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How do you feel about the A10?


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Fan from another conference here (MAC) who was interested to see what SLU fans thought of the A10? Do you think the league makeup is sustainable long term with the direction NCAA athletics is moving in? Good future TV deal potential? How about the travel? The MAC could offer SLU some benefits on travel, especially if they could bring in another basketball school like Illinois-Chicago. Obviously not the Big East but a longer term potential like Wichita St picked up with its move to the AAC. Curious as to what fans on here think.

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1 hour ago, gobillsgo said:

You guys can have Fordham.

 

Joking aside, we aren't gonna leave a relatively good thing for a football conference that is usually 1 bid in Hoops.

I guess that is another way of looking at the bottom heavy problem of the A10; some of those programs may feel compelled to move down.

The A10 did well with the VCU addition but if they or Dayton were to leave that would be a big blow.

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11 minutes ago, Kit-Cat said:

I guess that is another way of looking at the bottom heavy problem of the A10; some of those programs may feel compelled to move down.

The A10 did well with the VCU addition but if they or Dayton were to leave that would be a big blow.

Dayton could leave, yes. But we would get an invite somewhere that’s better  before vcu 

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15 minutes ago, Kit-Cat said:

I guess that is another way of looking at the bottom heavy problem of the A10; some of those programs may feel compelled to move down.

The A10 did well with the VCU addition but if they or Dayton were to leave that would be a big blow.

Honestly, if they left we would dominate the A10. Also, some of the East Coast teams, such as Rhode Island or Umass, would come alive and we would probably stay a 2 bid conference.

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31 minutes ago, AnkielBreakers said:

Honestly, if they left we would dominate the A10. Also, some of the East Coast teams, such as Rhode Island or Umass, would come alive and we would probably stay a 2 bid conference.

I think we’re on the path to dominate even with Dayton there. But maybe I’m just a homer.

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That's a good point Dayton/VCU's success is holding other A10 programs back. VCU I've always thought is in the right long term fit in the A10 because cross town Richmond is there along with George Mason/George Washington schools VCU wants to associate with in the DC market.

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Why the A10?  It's a basketball driven conference that gets 2 - 4 teams in the NCAA tournament  every year. 

Its composed mostly of smaller schools in large metro areas, similar to SLU.  That provides more press than a weaker regional conference.

Recent additions to the A10 have made the conference stronger. The conference also weighs the regular season schedule  so that the better teams play each other twice.

I like the idea that a young team can improve  through the course of a season, come together by tournament time and have a reasonable chance of playing in, like we did a year ago.  At the same time, it takes a really good team to dominate the A10, which is our goal. 

cgeldmacher likes this
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Wonder if Kit Cat posed this question on the Dayton, Duquesne, and UMass boards? All better fits for the MAC than us. Dayton and Duquesne from a geographic standpoint and UMass because of Football. 
We like the A10. That said, we’d all like to see us eliminate a few bottom feeders and replace them with some schools closer to St Louis, ie Belmont, Loyola-Chi, Valpo. 

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It's a necessary evil, but it's the best fit for SLU right now. Yeah, the bottom is brutal and the geography sucks...but there are a lot of like-minded institutions here and teams that will be a threat to get NCAA berths.

Not a perfect situation, but it's as good as we're going to get at this time. 

This is the link of the MAC discussion of SIUE leaving for soccer and talking about SLU. 

https://csnbbs.com/thread-901186.html

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25 minutes ago, JettFlight5 said:

It's a necessary evil, but it's the best fit for SLU right now. Yeah, the bottom is brutal and the geography sucks...but there are a lot of like-minded institutions here and teams that will be a threat to get NCAA berths.

Not a perfect situation, but it's as good as we're going to get at this time. 

This is the link of the MAC discussion of SIUE leaving for soccer and talking about SLU. 

https://csnbbs.com/thread-901186.html

Reading that made my day. Pretty sure the only person in this entire universe that thinks SLU to the MAC makes any sense is the author of this thread Kit-Cat.

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7 minutes ago, JettFlight5 said:

It's a necessary evil, but it's the best fit for SLU right now. Yeah, the bottom is brutal and the geography sucks...but there are a lot of like-minded institutions here and teams that will be a threat to get NCAA berths.

Not a perfect situation, but it's as good as we're going to get at this time. 

Theres a lot of strong names in this conference.  The problem a lot of the time is that a lot of the teams havent been good at the same time.  teams like the bonnies have been picking up the slack for a Umass or GW, when the bonnies should be in the bottom half of the conference.  

