(05-26-2019 05:14 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  

(05-26-2019 04:19 PM)SoCalBobcat78 Wrote:  

(05-26-2019 11:23 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(05-26-2019 08:55 AM)panama Wrote:  The A-10 affords them the ability to play a bunch of schools in the East that their fans and alumni recognize. Nothing wrong with that. UMass has to do UMass.

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A10 is mostly a bunch of small private schools that play in gyms that would embarrass an Indiana high school. So if they are no longer playing high level basketball, there's no reason for UMass to stay.

You must be thinking of the Northeast Conference. The A-10 conference has bigger basketball budgets and better attendance than the MAC. Below are the attendance averages for all schools with at least 4,000 in attendance between the MAC and the A-10 in 2017-2018:

Dayton -12,996
VCU -7,637
Richmond - 6,491
St. Louis - 6,235
Rhode Island - 6,216
Ohio - 5,597
St. Bonaventure - 4,286
Davidson - 4,276
Toledo - 4,239
George Mason - 4,087

Ohio had the largest basketball budget in 2017-2018 in the MAC at $2.98 million. That would rank last in the A-10. There can be a debate about whether UMass would be better off in the MAC because of football revenue and scheduling, but there is no debate about the better basketball league. The A-10 is the better basketball league for UMass.

The gap has really narrowed though in recent years.

MAC schools can get away with smaller budgets and compete with a tight travel footprint. Also less tuition costs which inflates the budget at private schools.

The MAC is a one bid league. The last MAC team to earn an at-large NCAA bid was the 1999 Miami RedHawks. The Atlantic 10 has been a multi-bid league in the NCAA tournament for 14 straight years and 27 of the past 29.

With any mid-major conference, in order to become a consistent multi-bid conference there needs to be some strong basketball programs. The A-10 has schools like Dayton and VCU, which are strong basketball programs and profitable basketball programs. Dayton made about $7 million in profit from basketball in 2017-2018. VCU made about $2.7 million that year.

In the A-10, Fordham has become the weak sister of the conference, with one winning season in the last 12 years. Their attendance averaged 1,566 per game in 2017-2018, but their basketball budget was $4.5 million. Money is not the issue for them. The A-10 has slipped in recent years, but the money is still there. They will be fine in the long run.

The MAC does not have the resources or does not spend them on basketball. For example, Northern Illinois is one of the weaker basketball programs in the MAC. NIU had a $1.9 million basketball budget in 2017-2018. Their attendance average was 998, in a 10,000 seat arena. The budgets are tight, the attendance is really bad. These Midwest schools in the MAC are public with tight budgets and they prioritize their spending on football. Basketball is secondary. There is a reason that the conference has not had an at-large bid in twenty years.