Originally Posted by UDDoug
Agree, but I do think this was a unique situation. You have a 12 team conference for football with Navy as an associate(?) member for football only. You have 11 teams for all other sports. One non-football school gets you to 12 for all sports.
My guess is the current statement is closer to correct than the former.
UD's options, if they are interested in something, is to work with VCU and others in the A10 to form a new conference. Might require/need to add a few other members similar to what the GMW did in forming CUSA.
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Don't you think that from the 14 current A10 members there are nine or ten that are very serious about BB at the highest level? I do. I don't see the need for searching for new members. And, if you stick with current members only it's not quite as complicated as "starting a new conference".....more like restructuring the one you have.
I still think the idea of establishing criteria for facilities et al is a very good way to determine who is serious and who is not. Some schools would have to commit millions to come up to the standard. If they are not willing to do that they are essentially withdrawing from the A10. St. Joes doesn't have anything like our Arena. But a few years ago they invested about $20 million, as I recall, to bring their BB facilities up to much higher level. In a city like Philly a school like
SJU is never going to draw UD's 13000....but they still have a ~ 4000-5000 seat facility with all other aspects of their BB facilities as good as ours, I'm told. Many (most?) A10 schools have good facilities. The ones that have poor facilities are sending a message as clear as can be....they are not interested in BB at the highest level.