Duquesne Dukes Fan Forum / VCU in active discussions to join AAC

**Posted by CLK** 10/25/2023 11:31 am

Per Hitmen Hoops

SOURCES: The American Athletic Conference is “engaged in serious
talks” with VCU to join as a basketball-only member, multiple sources tell me and @BluffCity_Media.

These discussions have been ongoing for a few weeks, but talks are ramping up in the wake of Army’s addition to the AAC as a football-only member.

https://twitter.com/HitmenHoops/status/1717213461900374247?t=8fSSTzPQ4LrfC_EM7Z95Cw&s=19

**Posted by DuqLaw95** 10/25/2023 11:41 am

This could be the beginning for the end of the A10. VCU leaving would be terrible news in addition to how down the conference has been the past few years.

**Posted by townsonkid** 10/25/2023 12:37 pm

That seems like a VCU problem, not the A10.

**Posted by stew** 10/25/2023 12:46 pm

Really bad news for A10 and Duquesne as it might give Dayton and St.Louis the idea to leave.

**Posted by BluffHunter** 10/25/2023 1:20 pm

The AAC is like the island of misfit toys. At least the A10 has some form of identity still.

**Posted by townsonkid** 10/25/2023 3:21 pm

BluffHunter wrote:
The AAC is like the island of misfit toys. At least the A10 has some form of identity still.

Yeah, I really dont understand why, outside of money, anyone would WANT to go to AAC.
Cincy, Houston, SMU, UCF are all leaving. Army is coming in for football. Seems like a big time net loss, and lots of texas oil money leaving with it.

**Posted by levon1975** 10/25/2023 9:45 pm

No big deal, it just makes it easier to win the league and get the auto-bid. The days of getting 3-4 bids are over anyway, so better to weaken the field.

**Posted by NapaDuke** **Online!** 10/26/2023 4:12 pm

levon1975 wrote:
No big deal, it just makes it easier to win the league and get the auto-bid. The days of getting 3-4 bids are over anyway, so better to weaken the field.

I agree. None of this is relevant to DU until the Dukes start winning the A-10. VCU or not. KD got the best players this year, win the A-10.

**Posted by scduke** 10/26/2023 4:48 pm

levon1975 wrote:
No big deal, it just makes it easier to win the league and get the auto-bid. The days of getting 3-4 bids are over anyway, so better to weaken the field.

Agree. If the league NET ranking can't improve we may as well shoot for the auto-bid. Even getting in the NIT gets tougher. That selection committee just seems to take the teams with the highest team NET rankings after the AQ's .

There have been rumors for years about Dayton, SLU, etc., trying to get in a better conference (e.g., Big East). They have to fill their big arenas. I can't imagine they, Davidson, and others being too happy about being in a one-bid league with diminishing NIT prospects.

**Posted by townsonkid** 10/27/2023 8:28 am

Whatever happened with College of Charleston moving to A10? Still in the works, or over with?

**Posted by CLK** 10/27/2023 8:44 am

A friend sent me this article. There appears to be no merit to the rumor of VCU to the AAC.

Rams AD: 'No merit' to reports of VCU move to American (richmond.com)

**Posted by indygjm** 10/27/2023 8:44 pm

The comments on the Ram Nation message board are mixed, but do seem to lean toward leaving the conference. Generally, a lot of their fans view the A10 as a dying conference. There was, however, one observation that stuck out - from a Temple fan commenting on the rumor:

"Temple fan here to tell you guys VCU would be crazy to come to the AAC. From a fan interest perspective, it's horrible - filled with schools that don't care about or spend money on basketball, with zero pedigree or history in the sport whatsoever. Every basketball focused school that's ended up in the AAC has seen basketball decline and suffer. The schools that saw an improvement were all in the Sunbelt, because that's the part of the country the league is built around.

Trust me, you do not want to be traveling to Alabama, Texas and Florida to play in front of 500 people. Recruiting will fall off a cliff. I know the A10 has struggled, but current members have WAY more NCAA bids over the last decade than current AAC schools. Basketball budgets are consistently much higher than the American. And do you want to travel to some parking lot in Texas for a conference tournament no one goes to?

