The Butler Did It!: Butler officially joins Atlantic 10 conference

We've heard plenty of rumors about this before, but now it's official: The Atlantic 10 Conference adds Butler University as a full member. Butler will be leaving the Horizon League. The press release can be found here.

According to the presser, Butler "will join the A-10 on July 1, 2013. The Bulldogs field 17 of the A-10's 21 championship sports and will begin competition in those sports starting with the 2013-14 academic year".

Butler will essentially be replacing Temple, which is jumping ship. The presser goes on to talk about how great Butler is and how they're bringing their tradition of excellence to the "best basketball-driven conference in Division I".

This writer finds it most interesting that they point out that Butler's joining the conference at the same time the conference will be in negotiations for their new TV deal. In an interview with USA Today, Butler's president said this move will give the university and their students more exposure to the big media markets in the A-10.

Now that it's official, what do you think? Indianapolis is pretty far away, and further brings to question the "Atlantic" part of the name. Do you think Coach Brad Stevens will be cut down to size a bit by the competition in the A-10, or do you think the Bulldogs will dominate the conference? Most importantly, what do you think this means for our Colonials?

Comments

Anonymous said…
This has become a midwest cpnference - Time to join the CAA!
Andrew W said…
No way. The CAA was already a worse conference before Butler joined us, and they're losing schools to football conferences anyway. There are still more East Coast schools than Midwest in the A10. I'd much rather be in the A10. Being in the CAA would be a step down and a step back.
Andrew W said…
For example, since 2005-2006, the A10 has had a much higher RPI than the CAA. The A10 was never lower than 9th and the CAA was never higher than 10th, even with the Final Four run by VCU. And if Mason and VCU join the A10, as has been discussed, it would be lunacy to join the CAA.

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