(08-10-2021 09:59 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  

(08-10-2021 09:49 PM)LostInSpace Wrote:  

(08-10-2021 09:43 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  

(08-10-2021 09:36 PM)LostInSpace Wrote:  

(08-10-2021 08:51 PM)BKTopper Wrote:  Budgets are not why CUSA is a one bid league lol.

RPI at the top half of the 2 leagues is practically indistinguishable (with the exception of VCU and the Bonnies).

A10 teams pay more to play in A10, it would appear —lots of schools would.

Money buys better facilities, higher pay for coaches, charter flights, etc. The A10 schools that get most of the conference’s at-large bids spend in the mid-$6 million to low-$8 million range. Dayton’s basketball budget is almost as large as WKU’s football budget. It’s not that the A10 members are willing to spend more than the CUSA schools, it’s that they can. Fordham’s non-FBS AD budget is more than 40% larger than WKU’s AD budget.

It has more to do with the A10 being the top mid major in the east coast talent hotbed.

Compared to CUSA in the south were the mid majors don't typically recruit well, WKU is one of the exceptions. There is a regional thing to it. This is why MVC/MAC is better than CUSA/SBC and the A10 even better yet stretching from Boston to NC, plus having Dayton/SLU helps.

Nope. It’s the money. The correlation between winning and outspending your opponents is intense in sports, college or pro.

Its supply and demand of the talent. At least at the mid-major level.

You can't tell by looking at a mid-major budget whether 1 program has charter flights or another does. CUSA programs spend A10 money on their coaches and that is a better indicator because that means more experienced staffs.

Ohio I can tell you has all that and is the only mid major to advance out of the first round its last 3 appearances. It has a 13,000 seat arena and close proximity to the MAC tournament in Cleveland. Its mostly intangibles like this that put one program ahead of another in a mid major conference than the raw budget numbers.

WKU has intangibles, great tradition and following but also the fact that Kentucky is a national program and so is Louisville thus they leave talent that would normally go P5 available. You can't replicate those advantages with just money.

The MAC is a one-bid conference. So is CUSA or a CUSA spin-off. Conferences with members with larger budgets aren’t. Message board rationalizing still hasn’t changed that. Funny how that works.