CAA Football teams find it hard to catch breath

NCAA Football Betting Lines

07/28/2010 - Baltimore, MD (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Quarterback Pat Devlin doesn't care if an opponent on Delaware's CAA Football schedule is from the north or the south. He says they could even come from the east or west, if that were possible.

No matter the direction, there rarely is a break for any CAA team in the FCS' premier conference.

"They put the teams on your schedule and you've got to go out and play 'em," Devlin said.

Devlin's positive, business-like approach isn't embraced as much by others within the CAA who are gulping over what lies ahead this season. After the conference lost two of its lower-tier programs following last season - when Northeastern and Hofstra dropped the sport - the conference dropped from two six-team divisions to one 10-team alignment. And, oh, are there now even fewer chances for a team to catch its breath than in past seasons.

Underscoring the CAA's success is the fact its teams have appeared in six of the last seven FCS championship games, and Delaware (2003), James Madison (2004), Richmond (2008) and Villanova (last season) have won titles during the big run of success. Massachusetts won in 1998.

The conference is so strong that Richmond was picked in the Top 10 nationally of at least five preseason media polls, yet was selected only sixth in the CAA's preseason poll of head coaches and sports information directors. That poll was released yesterday at the conference's media day at M&T Bank Stadium, and the brutally tough top five is led by defending national champion Villanova, followed by William & Mary, New Hampshire, James Madison and Devlin's Delaware squad.

Second-year program Old Dominion, which enters next year, and first-year program Georgia State, which follows in 2012, probably can't arrive fast enough for the rest of the conference.

"It's a league that has a lot of talent," Villanova coach Andy Talley said. "You've got to show up; you just have to show up and know that any of those teams have the ability on any given day to beat you. I love our league. The coaching is as good as it's ever been. So you're going to be challenged every week."

As in past seasons, CAA teams will continue to play eight conference games - not the possible nine. But the loss of Hofstra (5-6, 3-5 last season) and Northeastern (3-8, 3-5) from the former North Division will be felt, especially if a team faces injuries to key players during the heart of their conference schedule.

Delaware has played two of the toughest schedules in the FCS over the last two seasons, so it probably deserves some type of break this season. It gets one in the fact that the one CAA team it won't play is New Hampshire. Villanova won't play Massachusetts (picked eighth), William & Mary doesn't get Towson (10th), James Madison will miss Rhode Island (ninth), and Richmond and Maine (seventh) won't square off.

"It attests to how competitive our league is. You really can't take a week off," said Dino Vasso, New Hampshire's preseason all-conference cornerback. "There's really four or five teams that could win the whole thing (FCS title) every year."

"It's going to be a hard year with everything combined," added William & Mary preseason all-conference linebacker Jake Trantin, "so we're going to stay focused and really concentrate on each week."

Richmond defensive tackle Martin Parker, who will challenge for national defensive player of the year honors (The Sportsbook Betting Lines's Buck Buchanan Award, sponsored by Fathead.com), points out that Northeastern and Hofstra weren't gimmes on anybody's schedule. Their record last season just happened to reflect that they faced CAA teams week-in and week-out.

"If you put them in any other conference, they're probably tops in that conference," Parker said.

But not having those teams on the schedule could hurt a CAA team come playoff time. Perhaps one will have a 6-5 record instead of the 9-2 it could have in another conference. Perhaps one will make the playoffs, but be beaten up physically.

Delaware finished 15-1 and won the national title in 2003, but had to escape last-minute or overtime wins over Villanova, UMass, Maine and New Hampshire to get there.

"It's the nature of this conference," Delaware coach K.C. Keeler said. "And what you have to do is win the close games. Us losing that Richmond game (16-15) early in the season (last year) really, really killed us because it came back to bite us. We didn't get that seventh win or we'd have been in the playoffs."

"I think any of us, to get into the playoffs has the ability to win the whole thing," Talley said. "Last year, New Hampshire did, William & Mary certainly did, Richmond certainly did. The four of us would have had a chance to go depending on whether you had a home seed or didn't have a home seed or where you ended up playing somebody. If William & Mary played us at William & Mary, they probably would have beaten us."

The team that emerges the least damaged come the end of the regular season, on Nov. 20, will be a true champion, according to Mickey Matthews, the two-time Eddie Robinson Award (FCS coach of the year) at James Madison.

"I've looked at people's schedules down through the years, and whether it is a southern team or a northern team, you would see a team got a schedule break - who the crossover games were," Matthews said. "When I was at Georgia, it was that way. In the SEC, your crossover games many times determine how difficult your schedule was. That's the way we were, the three crossover games. Although we're still not all playing each other, it's going to be a more truer champion this way."

Of course, the extra grind of this season will relent a little in the coming seasons, with ODU and Georgia State pushing the CAA to 11 or 12 teams, with Rhode Island perhaps dropping out. That Rams' decision is likely to be made next month.

"It will change once the other two teams come in," Richmond coach Latrell Scott said. "That just makes it that much more competitive. I think it will be fun to have one champion."

