Morning Mashup: Davidson's Tough Decision

We are bleeding the morning into the afternoon today, as we take a look around for the best lunchtime reads.

With the departure of three teams from the Colonial ranks, the conference has been looking at the Southern Conference as a possible breeding ground for its new members.

Davidson is the big catch there, but as SI's Luke Winn discusses, the decision isn't so easy for Davidson, which has to weigh the needs of all its athletes, which make up 25 percent of the student population, and a move to what could still be a one-bid conference.

The CAA would offer slightly more money and more TV exposure, but no guarantee of better NCAA tournament positioning -- and Davidson's travel costs, which are affordable in the bus-trip friendly SoCon, would skyrocket due to all the flights required to visit CAA opponents in the north. And then there's the issue of competition: Where would the Wildcats stand in the CAA's new hierarchy?

As we said earlier this week, it would seem prudent for the Colonial to look at options, but to stand pat for now until they can determine exactly the profile of the league they want and whether expansion really makes sense.

Speaking of expansion, the Big XII has decided that it is going to stand pat for now at 10 teams. While mid-major teams were not targets, the trickle down effect could have been felt in the ranks of the Missouri Valley Conference, or Conference USA (again).

As Kirk Bohls stated, this is a decision that should hold for now.

But the Big 12 put its collective foot down on the first day of its annual league meetings here at the Intercontinental Hotel and said it was sitting out this hand. A bluff to make schools like Florida State, Clemson and Notre Dame more desperate to want to join, or a sincere gesture to send a message that the Big 12 was staying put at 10 members.

I'm betting the latter.

This is good news in a way, because it means the constant reorganization seems to have settled, and everyone can take a collective breath to see if it was all worth it. In two years, a few of these teams might be rethinking their decisions, and the leagues might wonder what they were doing also. Just look at DePaul and the Big East. How is that working out for all them?

• Mark Eckel at the Times of Trenton takes a look at the hiring of Kevin Baggett as head coach at Rider, continuing a trend at the school of promoting from within.
• A rule change goes into effect on June 15 that could have prized recruits upping their cell phone plans. Coaches will be allowed unlimited calls and texts starting on that day.