Per WashPo's Steven Goff: George Mason will remain in the CAA, AD Tom O'Connor tells me. Had talks with Atlantic 10, did due diligence, decided to stay... O'Connor: "we felt it was in our best interests to stay," citing history, geographic strength. "Good things in the CAA moving fwd"... VCU, ODU situations no bearing on GMU decision, O'Connor says. He called commissioner with decision about 45 minutes ago... GMU was never offered A-10 membership, nor did it apply, but did meet with representatives. Hatchet post: blogs.gwhatchet.com/courtside/2012/05/11/washington-post-george-mason-will-not-join-atlantic-10/

Brilliant move! Good luck cobbling together a sub 300 RPI when you're in the Sun Belt!

 Impossibly idiotic move on Mason's part. 

They'll win the CAA every year and cash in the checks from VCUs NCAA runs

They're just biding their time until the economy is better. Then, they'll be asking Richmond for $500 Million for a 65,000 seat stadium and a football team, to match up with UVa and VaTech, claiming the need for football parity is fundamental under the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution, as interpreted by some TeaBag Trustees. And they'll hire Howard Schnellenger to coach them up.

Then, they'll rename themselves The University of Northern Virginia, after Robert E. Lee's army.

Not kidding. They've got hubris, bigtime, over there.

Schnellenberger. He's still a kid, only his mustache is old.

 I am probably the only one here who thinks this a good thing for GW.  When you rank DC area teams by strength of conference it is:

Maryland, Georgetown, GW, GMU, American, Howard

Now it is sure to stay that way and GW has an advantage over GMU for local recruits.  The CAA is on a road to nowhere.  

If the A10 needs to add a team VCU is the better of the two, especially if Shaka Smart sticks around for a few years.  

 Nothing to add here other than to say that LA Fan makes an excellent point. I know we were all enthused about the prospect of adding strength and increasing the rivalry, but all that was left for GMU to overtake us was to be in a better conference. Their loss is our gain.

It is absolutely no wonder that Tom O'Connor and Jack Kvancz are good friends.  I'll leave it at that.

 New Mexico St is sticking with the WAC. Good luck to both NMSU and GMU with their decisions...

 New Mexico St is sticking with the WAC. Good luck to both NMSU and GMU with their decisions...

Well unless we lose UMass, we only needed one more team to break even. Let's hope we can poach VCU and leave Mason even worse off than they are now.

We're gonna "lose" UMass. They're scheduled to play Notre Dame in football. Once they prove the Irish are a bunch of weenies, they'll be skipping out on the A-10 for football, heaven, wherever they think that may be.

But I thought the latest we heard was that VCU was staying put for the money.  Has that changed?

it may have been a good idea not to offer an A-10 slot to GMU by the A-10.  I kind of read it as a "you didn't fire me, I quit statement."  With Butler in the conference we have several schools on the Pa. Turnpike-Route 70 region, now.  The A-10 which is as much about Atlantic as the Pac-10 is about the Pacific, which means it can go in many directions to get new participants. 

notta hater - does that mean the A-10 can cross the atlantic to get new participants?

 yes - I am thinking Puerto Rico or USVI as good landing points.