(03-02-2021 05:11 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  ODU to A10. Football to Indy. Could it really happen? Would the A10 risk the chance that ODU would leave later for an all sport conference more to it's liking? CFP new contract coming soon, TV negotiations, etcetera could slow/negate the possibility IMHO.

True as their are a lot of variables down the pike.

UConn made the Indy/BE decision but it was for the BE not the A10 which has a minor TV deal at the moment.

(03-03-2021 09:23 AM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  

(03-02-2021 05:11 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  ODU to A10. Football to Indy. Could it really happen? Would the A10 risk the chance that ODU would leave later for an all sport conference more to it's liking? CFP new contract coming soon, TV negotiations, etcetera could slow/negate the possibility IMHO.

True as their are a lot of variables down the pike.

UConn made the Indy/BE decision but it was for the BE not the A10 which has a minor TV deal at the moment.

Eh, it's not a totally 1:1 comparison - there's nowhere near the history or brand association with UConn and the Big East at play, or a school trying to maintain status as a basketball power. However, I do think the two situations are broadly comparable, with ODU doing a lot of the same better basketball/better geography(and travel for the athletes)/better conference tournament vs. football unknowns math that UConn was doing. The finances are probably more or less the same either way too.

The question is whether ODU can actually garner an invite as much as it's where they stand on their answer, though, while UConn pretty much had a standing invite.

UCONN also has an $89MM budget.

(03-01-2021 01:58 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  The additions of VCU and GMU were separate. VCU was added in 2012 in a membership move that took the A-10 from 14 to 16 members. GMU was added in a rebuild the following year after Butler, Xavier, Temple and Charlotte left.

Yeah, they got Butler for a year with VCU. But I remember there being chatter that Mason became a “must take” because of VCU. Don’t know if it was legit, and, honestly, could have been the hot air of message boards back then, but, I know it was put out there...and profoundly stuck with me if I could remember it, even if just speculation.

It did seem curious to go into that part of the conference footprint to get them, too. You have G-Dubs oh so close by, and then the conference doubled up in Richmond. Of course, back then, Mason was a hot grab, and you probably needed southern teams to bridge the Davidson get. A ho-hum Siena pick (because it seems like they’ve been just waiting there for ages) would do very little compared to what Mason was doing and where it is.

(03-04-2021 01:30 PM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  

(03-01-2021 01:58 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  The additions of VCU and GMU were separate. VCU was added in 2012 in a membership move that took the A-10 from 14 to 16 members. GMU was added in a rebuild the following year after Butler, Xavier, Temple and Charlotte left.

Yeah, they got Butler for a year with VCU. But I remember there being chatter that Mason became a “must take” because of VCU. Don’t know if it was legit, and, honestly, could have been the hot air of message boards back then, but, I know it was put out there...and profoundly stuck with me if I could remember it, even if just speculation.

It did seem curious to go into that part of the conference footprint to get them, too. You have G-Dubs oh so close by, and then the conference doubled up in Richmond. Of course, back then, Mason was a hot grab, and you probably needed southern teams to bridge the Davidson get. A ho-hum Siena pick (because it seems like they’ve been just waiting there for ages) would do very little compared to what Mason was doing and where it is.

There’s definitely been a strong impetus in the A-10 to grow the footprint in a southward direction. They haven’t added a northeastern school since LaSalle and Fordham in 1995. All other adds have been southern or Midwestern:

1995 Xavier, Dayton, VT
2001 Richmond
2005 Charlotte, St Louis
2012 Butler, VCU
2013 GMU
2014 Davidson

For a rumor that was and still is unsubstantiated, this thread sure has legs. What does that say about us?

(03-05-2021 02:10 PM)ken d Wrote:  For a rumor that was and still is unsubstantiated, this thread sure has legs. What does that say about us?

According to a guy on our board his contact said there were talks as the A10 thought they might soon be losing 2 members (unnamed) but now it doesn't seem like that's the case so talks have cooled.

(03-05-2021 02:17 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  

(03-05-2021 02:10 PM)ken d Wrote:  For a rumor that was and still is unsubstantiated, this thread sure has legs. What does that say about us?

