As of right now the A-10 has 13 members:

West: St. Louis, Butler, Dayton, Xavier, Duquesne, St Bonaventure
East: Richmond, GWU, LaSalle, St. Joes, Fordham, URI, UMass

For the 14th does it make sense to take the best available like VCU or does it make more sense to go after someone like Loyola to give the conference a presence in Chicago? A school with a tradition of competing at the top levels before.

That would also allow the conference to get that East-West split which I'm sure is desired by the western schools to cut down travel.

It should be clear to everyone that the A-10 ultimately plans to go to 16. There won't be true divisions in basketball but the travel set-up still needs to make sense. Invisible pods of four will probably be the way they go. What this means is each subset of four teams plays each other twice, and everybody else once, for an 18-game schedule. The standings will be listed as 1 through 16. No divisions.

So out West you have St. Louis, Butler, Dayton, and Xavier as one invisible pod. Duquesne and St. Bonaventure will be in an invisible pod with two other teams yest to be determined. Same thing for St. Joseph's and LaSalle. The rest depends on who the next three teams are with James Madison (MAC football-only), George Mason, and Virginia Commonwealth as my guess at this time. Hard to figure.

(05-03-2012 02:03 PM)Wedge Wrote:  I don't know what the MVC thinks of Denver, but if you asked me how many contacts have been made by Denver to the MVC office and/or administrators at MVC schools in the past month, I'd put that over/under at 15.

Denver is a very up-and-coming athletic dept - has won the NACDA Cup as the top non-football athletic dept in America for the last four years. DU spends $25 million on sports annually with all facilities under 12 years old. Top ten nationally in overall NCAA Championships with 28. Averaged 5K in hoops spectators last year, 6K in ice hockey. Top 100 RPI in men's hoops, top 10 in hockey and skiing, top 10-15 in lacrosse. top 20 in w. Gymnastics, top 100 in other minor sports. Good TV market, easy travel with direct flights to most cities.

(05-08-2012 03:01 PM)puck swami Wrote:  

(05-03-2012 02:03 PM)Wedge Wrote:  I don't know what the MVC thinks of Denver, but if you asked me how many contacts have been made by Denver to the MVC office and/or administrators at MVC schools in the past month, I'd put that over/under at 15.

Denver is a very up-and-coming athletic dept - has won the NACDA Cup as the top non-football athletic dept in America for the last four years. DU spends $25 million on sports annually with all facilities under 12 years old. Top ten nationally in overall NCAA Championships with 28. Averaged 5K in hoops spectators last year, 6K in ice hockey. Top 100 RPI in men's hoops, top 10 in hockey and skiing, top 10-15 in lacrosse. top 20 in w. Gymnastics, top 100 in other minor sports. Good TV market, easy travel with direct flights to most cities.

We have too many poor schools and they'd vote no just because of travel. I don't see any school being added to the Valley unless it's to the East so it's closer to them.

(05-08-2012 03:15 PM)SubGod22 Wrote:  

(05-08-2012 03:01 PM)puck swami Wrote:  

(05-03-2012 02:03 PM)Wedge Wrote:  I don't know what the MVC thinks of Denver, but if you asked me how many contacts have been made by Denver to the MVC office and/or administrators at MVC schools in the past month, I'd put that over/under at 15.

Denver is a very up-and-coming athletic dept - has won the NACDA Cup as the top non-football athletic dept in America for the last four years. DU spends $25 million on sports annually with all facilities under 12 years old. Top ten nationally in overall NCAA Championships with 28. Averaged 5K in hoops spectators last year, 6K in ice hockey. Top 100 RPI in men's hoops, top 10 in hockey and skiing, top 10-15 in lacrosse. top 20 in w. Gymnastics, top 100 in other minor sports. Good TV market, easy travel with direct flights to most cities.

We have too many poor schools and they'd vote no just because of travel. I don't see any school being added to the Valley unless it's to the East so it's closer to them.

Denver would be a decent addition, but they have a weird mix of sports that they offer.

Denver's "weird" mix of sports can actually help its case with the MVC: no baseball, softball, and track teams to send to Denver. It also has men's soccer, which the MVC could use.

The MVC schools currently have no desire to expand into the Mountain Time Zone.

(05-11-2012 10:25 PM)Lolly Popp Wrote:  The MVC schools currently have no desire to expand into the Mountain Time Zone.

Most of the MVC schools have no desire to improve the conference or themselves.

Odds of additions being west of Illinois are slim to none.