Rumor had it that the CAA was talking to Appalachian State, Davidson, & College of Charleston. The rumor also said that the SoCon was giving its schools until July 4 to make up their mind. Nobody really knew why July 4 was picked or what the punishment would be. Looks like the reason was because there never was a July 4 deadline to begin with. The SoCon released the following statement:

“Per Southern Conference policy, the league office will not be making any public comments regarding membership issues.

Additionally, despite numerous published reports citing a July 4th deadline, the conference office has not issued any ultimatums to its member schools regarding conference affiliation.”

How did the rumor get started? Well basically, the Burlington Times reported it citing unnamed sources. The Charleston Post & Courier cited the Burlington Times. The Virginia Gazette cited the Charleston Post & Courier. Then the Winston-Salem Journal cited the Virginia Gazette.

So it SEEMED like all of these reliable sources were reporting it, when really all of these newspapers were just citing each other and the original one didn’t have a good source. So I guess the moral of the story is, it doesn’t matter how many newspapers are reporting it, it’s a rumor until it comes from the horse’s mouth.

So what do we know for sure? Well we know for sure the CAA is talking to at least a few SoCon schools about membership, that much has been said publicly. According to UNCW’s Chancellor, the CAA is looking at adding schools by Christmas (roughly). So basically we’ll have to speculate about this for around 6 more months. Awesome.

P.S. What does the original writer that claimed there was some sort of July 4 deadline say about this?

Right, how silly of us to think what 4 newspapers reported might have been true.