The Big 12 (yes, the conference that won the men's hoops National Championship last year) is in some trouble. They're already down to 10 teams, and if OU and Texas leave that's 8. West Virginia doesn't belong in that Midwest conference, and Kansas pays a lot more attention to basketball than football. If West Virginia decides to try and get into the ACC because of the decline in football, you're getting close to the minimum number of teams to keep an auto bid.
So do they try to add somewhat decent football/basketball programs from the region looking to upgrade? Houston, Tulsa, Colorado State, Boise State, and SMU might be candidates to backfill those spots. If Tulsa, SMU or Houston leave the AAC, does Wichita State (without Gregggggg Marshall) think about begging back in to the MVC?
Would SLU or Dayton go to the AAC to replace Houston? What if only one of them left the A10? An A10 without SLU or Dayton (and especially without both) would be weaker than the MVC, in my opinion. If one team left, why not recruit the hell out of the other to join the MVC with (or without) Murray State? I think that would vault the MVC over the A10 in conference strength.
Basically, I'm of the mind that Dayton and SLU don't belong in the A10. They're Midwest schools with Midwest identities traveling to Rhode Island, North Carolina, Central Virginia, DC, Western Mass, and Upstate New York. Not exactly prime recruiting areas, and costly, distant road trips. Those teams are only in the A10 because of budgets, bad experiences with the MVC and Horizon, and pride.
Getting a Dayton or Saint Louis in the conference would basically mandate that Illinois State, Indiana State, and Evansville raise their anemic budgets. It would also go a ways to force Valpo to improve their basketball facility.
Other thoughts?
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