First of all, it's been a while but I am hoping to be back to contributing more daily on the board! I have periodically checked in on the board and thought now would be a good time to get back into it after my hiatus, given all the topics going on in the off season.
While I don't know what the department's true intentions were with the move, I choose to be a little more optimistic about this one. We did not decide to leave the CAA "out of the blue". We were in the conference for the past 10-15 years when it was the best in FCS and did not leave. Instead, it appears to be prompted by teams like JMU and Delaware leaving the CAA and us adding Campbell, Monmouth, NC A&T, Hampton, and now Bryant. The CAA is certainly not what it once was and may be heading to an implosion soon and UR may have been more proactive in this matter. Sure, being with like minded academic institutions is a plus for UR, but I don't think was the only reason. Other factors include cost saving measures, geographic region, and seeing improvement in the Patriot League as the CAA continues to decline. While on paper SoCon appears to be a better conference right now for football, there may have been concerns of its own instability as a conference and if between two relatively similar conferences in competitiveness, to go to the one that is more similar academically. Additionally, the Patriot League has gotten a lot better over the years and it looks more promising as they continue to remove self-imposed restrictions (number of scholarships, redshirts, etc). The key will be if other strong football schools join the Patriot League as well. If Villanova and William & Mary join, there will be several teams in top 25 each year and potential to be a multi-bid league. Even within FCS, there is a clear divide between MVFC & Big Sky with everyone else. So in terms of competitiveness - assuming W&M, Nova, Elon leave and where they end up - there really isn't going to be a huge difference between the CAA, SoCon, & Patriot League in a few years.
On a larger point, the landscape of college football is increasing more and more to the "haves and have nots". I think UR recognizes that we are not a school, for many reasons, that will ever be able to compete at the top of football. We see many schools impacting their entire athletic departments at the expense for football (UMass going to MAC for all sports for football, Stanford & Cal flying across country to be in the ACC). It may pan out for some programs, but for the majority it won't. There is a ceiling in terms of what football can provide for our school from a monetary and exposure standpoint. Even when we were ranked top 10 in FCS and making deep playoff runs the last 10 years, our attendance wasn't very good from the students or general public. So I think when the opportunity came to consider leaving conferences due to a diluted CAA, UR probably thought that we can still maintain a similar level of competitiveness and interest in the Patriot League for football, while not changing the entire identity of our athletic department to be something its not (football driven). I'm sure along with other added benefits, UR appreciates such as saving money and being with other like-minded academic institutions.
So to answer the question of this thread "should basketball and other sports be concerned?" by this move, my answer is no. In fact, my hope is that this will further reinforce our commitment to basketball and other sports in the conference where we compete among the best in the nation. With MLax & Women's golf being sponsored by A10, all our sports except for football are in the A10. The A10 is a wonderful conference and we have done quite well in it with our sports.
P.S. Wouldn't be a classic 17 post without it being a monologue!
