Here is data for A10, and MVC. I also threw in a few Candidates from the OVC (Belmont, Murray State), Horizon and Summit (WIU was for comparison of Football to set the correct data for SIU and Illinois State) plus UDel (CAA) and Sienna College (MAAC).
As you can see La Salle and St. Bonaventure are definite negatives for the A10, and their Institutional values + attendance are both negative on my point scale. Duquesne is not much help either, rate only "2".
Note: none of the MVC schools crack the top 11 of the A10, really 12 with Davidson. But Davidson is very small student body and that shrinks the size of their budget. I think the A10 would like to see Davidson grow from 1,700 to 2,500 undergrads. That would probably move them up the list as far as budget goes. They are good bang for the buck.
If the A10 could ever jettison the dead weight three schools emerge as serious candidates:
UDel, UIC and LUC. These are strong Institutions and have the depth to support their Basketball programs. These three are a clear cut above all the other entrants. Although I see no possible way it could be done swapping Duquesne, La Salle and St. Bony for those three would be a step up. IUC needs to build their MBB program (they have the resources, so no excuses) and LUC should grow their department at least $4M/yr to more in line with the A10 -- they have an impressive over 10,000 full time undergrad population, big for a private school plus the Chicago market (again no excuses, they have the resources).
Note: Bradley misses the cut, as do Valpo and Drake. Belmont and Sienna as institutions do not impress. Evansville is in decline as is Detroit Mercy. The rural public schools of the MVC are facing a crisis we see in the larger Northern US of dwindling numbers of qualified and interested students. That pretty much kills them as candidates (Illinois State did point well however. I threw in South Dakota State, who has similar numbers to the other Dakota schools in terms of school rating and MBB attendance (maybe +/- a point or two); they came out a "-1" which means none of those schools has enough value to talk about.
So bottom line, the A10 school, excepting 3 privates who are dead weight (Duquesne should be better than they are with their resources), are a clear cut above everything in the MVC, and only LUC approaches the A10. Academically the A10 is much stronger than the almost universally low standards of the MVC schools (LUC and Drake the exception).