If our conference was just:

Dayton, SLU, VCU, Davidson, Umass, Rhode island, St Joes, Richmond, Duquesne, Bona, GW and GMU, that would be a strong conference without being diluted.  

A huge problem I see occurring sooner than later is Davidson without Mckillop and bonnies without Schmidt. I cant see any of those teams continuing success at or near where its been.  In fact I see them joining the ranks of Fordham and Lasalle. 

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22 minutes ago, Compton said:

One of the MAC's best basketball programs recently - Buffalo - hired SLU's former assistant coach - Jim Whitesell - as its head coach last year. 

I think that perfectly illustrates the relation of SLU to the MAC. Speaks for itself. 

 

But it was Rick Majerus who hired Whitesell! 

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47 minutes ago, JettFlight5 said:

It's a necessary evil, but it's the best fit for SLU right now. Yeah, the bottom is brutal and the geography sucks...but there are a lot of like-minded institutions here and teams that will be a threat to get NCAA berths.

Not a perfect situation, but it's as good as we're going to get at this time. 

This is the link of the MAC discussion of SIUE leaving for soccer and talking about SLU. 

https://csnbbs.com/thread-901186.html

in this day and age the geography isnt as important.  everyone pretty much flies to road trips, they arent taking buses and trains like 60 years ago.   

imo the like minded institutions connection is important and from the overall slu standpoint, we know that slu recruits the east coast hard for students and having a competitive basketball team that visits, new york city, philly, boston, washington dc, etc areas is extremely important.   i seriously doubt it is easier to recruit the same volume students from the likes of areas like muncie indiana, kalamazoo, Michigan, ypsilanti, Michigan, mt pleasant michigan, dekalb, IL, Athens, OH, bowling green kY, etc.   and i am sure at least a partial bus trip (fly into a major city then bus to the campus) would be required for most of the MAC conference.  yes we have to do that for St Bonnie now, but the majority of A10 teams are in major areas right?

The MAC would be a worse move than the MVC and i hate the thought of being in the MVC

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1 hour ago, JettFlight5 said:

It's a necessary evil, but it's the best fit for SLU right now. Yeah, the bottom is brutal and the geography sucks...but there are a lot of like-minded institutions here and teams that will be a threat to get NCAA berths.

Not a perfect situation, but it's as good as we're going to get at this time. 

This is the link of the MAC discussion of SIUE leaving for soccer and talking about SLU. 

https://csnbbs.com/thread-901186.html

Yo ***** Cat. You don't think SLU has been good in the A10 lately? At least become informed before posting on another teams board. 

 

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11 minutes ago, JettFlight5 said:

I was wondering who was going to jump on that.

You guys do realize that he created this thread to intentionally try create these types of reactions, don’t you? We’re not joining the MAC. Just ignore it. He’s trolling you guys. Getting upset is him winning. You’re giving him what he wants. Just let it go and let’s talk about how excited we are for this season. It’s not worth it to reply in this thread.

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I'm confident SLU is not even considering the MAC.  There is no there there.

It's pretty much A10, unless the never ending saga of SLU to the Big East actually happened, which does not even appear to be on the horizon now. 

Assuming SLU is in the A10 for the forseeable future, I think the better option would be to expand the A10 by 2 schools, Loyola Chicago being one, perhaps Belmont in trendy Nashville the other.  If there was to be expansion, however, the A10 power centers would probably demand at least one of the newcomers to be on the Eastern Seaboard.  I would take Loyola Chicago ahead of Belmont, if that was the choice.

The AAC (American) would be the next possibility for any move.  But I am wary of SLU being linked with all those public, FBS football playing schools.  SLU has been there, done that.

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1 minute ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

I'm confident SLU is not even considering the MAC.  There is no there there.

It's pretty much A10, unless the never ending saga of SLU to the Big East actually happened, which does not even appear to be on the horizon now.

The AAC (American) would be the next possibility for any move.  But I am wary of SLU being linked with all those public, FBS football playing schools.  SLU has been there, done that.

I understand being wary about being in a conference with public football schools, but remember, the best conference situation we've had in the past 40 years involved that exact situation.  I agree that staying in the A-10 is best for us right now, but I also sometimes consider what moving to the AAC would be like.

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1 minute ago, cgeldmacher said:

I understand being wary about being in a conference with public football schools, but remember, the best conference situation we've had in the past 40 years involved that exact situation.  I agree that staying in the A-10 is best for us right now, but I also sometimes consider what moving to the AAC would be like.

Well, while C-USA was a very good situation (until the ACC raided the Big East and the Big East followed suit by raiding C-USA), the Great Midwest was an even better conference situation.

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