FAU is a nice little story, but eventually they'll regress back to their irrelevant mean. Besides Memphis and WSU, there's nothing here. It's a wasteland and we've watched Temple basketball wither away in the AAC. It's not worth a million and a half extra dollars that you'll blow on travel anyway. The A10 has always been an up and down league, it'll recover because its schools commit to men's hoops. It won't ever be the Big East, but it will have consistently better metrics than the American."

**Posted by Ironduke81** 10/28/2023 7:32 am

indygjm wrote:
The comments on the Ram Nation message board are mixed, but do seem to lean toward leaving the conference. Generally, a lot of their fans view the A10 as a dying conference. There was, however, one observation that stuck out - from a Temple fan commenting on the rumor:

"Temple fan here to tell you guys VCU would be crazy to come to the AAC. From a fan interest perspective, it's horrible - filled with schools that don't care about or spend money on basketball, with zero pedigree or history in the sport whatsoever. Every basketball focused school that's ended up in the AAC has seen basketball decline and suffer. The schools that saw an improvement were all in the Sunbelt, because that's the part of the country the league is built around.

Trust me, you do not want to be traveling to Alabama, Texas and Florida to play in front of 500 people. Recruiting will fall off a cliff. I know the A10 has struggled, but current members have WAY more NCAA bids over the last decade than current AAC schools. Basketball budgets are consistently much higher than the American. And do you want to travel to some parking lot in Texas for a conference tournament no one goes to?

FAU is a nice little story, but eventually they'll regress back to their irrelevant mean. Besides Memphis and WSU, there's nothing here. It's a wasteland and we've watched Temple basketball wither away in the AAC. It's not worth a million and a half extra dollars that you'll blow on travel anyway. The A10 has always been an up and down league, it'll recover because its schools commit to men's hoops. It won't ever be the Big East, but it will have consistently better metrics than the American."

Great research! So agree with the Temple BB fans analysis & opinion.The current problem with the A10 becoming a one bid league is with the Commissioner who lacks leadership & is weak among her contemporaries.

**Posted by PhoenixRising2** 10/28/2023 10:38 am

Thanks indygjm. Ironduke81, the weak leadership is a bit of a problem, but the real issue is that the Power 6 conferences have most of the leverage.

The best path forward for teams in the A10 will be the following:
1. Schedule the best out of conference games that you can.
2. Win those out of conference games; especially if you are lucky enough to have a Power 6 team on the schedule (See Dukes at Nebraska).

This did not happen last year resulting in one bid. Taking a look at the non conference results using KenPom, only 4 teams performed well enough in non conference to improve their preseason rankings going into conference play:
Duquesne: #136 Preseason; #118 starting A10 play; +18
UMass: #154 Preseason; #128 starting A10 play: +26
GW: #222 Preseason; #221 starting A10 play; +1
Fordham: #229 Preseason; #177 starting A10 play; +52

The rest of the conference underperformed in their non conference slate:
Dayton: #24 Preseason; #59 starting A10 play; -35
Saint Louis: #39 Preseason; #76 starting A10 play; -47
Loyola Chicago: #59 Preseason; #138 starting A10 play; -79
VCU: #94 Preseason; #108 starting A10 play; -14
Richmond: #95 Preseason; #99 starting A10 play; -4
George Mason: #104 Preseason; #107 starting A10 play; -3
Davidson: #105 Preseason; #133 starting A10 play; -28
St. Bonaventure: #119 Preseason; #164 starting A10 play; -45
Rhode Island: #140 Preseason; #204 starting A10 play; -64
Saint Joseph's: #166 Preseason; #213 starting A10 play; -47
La Salle: #185 Preseason; #255 starting A10 play; -70

The A10 got what they deserved last year (and it was a bit of an aberration since some of the top teams had key injuries in November and December). The conference needs to do much better coming out of the gate this year in order to get back to the 2 or 3 bid level.