Has Xavier outgrown the A-10?
That’s the question put forth by columnist Paul Daugherty in the Cincinnati Enquirer today, no doubt pegged to the fact the Muskies play St. Bonaventure today and a 30-point win is possible. Now, Xavier has gone to the NCAA tournament seven of the past eight seasons and sure, the worst of the teams in the A-10 are bad, but I don’t see how Xavier has outgrown the A-10. Yes, they were 27-5 in league games the past two seasons, but the year before that they were 8-8 in league play, and the two years before that 10-6. Sounds like competition to me.
Daugherty in effect negates his own question: There’s no where for the X-men to go. The Big East isn’t going to add teams any time soon, and Xavier doesn’t fit the ACC or Big Ten. And Xavier’s other sports don’t carry a lot of cache.
If Xavier ever did leave the A-10, it would wipe out one of the best reasons for SLU to be in the league. In that case, other than Dayton, the next closest team would be Duquesne. Actually, the case is not that Xavier has outgrown the A-10, but the A-10 has outgrown itself. When the league added SLU and Charlotte and went to 14 teams, it just got too big. There is too big a gulf between the best and the worst. If the league dropped four teams - St. Bonaventure, Duquesne, Fordham and La Salle, for example - it would have a 10-team league where everybody could play everybody twice and the range of programs wouldn’t be as wide. (Also, people wouldn’t have to go to Olean anymore.) The league’s RPI would go up and the competition would be better. Conference oldtimers might say that the Bonnies and Dukes were there first rather than SLU and Charlotte, and I can’t argue that. But if the conferences were asked to start a new and pick teams tomorrow, SLU would get chosen before St. Bonaventure, I’m guessing.
Would it make more sense for SLU to be in the missouri valley? the competition is just as good from top to bottom.
Can we drop the MVC talk already? The A-10 has some issues, but it has been much better than the MVC in 17 of the last 20 seasons, including the last 2. SLU doesn’t want to be in the MVC, and the MVC isn’t looking to expand.
Tom, I agree with you. The A-10 would be great if they could shed the bottom 4 schools.
I also agree that Xavier won’t go anywhere soon because (1) they have no where to go and (2) they would be leaving an awful lot of NCAA “share” payouts on the table if they do. The most likely scenario is that everything stays status quo until the Big East decides to dump the basketball-only programs in order to add football schools. If and when that happens, there will likely be a lot of schools doing the conference shuffle, including SLU, Xavier, and Dayton.
The Atlantic 10 Conference is the best thing that has ever happened to Xavier. I don’t know why we would want to run out and change anything.
We do need SLU, Charlotte, St Joes, UMass and Temple to get competative again. We need one of two of those programs to become ranked again and a national player.
I could easily see down the road the best three teams being Xavier, Dayton and SLU. It would amuse me if the power of the “Atlantic 10″ resided entirely in the Midwest.
I am convinced that Xavier can make the Final Four in the Atlantic 10 Conference. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Xavier wouldn’t go anywhere if they could. Right now they are enjoying a similar league to that of Memphis. Both teams run the table each year and enjoy considerable advantages over the rest of the league. Is Xavier better than the rest of the A10? Yes, much so. I would imagine there will be another conference shift like the one that brought SLU to the A10 in the next 2-3 years. The strength of the league in weighed down as others have said by the bottom. I think either an upper A10 team like Xavier could easily go to another conference.
SLU should still consider going to another conference. Regardless of conference status (A10 is the best conference outside of the Big 6 BCS conferences), SLU is such an awkward fit for the A10 conference. Geographically SLU would be much better off in the OVC, MVC, or Horizon. While they don’t have the quality teams that the A10 does, there’s no reason to consider one of these.
Might we ask what has SLU done for the A10 before talk of SLU being a legit team. SLU has to prove it worthiness before its talk of moving around to other conferences. SLU is a mediocre middle of the pack team at best at this point in time and has no gripe or reason to move.
(My theory)….SLU moved to the A10 b/c it is chalked full of small private (some catholic) schools in which SLU fits right in in having a division 1 basketball and soccer team (womens volleyball also) and nothing else…
Duquesne (1992-93) and LaSalle (1992-95) left for the MCC (now the Horizon League), only to come back. Any claim they have to loyalty based on longevity should only go back to their return to the league, and probably should still be devalued by their departure.
St. Bonaventure, which despite a great tradition hasn’t been good for a long time and is a very small (enrollment 2,700) school in the middle of nowhere, has tenure, joining the league after only UMass, GWU and Duquesne (the first time). While the A-10 might love to see the Bonnies find a better “fit” elsewhere, it would look bad if it took action to jettison them.
If Xavier leaves the A-10 for a league that saw no appeal in SLU, most of SLU’s reason for joining the A-10 to begin with goes up in smoke. After seeing Marquette bolt to the Big East (where it fits nicely), SLU, XU and UD sought to present a united front to all conferences. The three probably hope to some day be part of a conference that includes Marquette and DePaul, but how realistic is any wish that calls for those two to leave the Big East?
Xavier will leave for the Big East when it expands. (Probably 2010/2011) The Big East will need a non-football school - I was hoping it will be SLU, but I think it will be Xavier. The A-10 is bad for SLU basketball and horrible for SLU soccer - not that it matters as the administration doesn’t care about soccer - if they did, Donogan(sp?) would no longer be there.