BEVERLY HILLS (MI) -– As UD and the 7 other teams still alive in the Atlantic 10 Tournament (how ‘bout SBU and UMass?) head to Atlantic City to decide a Champion, I have to say that I really prefer the new format. What’s not to like? Reward the 4 best squads with a bye; give the next quartet the added bonus of an extra home game (and the revenue that comes with it); make the next 4 play on the road in order to earn a trip to Las Vegas on the Atlantic and send Fordham and whoever happens to be the 2nd worst team in the league (in this case, LaSalle) packing.

That rush of air that you might have felt after the UD/GW game went final was a collective sigh of relief from all of the UD Faithful who had deposits (of the non-refundable variety) on hotel rooms for the weekend at da Joisey Shore. Those Flyer fans didn’t know it at the time they confidently made their reservations, but they were the last of the riverboat gamblers.

As nice as the new A-10 Tournament schedule is, it is clear that something has to be done about the A-10 regular season “POD” system. If you didn’t know it, POD stands for “Piece Of Dried-up-something-or-other.” Why do they call it the POD? Because POS was already taken.

This season, UD played Xavier, Duquesne and St. Louis each twice, arguably the toughest POD of anyone in the league. And what did it get us? Seventh freakin’ place, that’s what. Meanwhile, Eczema feasted on Fordham twice, as did Rhody, while Temple faced St. Joe’s and 13th place LaSalle two times.

Yeah, that’s fair.

Ideally, the A-10 would be “right-sized” back to just a 12 team league with 2 divisions of 6. Teams would play the 5 other schools in their own division twice; they would face the other 6 once and — BINGO -– you got yourself a nicely balanced, 16 game conference slate like “the good old days.”

Let’s face facts: that ain’t happenin’ anytime soon, kids. Unless the SLU administration suddenly decides to actually listen to Thick Rick and wander off to the Missouri Valley and Fordham comes to their senses and jumps down to the MAAC, it will remain the Atlantic 10 + 4.

I have a solution. All it needs is an acronym. So, what do we call it?

Basketball Athletic Division

Pretty Useless Schedule

Swampy’s Terrific Unbalanced Play for Inter-Divisional

Here’s how it works:

All teams play each other once for 13 games.

Each school plays its designated “Rival” one additional game:

UMass vs. Rhode Island — this is, literally, a border war

Fordham vs. SBU — battle of the New Yawkers

St. Joe’s vs. Temple — 2 of the Big Five

LaSalle vs. Dukes — East vs. West in PA

GW vs. Richmond — the battle of I-95

UD vs. X — natch

SLU vs. UNCC — the Conference USA refugees beat each other up

This slate frees up each of the 14 A-10 schools to play another pair of home games, which means mo money, mo money. It even cuts down on travel, so Thick Rick Majerus might actually shut up for 10 seconds.

My plan will probably never happen, but it’s something for Bernadette McGlade to think about as she wanders along the shoreline, picking up sand dollars this summer in Virginia Beach. Don’t forget to wear your sunscreen, Madam Commissioner.

Go Flyers! It’s rubber match time! Win out in AC and we dance!

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
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