The A-10 used to be the king of the hill of all the conferences outside the ‘Power 6’. The conference received the type of respect you would give to a leage that got 4-5 bids/year. Then Conference USA came along and after a while the title went there (especially the last couple years of existence). A coach generally had no problems recommending a kid to a Conference USA school.
The smart money thinks that the Atlantic 10 will retake the title now that C-USA has replaced many of its best teams with WAC/Atlantic Sun members. Many of the supposed better players in the conference right now were juniors/seniors in high school when the whole shakeup occured. So if the league has a renaissance this year after several sub-par seasons, then it should return to respectibility and recruiting should become easier and easier (and maybe gasp some games on television). I’m trying not to think too much about what would happen if the conference falls flat on its face this year.
you are correct. The only difference is the coaches that took all those teams to elite levels are gone (except St Joes).
I have hardly been hyping the A-10, metro. What's there been to hype, especially in the past few years? Heck, I am not even convinced the rebound is here.
The only reason I write about the league and talk about it is because … my school is in it! It’s a good league and has been a good league throughout its history. It’s not a great league. We all know that.
I don’t object to anyone belittling the A-10. Charlotte fans have every right to be upset about the school’s situation. I just have three simple rules when I have a problem: ignore it, learn to live with it or fix it. All the complaining in the world doesn’t do a damn thing.
In Charlotte’s case, the school can’t ignore the problem, so it has to learn to live with it. To making living with it easier, Charlotte also has help to fix it. Push to cut the league to 12 from 14. Push for tougher scheduling. Push for a better TV deal. Do something other than cry in one’s beer - and ruin a pretty good drink.
again, I agree with you. The period of whining is over (see Lutz contract negotiations). My original statement that fueled this discussion was how the A10 hurt our recruiting (and how the USAtoday article in post #1 mentioned that).
a growing number of observers are wondering aloud if Charlotte made the right move in joining the Atlantic 10 after a number of key schools bolted from Conference USA — most of them to the Big East — a few years back. The 49ers' recruiting efforts have tailed off noticeably since the move to the A-10, as kids from traditional areas that Bobby Lutz recruited don't seem all that excited about the prospects of playing Duquesne, Saint Bonaventure, Richmond and others, and opt to go elsewhere instead. -USAtoday
Whether you think its Lutz whining, Bilas taking up for a golfing buddy, or any other amount of expert's opinion....I think it truly did hurt us, and if you deny that you are kidding yourself. I would love for the A10 to return to 2002 form and be part of it. Lets hope it happens.
Metro, the writer of the USA Today capsule is just echoing Lutz on recruiting – since Lutz said the A-10 has hurt recruiting, it must be true! Doesn’t seem to be hurting Dayton, Saint Louis, and Xavier – the truly non-East Coast institutions in the conference.
Anyway, what I want in a coach is someone who strives to make us an upper echelon member of ANY conference we’re in, be that the Sun Belt, Metro, Conference USA, the A-10, and wherever we end up in the future.