Originally Posted by UACFlyer
Northwest, the key point is that how well teams perform depends on the quality of the players they recruit and the coaches they are able to hire. Our AD will tell you that both HS recruits and coaches are enormously impressed by the quality of facilities. Really good facilities are a reflection of a school's commitment to athletics....is the school really a big-time player, etc. And even with our superb facilities we have a tough time recruiting top players.
A10 schools with high-school-like facilities find it almost impossible to bring in really good players...and that affects the way the team performs, of course. Sure, once in a while a Fordham or LaSalle will get lucky and land a star that was overlooked. But consistently solid performance from such schools is just about impossible. Coaching candidates and recruits come in and see really sub-standard facilities in comparison to what they see elsewhere....and what do you suppose they think? FU and LU and the likes have to settle for personal that can't do better somewhere else. That's why facilities are so important.
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I somewhat agree with you, but in the case of
LaSalle and St. Bonney, they seem to overachieve given what they have in term of facilities, so they are doing something well.
Fordham is really the only program that can't do any better than the top 150 RPI wise. It think it was just about 4 years ago that LaSalle received an at large, and until the last five years, out did us with our superior facilities and they have been in the same gym since the 50s. I think it really comes down to the staff that they hire, more than the gym, although the latter matters.
The more I read this discussion (although I would love to see UC and UConn on the schedule), a two division A10 based on performance (relegate/promotion) would do wonders for the teams that have the right mix going. As long as we continue being successful, would play home and away with the top 7 teams (seems like 5 to 7 teams in the A10 are in the Top 100 of the RPI (other metric) annually) and only spend a little time with the ailing or rebuilding programs (6 of 18 games). If you are in the lower tier, you could still get an large by doing well in the OOC and dominating the lower tier and winning the games that matter against the upper tier teams. I think this would really boost the A10 forward by making things more competitive, especially against the middle of the pack A10 teams.
