The Atlantic 10 has it right.

British soccer call it relegation. Merge the best of the A10 basketball and Association and have two basketball conferences. And then in two years lets say Richmond finally makes first division and ODU drops out. Bring it. The Colonial 10 Association comprised of the best teams from the merger. And second division, the Atlantic 14.
 
BaNgMyPrOgRaM said:
British soccer call it relegation. Merge the best of the A10 basketball and Association and have two basketball conferences. And then in two years lets say Richmond finally makes first division and ODU drops out. Bring it. The Colonial 10 Association comprised of the best teams from the merger. And second division, the Atlantic 14.
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I don't ever see anything like that happening, but I love where your heads at. Would motivate the Towsons of the world to do something about their programs.
 
DCDuck said:
Part of it is money, part of it is priorities. Some schools don't have men's basketball as their "marquee" sport. Some schools don't have the money to sink into making their men's basketball teams "better" (i.e. going out and getting a big-name coach or winning the bidding war to hire a hot assistant). It would be great if teams at the bottom "stepped it up", but sometimes it just doesn't work like that.
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Well then what we don't need in this conference are the "house poor" type programs. If you can't afford to reach for the top in your conference (in the marquee sport of the conference), you ought not be in that conference because it pulls everyone else down.

Just because you can find the money to pay the fee to get into the conference doesn't mean you should be in that conference. Just like if you can put a downpayment on a house, doesn't mean you can afford living in it...you are house poor.

I do think some teams like Ga St...as stinking as they are....have made an attempt by hiring Rod Barnes. 10 years in the toilet and JMU is trying...but do they really fit? Towson doesn't seem to have the money or desire to compete above the basement level. UD is single minded about football, not the marquee sport of the conference. WM, while good this year will sink next year as their seniors graduate....I think they fit better with the patriot league. And if UNCW can't get their program together (fire AD, Hire decent coach)....as much as I hate to say it....need to go to the SoCon.
 
Brad, since you started the "get out of the CAA" thread, how do you think our athletic budget compares to the schools in the conferences you think VCU should be playing in?

BradRamFan said:
DCDuck said:
Part of it is money, part of it is priorities. Some schools don't have men's basketball as their "marquee" sport. Some schools don't have the money to sink into making their men's basketball teams "better" (i.e. going out and getting a big-name coach or winning the bidding war to hire a hot assistant). It would be great if teams at the bottom "stepped it up", but sometimes it just doesn't work like that.
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Well then what we don't need in this conference are the "house poor" type programs. If you can't afford to reach for the top in your conference (in the marquee sport of the conference), you ought not be in that conference because it pulls everyone else down.

Just because you can find the money to pay the fee to get into the conference doesn't mean you should be in that conference. Just like if you can put a downpayment on a house, doesn't mean you can afford living in it...you are house poor.

I do think some teams like Ga St...as stinking as they are....have made an attempt by hiring Rod Barnes. 10 years in the toilet and JMU is trying...but do they really fit? Towson doesn't seem to have the money or desire to compete above the basement level. UD is single minded about football, not the marquee sport of the conference. WM, while good this year will sink next year as their seniors graduate....I think they fit better with the patriot league. And if UNCW can't get their program together (fire AD, Hire decent coach)....as much as I hate to say it....need to go to the SoCon.
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Sadly, I believe we are not even in the top 5 in terms of athletic budget. If my memory is correct, I'd say VCU has to rank in the top 10% nationally in terms of getting the most bang for our athletic budget. Not sure if football expenses were backed out of the comparisons I saw, but I believe they were. Obviously, you want to see apples-to-apples.
 
Mistachill said:
Brad, since you started the "get out of the CAA" thread, how do you think our athletic budget compares to the schools in the conferences you think VCU should be playing in?
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I didn't start the "get out of the CAA" thread....it was VCUdesign who started it.

But since you ask....I know our budget is relatively low compared to some school. I don't know if that is because we don't have football or what the reason is. But I have seen that the university has stepped up (or attempted to step up) when the need arose. We took a chance on Capel but then were willing to renegotiate the contract to keep him to stay. We did the same with Grant....in fact we payed him at a level never before seen in the CAA. We stepped up and increase Keyes salary to keep him and have done the same in some of our other sports to keep good coaches. Plus we have stepped up to put in the SC....albeit 10+ years ago.

