What's In A Conference - Yet Another Long-Winded Thought from DCDuck

A10 expansion candidates, Butler, VCU and Mason.
CAA expansion candidates, Coastal Carolina and Stoney Brook.
That speaks volumes. And speaking of volumes, if Duck could just use a table of contents and an index for his arguments then he and we might could keep better track of his arguments.

If Louisville and Cincy leave the Big East for Big 12 stability with WVU then the Big East is toast. If that happens then all bets are off on A10 membership value. If someone really good wants you in the future they will find you right where you are now.

I'll be honest: I'm conflicted about this. At first blush the A10 seemed very smart and a gimme move, but now I'm not so sure.

We'd have about the 10th or 11th highest basketball recruiting budget in the A10, which means (1) we're sunk long term; or (2) we need to include a 3x basketball recruiting budget in all financial calculations.

What's more, my greatest fear is that we become Dayton: nationally-known, nationally-respected, always pretty darn good...........and been to one NCAA tournament in nine years.

All this bathing in the cabbage of A10 NCAA tournament money is predicated on us actually making the NCAA tournament and winning games. If the A10 is a better conference--and it is--then it stands to reason that it becomes more difficult to make the NCAA tournament. I just think some people are assuming we make the NCAAs at the same rate as the CAA, and that's a myopic view not grounded in reality.

And don't forget we will bleed away a great deal of that NCAA loot--should we earn it--flying non-revenue teams all over the place.

To be clear I'm not saying I don't think it's a good idea. The upsides are obvious and what draws us all to the move immediately. My gut tells me it's the right thing to do while my head says whoa nellie.

I just think it's a far tougher decision than many believe it to be.

The A10 doesn't have to worry about catering to football. It can make moves with a singular focus in mind: bringing in and retaining good basketball programs. The CAA is at least as exposed to the realignment pressures you mention, probably more so. VCU, GMU and Xavier don't have football. Butler can stay in the Pioneer and UR in the CAA. Nothing points to either program being anywhere close to making the FBS leap. If the Big East truly implodes, perhaps the A10 is torn asunder. Or perhaps a strong basketball-first conference like the A10 weathers the storm and picks up teams that get left out. Maybe a good basketball program from a non-football school (e.g., Marquette) or from a school with a football program that won't in the foreseeable future have the support to hit minimum FBS program requirements (e.g., GTown, Nova). Maybe this sounds like an outlandish scenario to you; however, the A10 getting raided and becoming mediocre is just as likely as the CAA getting raided in turn and becoming absolutely terrible. Like, a perennial bottom 10 conference kind of terrible. I don't know about you, but I much prefer making decisions from a position of strength rather than fear, weakness and last resort. Assuming, of course, that such decisions would even be ours to make at the point that we're the loser in a game of musical realignment chairs.

No clue what you're saying about football. If the Big East implodes the remaining Catholics will carry the Big East brand forward. The Big East WILL poach the A10 Catholics (X and Dayton). VCU and Mason don't need to move anywhere right now because a new Big East will look at both of you either way. Collect your units, sit tight and continue to impress.

I'm get where Litos is coming from, except for one key piece of the puzzle. What is the future of the CAA? If the CAA becomes the Big South in five years we'll be kicking ourselves for not jumping ship when we had options. And as we learned from our Metro to CAA transition, its better to make a move when you're in a position of strength and wanted versus desperation. And personally, I'm not that worried about recruiting budgets unless we'll need to cheat to compete.

Whoever is crunching the financial numbers is probably the most important person in the process.

Five pages. 15 post per page (average based on page 5) equals around 75 posts--all on "What's in a Conference - Yet Another Long-Winded Thought from DCDuck." No one has changed their position. One has a better chance of hitting the lottery than changing a person on this topic. I figure that by July 1, there will be 25 1/2 pages. That's 375 posts! Have fun guys--that's why we have Ram Nation Forum.

I count three trips for the Flyers over the last nine years (2003, 2004, 2009). If you bump it back to 2000, the Flyers have four trips to VCU's five.

So the Big East replaces WVU with Dayton's FCS program and Cincinnati with Xavier's club team? Because they're Catholic?

I agree, what separates us from Dayton isn't the frequency of making the tournament, but what we've done once we got there.

One NCAA Tournament run by itself does not separate two comparable programs. Again, I bring up Kent State's Elite Eight run in 2002. Consistent play at a high level is what separates a team like Gonzaga from a team like Ohio University.

Chill--I've always thought you have outstanding perspective, and you are dead on here with my biggest concern and the #1 reason moving is smart. The stability of the CAA is the backbone of staying. This may not be the ideal opportunity, but it may be better than what lays three years down the road.

But I do disagree on the recruiting budget--that matters. My concern is that we need to keep filling the top of the funnel to pay for these charters and such. Increasing the recruiting budget adds to that pressure. We're staring at $5 million while considering jumping into a lake in which we cannot see the bottom.

Today I would vote to jump, but I'd be dishonest if I didn't say there are piles and piles of reasons that concern me greatly. I may change my mind tomorrow, and then change it back again.

Oh, and Dayton has one trip in 8 years. Bad math on my part, but the point remains: they've had a precipitous decline in relevance that far outpaces the decline in public mindset. Give them two more years and you will hear the catcalls of not being relevant from the public--those in the industry already talk about this.

I believe middle of the pack. I'd have to go look it up, but there's a bunch of teams clumped from 4th to 7th. We are in that clump.