RhowdyRam02 wrote: ↑5 months ago
You keep reciting your appeal to authority argument as if it means anything. The Atlantic 10 and it's members have made a bunch of mistakes in deciding which schools to add and we've been trending in the wrong direction for a decade, culminating in only having one bid last year. They get plenty of decisions wrong, this was another one they whiffed on
Yeah again, the members had an opportunity when the Catholic 7 was a thing to go for the jugular and be inventive. If the battle axe had any foresight or balls, maybe this one bid conference could've been avoided.
In 2012-2013 - you had a conference that sent 5 teams to the NCAA. There was no AAC yet.
There were 7 programs - DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, PC, St John's, Seton Hall, and Villanova all without homes.
You could've pitched a collective agreement with Butler, Xavier, Dayton, St Louis, VCU, Richmond, and Rhode Island - 7 basketball only schools with larger arenas, geographical partners in recruiting areas around the Midwest, DMV, and Northeast.
Travel partners would be convenient in all regions - SLU/DePaul/Marquette/Butler/Dayton/Xavier in the midwest, Villanova/St Johns/PC/URI/Seton Hall in the Northeast, and Georgetown/VCU/Richmond in the DMV
You'd have imported natural rivalries with Xavier/Dayton, VCU/Richmond, and PC/URI.
A 14 team conference with enough national pedigree at that time and no D1 football aspirations to drive the ship. I would bet if you pitched that to Fox, you get a similar or larger contract with high profile/up and coming name brand coaches like Brad Stevens, Chris Mack, Shaka Smart, Dan Hurley, Archie Miller.
Xavier was coming off of 7 straight NCAA's, 3 with Chris Mack, with 3 Sweet 16s and an Elite 8.
VCU was another name brand 3 years removed from the final four with Shaka and Havoc.
Butler was 2 years removed from national final appearances and an NCAA run with Brad Stevens.
Richmond was 2 years removed from a Sweet 16 and back to back appearances.
St Louis was on back to back NCAA appearances and wins and Rick Majerus just passed away.
Dayton and URI were in the 2nd years of their rebuilds with big name upstart coaches in Dan and Archie.
Those A10 teams had plenty of leverage considering...
Marquette had Buzz Williams and an Elite 8 run coming off of 8 straight appearances. That compares to what Xavier was doing at the same time.
Nova wasn't Nova yet - they had made a final four run to that point, comparable to VCU.
Georgetown still had John Thompson, and were 4 straight NCAAs at that point, coming off of a final four 7 years prior. Compare them to Butler.
St Johns had been to one NCAA in the last decade and it was Lavin's 2nd year. Richmond was a better program at that time.
Seton Hall was in year 3 of Willard, hadn't been to the NCAAs in 7 years. St Louis was a better program at that time.
PC was in a post-Keno rebuild, it was Ed Cooley's 2nd year. Zero NCAA appearances since 98. Dayton was a better program at that time.
DePaul was what they always were, and even with the rebuild Rhody was better at that time.
If you look at this list...both those groups had 3 NCAA teams that season. You can make the case that 3 of the 4 best teams in that 14 at the time were coming from the A10 with Xavier, VCU, and Butler.
The fact that we had a brief moment in history to have that much leverage, and form a legitimate basketball conference with those teams is a gut shot.
Instead we stuck with the high school gyms and nobodies and have watched the world grow around us while we sink into irrelevancy.
This is a long form post to say that the unanimous decisions of our conference leadership is reproachable to say the least.
Ugh. IMAGINE WHAT WE COULD'VE HAD.
I'm gonna start boozing to get my head right for the game and forget this re-discovered pain.