CHARLOTTE -- The CIAA long has had several things in common with the ACC. 

Both conferences have a large chunk of their membership in North Carolina. Each is among the most feared basketball conferences in the country, the CIAA in NCAA Division II and the ACC in Division I. 

And each has a postseason tournament that is among the highlights of the sports calendar. 

Now the CIAA has something it never really had before, though the ACC used to -- a home-and-home basketball schedule that has every team in the conference visiting every other member in the regular season. 

Under the old format, Western Division teams played each Eastern Division team once during the season. 

It was among the topics of conversation Wednesday when the conference held its "Media and Coaches' Exchange" at the Charlotte Convention Center, just blocks from Charlotte Bobcats Arena where the tournament will be played for the second straight season (Feb. 26-March 3). 

The schedule change came from the conference office, and some CIAA coaches like the concept more than others. 

"Home-and-home? No, I'm not happy," said NCCU men's coach Henry Dickerson, whose team finished 10-18 overall, 7-9 in the conference last season. 

Under the old system the Eagles would not have visited St. Paul's, Shaw or Virginia Union, all arguably among the most challenging atmospheres in college basketball. 

"There's nothing we can do about it," Dickerson said. "But we definitely have a chance to have a good team. We have a chance to be better than my first team here [in 2004-05, when the Eagles finished 16-12 and won all six conference games against Eastern Division opponents]." 

The session also revealed the coaches' predictions for the order of finish, as well as the preseason All-CIAA team. 

On the men's side, St. Augustine's was picked to finish first in the West with N.C. Central third. Perennial power Virginia Union was picked to win the East. 

Among the women, Johnson C. Smith was picked first and NCCU second in the West while Elizabeth City State nosed out four-time reigning champion Shaw as the pick to win the East. 

The schedule change became more practical this season, after Winston-Salem State dropped out to head to Division I and left the CIAA as an 11-team league. 

Eagles women's coach Joli Robinson just chuckled about having to visit Shaw on Jan. 11 for the third time in just over a year. 

"That's life," Robinson said. 

But she said the overall concept may be better for the conference. 

"We've had a hard time scheduling [South Atlantic] regional games," said Robinson, whose team lost seven seniors and will also be without rising sophomore center Nakisha Stewart and rising junior guard Karla Gamble because of academic difficulties. "So at least a lot of that is taken care of already." 

Looking for non-conference games has been an issue for VUU men's coach Dave Robbins, whose team has been a solid contender for the NCAA title more often than not in his quarter-century at the helm. 

"No matter who you play, the road is going to be tough in this conference, and there were a few places we looked forward to skipping every other year," Robbins said. "But in our division, we always had to go to Bowie and Shaw every year. 

"Now we might be making those long trips to Charlotte [Johnson C. Smith] and Fayetteville [State] every season. We don't stay in hotels for those games, so I just tell my guys to take a pillow on the bus, because they're going to class the next day." 

Fayetteville State men's coach Sam Hanger had mixed feelings. 

"It's good and it's bad," Hanger said. "Obviously it's great competition. Now we're going to see Dave [Robbins] twice and Bowie twice. The bad side is we're going to beat up on each other even more." 

Shaw second-year men's coach Robert Brickey, a former Duke star, said he liked the old schedule better. 

"Now I've got 20 conference games," he said. "I'd like to have nine or 10 non-conference games, but we're going to have to play the schedule we've got." 

NOTES -- Robinson took a break from the podium's traditional comedy show to ask for a moment of silence, as the infant child of one of her current players died on Tuesday. She then tearfully gave her thoughts on the team's prospects. She declined to name the player whose baby had died. ... NCCU's men will take on two ACC teams in preseason exhibitions, visiting Duke for the third straight year on Nov. 4 and Wake Forest on Nov. 7. St. Augustine's will travel to UNC on Nov. 1 and N.C. State on Nov. 7, while Shaw will visit Duke on Nov. 2. ... NCCU's women will visit Boston College in a regular-season game on Nov. 17. "[Coach Steve Joyner Jr.] scheduled that one and then left," Robinson said half-jokingly, pointing out her former assistant coach who has returned to his alma mater of Johnson C. Smith in a dual role of men's and women's assistant.