According to a guy on our board his contact said there were talks as the A10 thought they might soon be losing 2 members (unnamed) but now it doesn't seem like that's the case so talks have cooled.

That sucks. The sooner those two leave C-USA, the better and I can’t wait until that happens.

(03-05-2021 03:09 PM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  

(03-05-2021 02:17 PM)mturn017 Wrote:  

(03-05-2021 02:10 PM)ken d Wrote:  For a rumor that was and still is unsubstantiated, this thread sure has legs. What does that say about us?

According to a guy on our board his contact said there were talks as the A10 thought they might soon be losing 2 members (unnamed) but now it doesn't seem like that's the case so talks have cooled.

That sucks. The sooner those two leave C-USA, the better and I can’t wait until that happens.

Why would any current member leave the A-10? Where could they go that would be an improvement? The Big East would seem to be only conference they would aspire to, and it's hard to see how they (the Big East) would benefit from adding two more schools.

It's easy to see how CUSA would benefit from losing two schools, but that's not likely to happen now. Even if the BE were to add Dayton and St Louis (which would take them to 13), that would still leave the A-10 with 12 members. Why would they feel a need to return to 14?

None of this makes much sense.

Is the A-10 anticipating they are losing 2 of their stronger or 2 of their weaker programs?

Big ole Not Happening to this.

clt says this makes sense. A reasonable option until the SEC invite for Charlotte.

The A-10 is a very good basketball conference, and Charlotte wishes we had been more competitive there than we were. When we announced football we wanted to stay in the A-10 for all sports but FB, and put that in another conference like the SoCon, but several FCS conferences told us they would happily take us for all sports, but not let us park FB there on our way to FBS. So, we had invitations to the Sun Belt and C-USA, and made the best move we could at that time.

Would we go back to the A-10 and go indy in FB? I don't know. For sure this has never occurred to me. It would be an upgrade in hoops, but we know from experience that A-10 baseball would be a big downgrade and CLT is getting votes now for the top 25, and we hope things will go our way to get us ranked this year. Our men's soccer team is typically ranked, and we played for a Natty just 10 years ago. C-USA usually has 4 or so top 25 teams, with us being one, so moving to the A-10 would be a big hit there. These sports are not FB or BB, but they are important to us.

Having been a ticket holder at CLT for for about 30 years, and in the Sun Belt -> Metro -> CUSA -> A-10 -> C-USA during that time, I can tell you that the A-10 was not a good fit for us outside of our basketball aspirations. We are a large public in the South, and the A-10 is made up of small privates in the Northeast. Like C-USA this time, the A-10 was just the best option we had when we needed one. If there is any chance of conference reorganization happening to undo some of the choices made for poor reasons over the last couple of realignments, then I think Charlotte is better served waiting for that.

I am not holding out hope for a P5 invitation, so I would like to be in a conference primarily centered around the states contiguous to NC, or two states away. I think that gives us the best chance for rivalries, which is something else we didn't have in the A-10. If we can filter for academic peers in that group of possibilities, then I think we have the makings of a better deal for us.

So my two takeaways from this rumor are:

• While I like the A-10, I don't think this is the answer.
• If there is a rumor thread about ODU and Charlotte going somewhere, you can be certain that Marshall fans will show up to tell you why you should take them instead!
  

clt is hearing that Charlotte will move the remaining sports to AAC soon

Here is a thought. What about ODU and Charlotte move their sports to the ASUN and FBS independent? ASUN wants FBS in the future. You will have a base of schools.

No thanks

Charlotte, ODU, JMU, Liberty, UMass, and UConn would make for a nice little scheduling alliance.

I wouldn’t hate it if vcu is still around, but I’m so indifferent to and beaten down by our failures at this point it’s hard to feel very strongly about anything Niner related.

(03-07-2021 03:31 PM)Niner National Wrote:  I wouldn’t hate it if vcu is still around, but I’m so indifferent to and beaten down by our failures at this point it’s hard to feel very strongly about anything Niner related.

Evidently, you’re not alone brother. The apathy at Charlotte seems to run rampant due to what’s been happening. Hell, PSCNiner has even been quiet. Lol.

I want a strong Charlotte in CUSA. I don’t know if it’s coaching decisions or what, but something is out of whack.