenario. But it has worked. Some of the coaches want divisions, but it doesn’t work.
VSN: You reduced the size of playoffs in Olympic sports. Is this permanent or part of the economic woes?
Yeager: Mostly economic. We ended up with unimaginable cost increases coming in and schools were being challenged by their boards of visitors to cut costs.
One of the things we know is that about 97% of our championships are won by one of the top four seeds. Arguments can be made that beyond the top four you are providing a championship experience and opportunity (to participate in a championship event), but at the end of the day you didn’t impact the outcome.
We are all about the championship experience and opportunities in all of our sports and it was a reluctant decision, but it was a step that could be made that helps impact everybody’s expenses. (The bottom teams don’t face the travel expense), and the #1 seed, for example, doesn’t have an extra day of travel.
VSN: How involved do you get with the schools for things like the Matt Brady and Marist situation? (Note: Marist has sued Brady, its former basketball coach, for breach of contract.)
Yeager: Not at all. Those are contract relationships between individuals and institutions. If there is an infraction issue we’re not a part of it, but we’re a resource. We’ll talk to presidents and athletics directors to run references on key hires or talk to search firms to help try to sort out what they are looking for.
VSN: What’s the biggest difference in your job administrating a conference from 1985 until now?
Yeager: There are so many more external responsibilities. I used to be much more involved with all the operations of the sports. I used to know all the coaches and went to every championship but you physically can’t be everywhere anymore. I started with three people in this office and we have 17 now.
The whole athletics department industry has gotten so much more complex than 25 years ago. Athletics directors used to handle compliance and now we have (multiple) compliance people. There used to be three basketball coaches and now there’s directors of operations and who knows how many others. There are marketing people.
We didn’t have the Internet and tweedle dee and tweedle dum (Note: in reference to Twitter). Everything is so much faster and instantaneous. It used to be you didn’t know what was written in a newspaper in Chicago unless someone clipped it out and faxed it to you.
But in all honesty (the biggest thing is) when football got out in front and conferences stepped into their own television deals. The gap has widened so much. There are only so many ESPN windows and we are put off. That’s why Comcast has been so great to us, but even they are gobbling into more games and those windows are shrinking.
The whole media market has changed so much.
VSN: What’s the hardest moment you’ve had to deal with?
Yeager: (changing posture and looking away) Oh, the membership stuff, when the league was falling apart around us. That was pretty tough.
VSN: We are fair. Best moment?
Yeager: (posture again changes, big smile) Right there, and there’s not even a close second. (Note: he is pointing to a framed display case of mementos from George Mason’s run to the Final Four in 2006.)
VSN: What’s the biggest challenge to the CAA in the next three years?
Yeager: Maintaining the profile that we’ve built, particularly in 2006 and 2007 with men’s basketball. It’s fleeting. We’ve gone two years with one and done. To stay over the hump and not become a footnote again is very important.
At the same time we’ve sold out our basketball tournament three years in a row and there’s new excitement on so many campuses about our basketball teams. Still, the single measure is the NCAA tournament: how many and how far. If we’re going to be a player then we’ve got to reverse the two year trend.
VSN: What’s your vision of three years from now?
Yeager: Multiple teams in the tournament and advancing. Strong championships and a very strong television package. We’ve got schools that are working at trying to get better and be a player.
There are so many factors beyond your control but you have to play teams and beat them. That’s our 25-year question: how come we’re not beating these guys? The big six leagues have separated themselves from the other 25 leagues significantly. How do you scramble to get position in that next group?
VSN: Those big six conferences have rich, and richer programs. You have schools with widely disparate budgets and everybody’s every dollar matters. How do you manage that?
Yeager: The great equalizer is coaching, good kids, and building programs. Some of our most successful programs in any number of sports are those without the bells and whistles.
VSN: Any regrets?
Yeager: Sure, there’s always things you say ‘I wish I had that one back’ but there’s been nothing monumental or more than temporary.
VSN: Planning a big party for the 25th anniversary?
Yeager: A big part is that we’re recognizing All 25 year teams in all of our sports and that’s gone well so far. At the men’s basketball tournament we want to announce the Silver Stars—the top 25 from all of the sports. We have Olympians, David Robinson, world record holders, Justin Verlander, Sean Casey—it isn’t easy. The neatest thing for me, truly, is like being an old coach or professor and seeing the players come back. To reconnect with some of those guys.
We’re rolling out a strategic plan for years 25 to 30 and putting a lot of things on the table for what our presidents did to get to that echelon just below the big six. We’ve got a lot of positive things going on.
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