Dayton paper mentions Butler, George Mason and Cleveland St.

[The Wiz]

This is just talking about this year. Butler is down because they lost two players who left early for the draft. There is little doubt that the program will be back up shortly. Butler is definitely a better program than Charlotte. You cannot use one year's numbers when making your comparsion. They have back to back final appearances and that is greater than whatever is happening this year.

You may be right ...this may just be a down year for Butler and they may be a worthy member of the A-10. But as I said in an earlier post in this thread (#11), "many" take the attitude of what have you done for me lately. Who are those "many" who make up the Johnny come latelys. They are casual fans who fill up seats in an arena and start to follow you on TV. They are high profile recruits who only had a passing interest in you before and now are watching you intensely. They are the new donors and alums who now want to be a part of the program. They are voters of the polls who have the ability by casting their vote for you to create the excitement in the casual fan, high profile recruits, donors and alums. And finally, they are the leagues themselves who are looking for new worthy members. These are all the influentials, the "many" who ask....what have you done for me lately? So far the answer the Bills have given is... we have done a lot. This is why it is imperative we finish strong this year with a good A-10 tourney and a long Big Dance. By doing that we can then answer ...we are elite.

I for one am glad to see the Bills having a great year. I think the timing is perfect not only for the usually reasons but because this will be a year when the leagues are window shopping for prospective members..The Bills hitting the spotlight now along with RM's history and high profile (not a fluke year, he has been here before) make SLU an attractive candidate for a high profile league if things fall apart for the A-10.

The future is now.