State of the Conference: Atlantic Ten

This is the first installment of an ambitious series of blog posts in which I plan to examine the state of every NCAA Division I conference.

In recent years the A-10 has been regarded as a competitive basketball league that combines a hybrid of state and private schools that span the East Coast as well as a few geographic outliers in the Midwest.  In recent years the conference has kept its membership at 14 however their membership swelled to 16 as Temple and Charlotte are competing in their final year of play while league newcomers Virginia Commonwealth and Butler have already arrived to replace them.

All is not well for the A-10 however.  The recent moves by the Big East (Catholic 7) are going to leave the league weakened and its Midwestern wing non-existent as Xavier and Butler are going to be part of the new Big East and St Louis and Dayton are believed to be following them.  This leaves the league with this line up:

U Mass
Rhode Island
Fordham
St Bonaventure
LaSalle
St Joeseph's
Duquesne
George Washington
Richmond
Virginia Commonwealth

The schools in blue are private institutions

I think the league still remains a viable conference.  There are certainly a few schools that might be be flight risks:  U Mass would like to be in a FBS football conference; Rhode Island perhaps would be more comfortable in America East, and Fordham in the Patriot League.  However, I think this group sticks together and I am doubtful that their will be a mass exodus from the conference.

One thing this conference has going for it is flexibility in expansion.  The can expand in any one of three geographic regions--the Northeast, the Midwest, and the Southeast.  With 2 to 4 spots open the candidate list is long.  Northeastern options include Stony Brook, Hofstra, Northeastern, and Albany.  The Midwest's frontrunners are Detroit Mercy and Valparaiso and if appears that St Louis and Dayton are staying around their chances improve.  The Southeastern candidates are headlined by Davidson but George Mason, Elon, UNC Wilmington, UNC Greensboro, Charleston, and Elon could all be in the running in order to accommodate Davidson's needs.