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!