CAA PRESEASON POLL (Head coaches and sports information directors)

1. Villanova (17 first-place votes)

2. William and Mary

3. New Hampshire (2)

4. James Madison

5. Delaware (1)

6. Richmond

7. Maine

8. Massachusetts

9. Rhode Island

10. Towson

PRESEASON CAA ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM

Offensive Player of the Year - Matt Szczur, WR, Villanova

Player of the Year - Terence Thomas, LB, Villanova

Offense

QB- Chris Whitney, Villanova. RB- John Griffin, Massachusetts; Jonathan Grimes, William & Mary. FB- Kendall Gaskins, Richmond. WR- Tre Gray, Richmond; Kevin Grayson, Richmond; Matt Szczur, Villanova. TE- Emil Igwenagu, Massachusetts. OL- Brant Clouser, Villanova; Keith Hill Jr., William & Mary; Ben Ijalana, Villanova; Drew Lachenmayer, Richmond; Theo Sherman, James Madison

Defense

DL- Ronnell Brown, James Madison; Yaky Ibia, Towson; Brian McNally, New Hampshire; Martin Parker, Richmond. LB- Tyler Holmes, Massachusetts; Eric McBride, Richmond; Terence Thomas, Villanova; Jake Trantin, William & Mary. S- Anthony Bratton, Delaware; John Dempsey, Villanova. CB- Justin Rogers, Richmond; Dino Vasso, New Hampshire

Special Teams

Return Specialist- Matt Szczur, Villanova. PK- Nick Yako, Villanova. P- David Miller, William & Mary

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FOOTBALL BETTING : Crabtree's base deal: six years, $32 million

Football Betting

In the wake of the news that the 49ers have signed receiver Michael Crabtree after an extended holdout, there has been not a hint of the dollars to be paid to Crabtree.

And since this means that his agent hasn't leaked the numbers, it means that his agent feels no specific motivation to do so.

Possibly because his agent isn't all that thrilled to have his name on the deal.

So the numbers will come from sources other than Crabtree's agent. And we've gotten our mitts into them.

Per a league source, Crabtree has signed a six-year, $32 million contract. (The total includes guaranteed money, base salaries, and the one-time incentive based on achieving minimum playing time.)

The deal also includes $17 million in guaranteed money.

As reported elsewhere, the deal can void to five years based on performance triggers, wiping out a final year base salary of $4 million. But they won't be easily reached.

The source tells us that, in his first four seasons (including 2009), Crabtree must either qualify for two Pro Bowls, or he must qualify for one Pro Bowl in one year and he must participate in 80 percent of the offensive snaps in a separate year in which the team makes the playoffs.

In other words, if in 2010 he qualifies for the Pro Bowl and the team makes the playoffs and he participates in 80 percent of the snaps, he'll still need to make it to the Pro Bowl or achieve the 80-percent/playoffs in another season.

Since the chances of Crabtree making the Pro Bowl or participating in 80 percent of the offensive snaps this year is roughly zero percent, he'll have three years to get it done.

And it won't be easy. Frankly, he'll be hard pressed to make it to one Pro Bowl in three years with the likes of Larry Fitzgerald, Calvin Johnson, Anquan Boldin, Steve Smith, the other Steve Smith, Hakeem Nicks, DeSean Jackson, Johnny Knox, Percy Harvin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, T.J. Houshmandzadeh in the same conference for sportsbook betting.

So, by all appearances, it's a six-year deal. And at $17 million in guaranteed money, the per-year guarantee is a tepid $2.83 million per year.

There's another problem with the deal -- it has no mid-tier incentive package. Instead, the additional $8 million that Crabtree can earn (pushing the max value to six years, $40 million) requires the kind of unrealistic, mega-star performances that no rookie is likely to ever achieve.

So while the contract paid to Packers defensive tackle B.J. Raji covers five years and pays $22.5 million, he has the ability (if he's a solid player) to make up the difference between his base deal and Crabtree's five-year, $28 million haul via the mid-tier incentive package in Raji's deal.

And unless Crabtree meets the performance thresholds necessary to void the sixth year, he'll be stuck under contract for another year at a base salary of only $4 million.

There's one other area of concern with the deal. Crabtree, per the source, received no option bonus. Instead, he has significant money tied to a fairly new device known as a "discretionary salary advance," which unlike an opition bonus is subject to forfeiture if Crabtree decides in a year or two that he wants to hold out for a better deal. (We're also told that the 49ers have included language that would make certain escalators subject to forfeiture, too.)

Meanwhile, the deal falls well short of the mark for which Crabtree and agent Eugene Parker were aiming -- the five-year, $38.25 million contract paid by the Raiders to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey, the seventh overall pick in the draft.

Even if Crabtree successfully voids the final year, he'll make more than $2 million per year less on average than Heyward-Bey.

Thus, as we explained earlier in the day, this is a deal that Crabtree could have done in July, which would have given him a much better chance of making a contribution to the 49ers during his rookie year.

So while the final outcome can be described as win-win, the broader view suggests that it's really a lose-lose situation.

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