DoubleJayAlum wrote:The frustrating thing is that the A10 really only became a destination conference in the last 60 days, when Butler and VCU jumped there (although it is probably important to point out that one of its most successful programs, Temple, is now gone). Despite being located in many big cities, their TV contract is abysmal (I read an article the other day when it indicates that each team gets about $70K from the deal and not every team is guaranteed a TV appearance). What the A10 has done is established themselves as the premier conference that doesn't have football, thereby having natural appeal to schools that value basketball, have no football programs and worry about where they may end up because they don't have football. That has a strong appeal to the WSUs, Creightons and Bradleys of the world.
I don't know, I think the A-10 has always had more prestige throughout the last decade, even after the Valley rise to a 4-bid season. I think non-football schools in the eastern half of the US consider them to be the top option.
The more and more I look at this...if the BEast split happens, the new splinter league probably will be just 10 teams, maybe 12. So it's the 8 splinter schools plus Xavier...and probably Dayton. The A-10 can survive that and stay at the top of the non-footy conference rankings. They've done a great job of esstablishing a footprint, and they can go everywhere from the MAAC to the MVC to the Horizon to the CAA to AEast to find a replacement.The A10 conference is solid right now, but long term stability is still in question. If the Big East bball schools separate from the FB schools, the A10 could lose its best program in Xavier, plus schools like SLU and Dayton.
What's interesting about TV is the deal the CAA signed with NBC a couple months ago. CUSA, A-10, and MWC have contracts with CBS. Now, granted, the NBC sports network and CBSCS aren't common household channels yet, but they are channels where they feel like they are a priority, and they're available nationally. The MVC really doesn't have that national presence those conferences have at the moment. I wonder if Elgin should make a push to make this conference more visible on a national stage. I would've pushed to get the same kind of deal the CAA got for their sports - of course, the CAA has better football to peddle.
I'd like to at least see Elgin approach NBC and CBS with a package of football, basketball, soccer, and baseball games and see what they say. Let's get on par with the A-10, CUSA/MWC, and CAA and go from there.
With Butler's departure, I suspect every Horizon league team would look seriously at an MVC offer for membership. Whether any of those has much appeal though is the real question. The only one close would be Milwaukee, and most of its appeal comes from the chance at getting a better TV market plus the fertile recruiting area. In hindsight, we could probably fairly say that the MVC dropped the ball the last few times it added teams in that we traded major to good sized market teams for small to really small market teams each time. This has, no doubt, impacted the MVC's ability to get better TV deals. Perhaps this is having an impact on the MVC's approach to adding teams this time around?
A lot of programs are learning the hard lesson that on field performance is nothing compared to markets now. Look at Appalachian State. They're FURIOUS. They announced last year they wanted to move up to FBS. Quality program on the field. Perfectly capable of winning in FBS RIGHT NOW. But in Boone, North Carolina, in a remote location. Gets passed up by a program with just a couple years of existence (ODU) and two programs that didn't even start yet (UTSA, UNCC). No one wants the actual program capable of winning just because they're in a terrible market.
