3 replies to this topic

[tarheelblue89]

http://espn.go.com/c...-10-sources-say

Butler has expressed interest in joining the Atlantic 10 for all sports except football as the replacement to Temple, multiple sources told ESPN.com's Andy Katz.

The A-10 will lose Temple, historically one of its best men's basketball programs, to the Big East in the fall of 2013. Butler has been among the dominant programs in the Horizon League, which, like the A-10, has been a competitive mid-major conference in the recent past.
The school competes in the Horizon League in all sports except football, where it plays in the Pioneer Football League. That league, which also includes Dayton, is classified in Division I's Football Championship Subdivision but does not offer athletic scholarships.

Love it from the competition and exposure point of view. But it would suck to leave the Horizon.

Also, Butler and Pitt in the CBI this year.

[Tensor]

I'm a fan of the move. Butler would be a solid replacement.

I think the A10 should get aggressive and go after GMU and VCU as well to boost itself to 16 teams. Create a north and south division or east/west division. Play each team in your division twice plus two inter-division games.

The A10 + Butler, VCU, and GMU is a 4 bid conference every year with 6 in a good year.

Another part of me doesn't really care though because Charlotte is probably bound for the Alliance in the future. Andy Katz has gone out of his way to mention us several times, our football coach has mentioned it (and said we'd know which conference we're in July 1st officially), our AD accidentally slipped up at a speaking event and referred to some Alliance members as "our conference mates", and we've had recruits tweet this week that they heard we were going to be in CUSA.

[Tensor]

Read that Butler to the A10 is essentially a done deal. Just a few minor details being worked out.

Losing Temple definitely hurts the conference, but adding Butler in makes up for it. The A10 will remain the premier non-BCS level basketball conference for the foreseeable future.

[Boltergeist]

According to McMurphy, the A-10 may not stop at Butler. Mason and VCU are also being mentioned as targets.