(08-17-2021 08:27 AM)LostInSpace Wrote:  Good question. Fordham had 10 winning seasons, 8 NIT appearances, 1 NCAA appearance and multiple conference championships (admittedly against weaker completion) in the 15 years before joining the A10. Duquesne had two winning seasons and no post-season appearances during that same period and they defected the A10 for an ill-fated year in the MCC. Duquesne had a rough nearly 30 years. Four winning seasons from 1981 - 2018.

It’s hard to fault the presidents who invited Fordham given that the members wanted a presence in New York with Rutgers impending departure. Fordham had been the most consistent winner among themselves, Iona and Hofstra. And they had more money than either of the other two. Plus it was a chaotic time. They thought Temple was leaving with RU and WVU when they started vetting candidates. They had no idea that VA Tech would be an option let alone interested in joining the A10.

Fordham needs to make a decent coaching hire as Duquesne finally did. Putting money into improving facilities as Duquesne has would probably help to, but they’ve got to find a good coach.

The Iona, Hofstra comparison reminds me of the time I did an "W-L vs RPI range" breakdown for 20 years of LaSalle vs Siena basketball. And I discovered that La Salle and Siena are basically the same strength of program. Very similar win percentages vs each RPI group.

But Siena has a better overall record, and like 8 NCAA bids winning the MAAC while LaSalle has 1 NCAA bid in the A-10 because La Salle is playing Nova, Temple and the top 5 of the A-10 every year, and far fewer games against 150+ of the RPI. So they LOOK worse even though they're the same.

I don't think Fordham was an addition that BACK THEN, was clearly going to be a mistake. I think there were valid reasons why they'd take Fordham but they misjudged the outcome.

One of the hardest things to do is project what a school will be when they move up to a higher level. Davidson was just fine moving up to the A-10. VCU was as well. George Mason regressed (Much of that was Jim Larranaga taking them to a Final Four and then he leaves for Miami and Mason turned back into Mason).

And of course, Charlotte. Who would have predicted what Charlotte became in the A-10 after what they did in C-USA?

Which brings me back to C-USA and not going OT with A-10 stuff. C-USA looks like they've been passed by the SBC. C-USA has teams in the league like Fordham in the A-10 where they're just not good enough to help the league and are probably actively hurting it.

But everyone made decisions with the best available data at hand, and no one could have predicted that App State and Coastal Carolina would go from FCS teams to Top 20 ranked FBS teams in 8 years.