The Underrated A 10

[Lasser83]

I know many X fans wish the Big East would break up, and X could get into a major conference for Bball.

If that did happen, I would have regrets. I love the A 10.

The A 10 is undoubtedly underrated. Basketball thrives in urban centers (which the A 10 is part of). And typically, High School players like to stay close to home. And A 10 schools are close to home, close to the urban centers or the east coast.

And there's a lot of tradition in the A 10. From Umass, to Rhode Island, to St. Joes (with it's wonderful mascot), there's a lot of tradition in the A 10.

And the academics. Through the A 10, X is part of a prestigious and similar group of colleges academically.

The A 10 seems to me to be a great fit.

[Section 200]

The Big East offers every advantage of the A-10 and so much more:

Villanova > Temple, St. Joe's, La Salle
Providence > URI
Syracuse > UMass
Georgetown > GW
St. John's > Fordham
Seton Hall > Fordham
Marquette > St. Louis
DePaul > Dayton
etc etc etc

We need to move up again. Hopefully Memphis to the Big East football group and XU to the Big East non-football group.

[PM Thor]

The Big East offers every advantage of the A-10 and so much more:

Villanova > Temple, St. Joe's, La Salle
Providence > URI
Syracuse > UMass
Georgetown > GW
St. John's > Fordham
Seton Hall > Fordham
Marquette > St. Louis
DePaul > Dayton
etc etc etc

We need to move up again. Hopefully Memphis to the Big East football group and XU to the Big East non-football group.

What a load of crap. You take one team, and say it is better than 3, then take 2 teams, and say they are better than one, then you take PROVIDENCE and say they are better than URI.

Your opinion is so completely useless I am going to just call you a UC homer and let it be. Because what a joke of a post.

[Lasser83]

The Big East offers every advantage of the A-10 and so much more:

Villanova > Temple, St. Joe's, La Salle
Providence > URI
Syracuse > UMass
Georgetown > GW
St. John's > Fordham
Seton Hall > Fordham
Marquette > St. Louis
DePaul > Dayton
etc etc etc

We need to move up again. Hopefully Memphis to the Big East football group and XU to the Big East non-football group.

I agree with PMThor. Your analysis seems flawed.

The Big East is slightly better than the A 10.

BUT IT ISN'T THAT MUCH BETTER.

I like the A 10. I guess my bottom line is that X should not be very hesitant to move into a different conference. The A 10 has proved to be beneficial for X.

[AdamtheFlyer]

Like I tried to say in the other thread (but failed miserably in making a clear point), the difference between the A10 and the "big six" this season is the OOC schedule. The lower tier A10 teams played similar and better competition, along with numerous road games...and suffered quite a few losses.

The bottom of the "big six" played patsies at home, padding the win totals. When they beat top teams in their league, it shows depth. When La Salle gels and wins some games, it takes away bids.

[Lasser83]

The bottom of the "big six" played patsies at home, padding the win totals. When they beat top teams in their league, it shows depth. When La Salle gels and wins some games, it takes away bids.

Who are the "Big Six"?

I'm honestly ignorant on that term.

[AdamtheFlyer]

Who are the "Big Six"?

I'm honestly ignorant on that term.

The BCS football leagues. Sorry, I just refuse to refer to the BCS in basketball.

[Lasser83]

ok, now that term makes sense.

Well, in my opinion, success in football seems to only bring limited success in basketball. I think the stats prove that.

[PM Thor]

Like I tried to say in the other thread (but failed miserably in making a clear point), the difference between the A10 and the "big six" this season is the OOC schedule. The lower tier A10 teams played similar and better competition, along with numerous road games...and suffered quite a few losses.

The bottom of the "big six" played patsies at home, padding the win totals. When they beat top teams in their league, it shows depth. When La Salle gels and wins some games, it takes away bids.

You make a good point, because it shows an inherited uphill battle that non Big 6 conferences have to fight. It's an uphill, and an unfair, battle, because the upper tier of non Big 6 conferences take a hit simply based on their conference affiliation sometimes.

I put it this way. Syracuse, which has been a middling team in the BE for the past couple of years, plays a crappy "at home" only OOC (with exceptions for some big name neutral court games) then milks their conference for all it is worth.

An A10 team couldn't do this. It's an unfair, and unwarranted advantage. Syracuse plays the RPI game, and I hate it.

[KC4X]

Like I tried to say in the other thread (but failed miserably in making a clear point), the difference between the A10 and the "big six" this season is the OOC schedule. The lower tier A10 teams played similar and better competition, along with numerous road games...and suffered quite a few losses.

The bottom of the "big six" played patsies at home, padding the win totals. When they beat top teams in their league, it shows depth. When La Salle gels and wins some games, it takes away bids.

FWIW, Adam, I understood your other post and agree completely. I think the strict non-conference scheduling policies should mainly apply to the upper-tier teams in the A10. The lower teams should concentrate more on getting wins. I like the new conference scheduling where they are allowing the upper-tier teams to play the lower-tier only 1 time. That helps with the RPI. But, if the lower teams can rack up some wins, that will obviously help the conference overall.

[boozehound]

I for one would not mind seeing the BE break into football and a non-football conferences. They could pick up Memphis and XU, possibly another school or two. If the opportunity presented itself for X to "move up" into a big six conference I would be all for it.