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UD is a perfect institutional fit for the Big East, and in fact, is academically and athletically superior to most Big East schools. If, all other things being equal, a conference of large, national Catholic universities were to be built from scratch in the midwest/eastern part of the United States, Dayton would be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, the New Big East was formed with backroom political deals, mediocre institutions being grandfathered-in, and short-term basketball success clouding the judgement of those who put the league together. If this five year run for the Flyers had happened simply a half-decade earlier, we'd be part of the league. Instead we're stuck in a league with, at best, one or two pseudo-rivals and many institutions that have almost nothing in common with us.
If in the long-term we truly believe that a Big East invite is not coming, we need to find an alternative to the A-10. From what I can tell, these would be the best options:
1) Lobby for an invite as an all-sports (except football) member of the AAC. This may be a somewhat lateral move for basketball, but I think that it is an overall institutional upgrade and worth exploring.
2) Take the lead on forming a new conference with the best/most similar institutions from the A-10.
Last edited by ClevelandFlyer05; 09-03-2017 at 03:17 PM..
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