By Ed Morrone

WASHINGTON-Spending 10 hours in the car to and from the nation’s capital this week gave me a lot of time to think, and if there’s one major assumption I came to, it’s this-the Colonial Athletic Association is now big time.

Media members from up and down the Eastern seaboard-and probably beyond-descended upon Washington yesterday morning for the conference’s annual basketball media day. But this wasn’t like any ordinary media day. This one was different, and if you don’t believe me, ask other media members who were at the ESPN Zone for the event, for surely they felt the same buzz I did.

Tim Pearrell of the Richmond Times-Dispatch called the league’s presence “deafening.” The Associated Press was one of many media outlets crowded around George Mason coach Jim Larranaga, who deservedly was the star of media day after his team’s magical run to the Final Four last year, the run that created all of this hoopla in the first place.

The CAA, which Larranaga said was in “crisis mode” five years ago, has come full circle, morphing from an NCAA doormat into a national power. It’s not on the same level as the so-called “major conferences” yet and probably never will be, but after Mason’s graceful dance through the Dance, CAA opponents are also no longer to be overlooked by the big time programs anymore. Don’t believe me? Ask Michigan State, North Carolina and Connecticut what happened to them last March.

Tom Yeager, who has been commissioner of the conference since its creation 22 years ago, has worked so hard to get to this point and experienced more downs than ups. Now, his labor, along with all of the coaches of all 24 teams (men and women), is finally paying off.

The men’s side had four teams qualify for postseason berths and placed six in the top 88 of the college basketball RPI. After Mason’s Final Four run last March, it seems it would be impossible for the CAA to replicate last year and that a letdown was looming on the horizon. Don’t tell that to Hofstra men’s coach Tom Pecora, who stayed with the Pride rather than bolting for the Big East, because he knows that last year was not just a one-year wonder.

“There’s some people that might expect a dropoff,” Pecora said. “I don’t.”

And nor should he. He’s got preseason player of the year Loren Stokes on his side, as well as fellow-conference first team member Antoine Agudio. Mason (picked to finish second) will be right there again, as will up and comer Drexel and about four or five other squads.

On the women’s side, they return all five first team all-CAA members, as well as 17 of the top 20 scorers.

For the first time ever, all eyes will be on the CAA this year and for the first time ever, the conference is ready for it. There was a certain swagger in Washington yesterday, and the confident faces stretched both floors of the ESPN Zone. Cameras were flashing, radio stations were grabbing coaches for their airwaves and journalists from all over were scribbling on their notepads, trying their best to sum up the transformation of the new hot conference in college basketball.

After last year and seeing how big of a leap the CAA has made, there’s only one way to put it-it’s big time now.