I'm not saying we should leave the CAA....IF the CAA would also step up and expect soemthing from the bottom dwellers like the A10 does. When 1/3+ of our conference is perennially ranked with an rpi below 200 or 250, I see that as a problem for the teams at the top and for the conference in general. In fact, last year I believe almost 50% of our conference was ranked below 190 rpi in the middle of the season if I remember correctly
 
In fact, last year I believe almost 50% of our conference was ranked below 190 rpi in the middle of the season if I remember correctly
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This season we also had three teams in the top 50 at one point, and six teams in the top 100 (Mason, Northeastern, Drexel).

I've said before that high RPI only helps the Power Six in terms of at-large bids; the high-RPI non-power schools that somehow manage to miss auto-bids have a much higher rate of being snubbed than the Power Six schools (see Air Force in 2005 with a RPI of 25).

RPI is nice for the big guys, but not really all that relevant for the little guys.
 
DCDuck said:
In fact, last year I believe almost 50% of our conference was ranked below 190 rpi in the middle of the season if I remember correctly
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This season we also had three teams in the top 50 at one point, and six teams in the top 100 (Mason, Northeastern, Drexel).

I've said before that high RPI only helps the Power Six in terms of at-large bids; the high-RPI non-power schools that somehow manage to miss auto-bids have a much higher rate of being snubbed than the Power Six schools (see Air Force in 2005 with a RPI of 25).

RPI is nice for the big guys, but not really all that relevant for the little guys.
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The Duck is correct I think..In my opinion...
 
The Duck is absolutely right. At least the so-called 'power' conferences references. Mid-majors are catching up quickly. And dont you hate thinking that VCU is a 'mid'major'. I hate that term.

I still like the relegation thingy. Pony up. Only then, you know who the best is. The selection committees do the eyeball test. They look at a team like VCU and UNC in different eyes. These so-called 'power' conference teams have put themselves in that position to be favorably looked at. They are not the best sometimes. NCAA needs to include everyone fairly without bias, but they wont. Why dont the priveleged have their own BCS Championship game in basketball, and everyone else can compete for an NCAA Championship. Blow up the NCAA if this is it. Cowtowing to the NCAA's and BCS's. We can do better.
 
who manages the scheduling in the soccer relegation? The league? Would the NCAA control that aspect of this?
 
BaNgMyPrOgRaM said:
The Duck is absolutely right. At least the so-called 'power' conferences references. Mid-majors are catching up quickly.
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The Mids won 11 games in the first round.
 
I hear ya.

BradRamFan said:
Mistachill said:
Brad, since you started the "get out of the CAA" thread, how do you think our athletic budget compares to the schools in the conferences you think VCU should be playing in?
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I didn't start the "get out of the CAA" thread....it was VCUdesign who started it.

But since you ask....I know our budget is relatively low compared to some school. I don't know if that is because we don't have football or what the reason is. But I have seen that the university has stepped up (or attempted to step up) when the need arose. We took a chance on Capel but then were willing to renegotiate the contract to keep him to stay. We did the same with Grant....in fact we payed him at a level never before seen in the CAA. We stepped up and increase Keyes salary to keep him and have done the same in some of our other sports to keep good coaches. Plus we have stepped up to put in the SC....albeit 10+ years ago.

I'm not saying we should leave the CAA....IF the CAA would also step up and expect soemthing from the bottom dwellers like the A10 does. When 1/3+ of our conference is perennially ranked with an rpi below 200 or 250, I see that as a problem for the teams at the top and for the conference in general. In fact, last year I believe almost 50% of our conference was ranked below 190 rpi in the middle of the season if I remember correctly
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As a SLU fan, I'd wonder if y'all wouldn't mind replacing Fordham in the A-whatever number we're at now?
 
BustedDreams49 said:
As a SLU fan, I'd wonder if y'all wouldn't mind replacing Fordham in the A-whatever number we're at now?
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Yuk to the A-10...

We got our sights on the Big East! ;)

VCUBeatsduke
 
VCU in the A-10 would undoubtedly be a step up as far as conference affiliation. One nice thing is that VCU gets a ton of advantages playing in the Colonial. Like St. Louis and the MVC headquarters, the CAA headquarters are in Richmond, and the conference tournament is played in Richmond every year. That means by far that the largest contingent of fans at the CAA tournament is always VCU and usually by a large margin. The Richmond Coliseum where the tournament is held is literally maybe 10 blocks away from VCU.

By and large VCU is a fairly big dog in a top heavy CAA where the bottom feeders are worse than those of the A-10 (except probably Fordham). GSU, Towson etc are always VERY mediocre and drag down conference RPI.

We have a pretty good deal in the CAA, and our only gripe was having CAA-affiliation hurt us come Selection Sunday. With the tournament expanding to 96, this is no longer an issue.
 
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