Sporting News

[BLIKNS]

Has anyone seen the newest TSN?Thought I saw something about the A-10,but didn`t get a chance to look.???

[davidlee]

Yes - DeCourcey's(sp) column said that the A10 needs to get rid of

the bottom teams in the league. SLU should NOT go to the MVC.

I can't remember what else he said.

[slu72]

I agree with him. But he's also a big X fan, and he doesn't want to see their league diluted by losing SLU. Believe he would have felt this way if we still had UB as head coach. While it's arrogant of us late entries into the A-10 to say this, it's hard to imagine some of our bottom teams ever stepping it up and, therefore, will continue to be a drag on RPI's. But the SLU to the MVC debate has to stop. Would most agree the top A-10 teams are getting better while the MVC may have a good 2-3 year run that is soon to end? The teams I can see sustaining their recent success in the MVC are Creighton, Wichita, and SIU. While in the A-10, we could see Charlotte, SLU, X, Dayton, UMass, URI, GW, Temple, St.Joes, and possibly Fordham be equals to their top 3.

[billiken_roy]

hate to open the mvc can of worms again, but anyone that doesnt believe a true a-10 (10 best teams in the conference) wouldnt be better top to bottom is just wrong. the a-10's problem is the drop off at the bottom of the conference. the top and middle is a nice group of basketball programs imo.

[davidlee]

http://musketeermadness.com/chatboard/disp...&PagePosition=1

[kmbilliken]

Everyone seems to agree the conference needs to get rid of the bottom teams, but how do you do that. Anybody know how these leaque agreements work? Is there a buyout clause?

[MusicCityBilliken]

Didn't the Metro get rid of us in 1980?

[slu72]

If I were king for a day, that would be some A-10 presidents and MVC presidents, I'd start behind the scene talks on some kind of merger between the two leagues. Pick up the cream and have two divisions east and midwest and bring in Army and Navy for an 8 team football conference. The only way to semi compete with the bigs for TV time and getting to the dance with higher RPI's is to form some sort of super mid major conference.

something like this:

EAST MIDWEST:

Temple SLU

St. Joes Dayton

UMass Creighton

URI SIU

Charlotte Wichita

GWU MSU

Navy XU

Army Bradley

All, play in fairly new and good sized arenas. All seem to have made major commits to their hoops program. Travel expenses are reduced, good regional rivalries, and most have RPI's that have averaged below 80 for the last 10 years or so. Just look at what our conference schedule would be like every year. The only team not really a rival of some sort is Wichita State. This would be a very tough competitive conference.

[Abe Froman]

considering some of the "bottom feeders" are charter members of the conference getting rid of them would be just a bit difficult. Plus, who says the "bottom feeders" don't rise up, Everhardt seems to have Duquense heading in the right direction, St. Bona was in the tourney just a few years ago (losing a double OT heartbreaker to Kentucky), Fordham is strong again, Richmond was just in the tourney a few years back. Plus, everyone of the so-called "bottom feeders" beat us since we came into the conference.

Too bad they couldn't do a relegation arrangement with the MAAC or Horizon or some other comparable conference like is done in Euro football leagues - top 2 move up, bottom 2 move down.