Anyone have any insight on Atlantic 10 conference soccer. From an outsiders view it looks pretty mediocre at best. Unfortunately this looks like the destination for Saint Louis U. & Charlotte next season.
Conference USA All of the news reports look today like Cinc, Louisville, DePaul and Marquette are headed to the Big East while SLU and Charlotte will go to the A10. The Big East wont gain much as a soccer conference but will get a whole lot bigger. None of 4 potential new Big East Schools bring a whole lot to the table in soccer. Here is one article.. http://bulls.tbo.com/bulls/MGAZ8GBAXKD.html
It's a basketball conference, but there's been a good deal of talk about the top b'ball attendance schools jumping ship to form some sort of league (mostly catholic schools) of their own. Basketball attendance among many of the eastern schools of the A10 are not commensurate with the western schools like Xavier or Dayton. Saint Louis has been mentioned as a prospective candidate for a new league. They'd be the top soccer program in the A10.
This is the fallout from the ACC stealing Miami and Virginia Tech. Are SLU and Charlotte being forced out of C-USA? It looks that way, since they don't have football. One thing is certain, SLU and Charlotte will make the A-10 a much better soccer conference. Hey big bonnie...check your emails. LDB
Okay, if SLU and Charlotte go to the A-10, it would be a 14 team conference for soccer. With a conference that big, it's impossible to play everybody, and still get in 2 or 3 tournaments a year. What would scheduling be like? Also, why don't schools like SLU and Charlotte get together to form a soccer only conference of their own. They could go after all the SEC schools who play soccer, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Vandy. Then, they could go after schools like UCF, FIU, Jacksonville, etc. Thoughts?
Scheduling and travel sounds like a nightmare for SLU in the A10. My fear is Ive noticed that the worse the conference, the more physical, chippier the play, the worse the field conditions, the worse the officiating, etc. It really could be a disadvantage to a finesse team that SLU usually fields. I have heard rumblings of joining the Missouri Valley for soccer only. I know that SMU is currently playing in that league in soccer. Bradley, SMS, & Creighton are always solid. That may be an option. I don't see SLU forming a soccer only league though. C-USA was a very good league for them. They had some very good competition with UAB and USF and some lower teams that can be assumed as easy "w"s every year.
Dsocc- It's my understanding that the Catholic ("Holy Alliance" as my friends like to jokingly refer to it) basketball league probably won't happen. Instead, the Big East will have two mini-conferences if you will, one comprised of football schools (Boston College, Syracuse, West Virginia, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, UConn, Rutgers - Temple gets booted soon) and one comprised of basketball schools (Villanova, Georgetown, St. John's, Providence, Marquette, Depaul, Seton Hall, and Notre Dame - the Irish remain independent in football). That would give the Big East 16 teams for basketball and 8 for 1-A football, exactly the number of teams the Big East needs to keep their BCS bid. I think the travel issue is going to be hard for lots of schools. I wish conferences would stay a little more regionally based, it always seemed ridiculous to have Miami in the predominantly Northeastern based Big East for example. With all these reports published about losing money in NCAA sports, you would think travel is an easy expense to cut back on. But then again, the decision makers at the NCAA and these conferences have proven to be utter knuckleheads so what can you expect?
Well, the A-10 plays some decent soccer and if they could add SLU and Charlotte it would be a boost..(and even better for hoops). I wouldn't worry about the facilities, most are pretty good including my alma mater UMass... The travel would be a big issue, they'd have to go back to East-West with 7 teams in each. SLU would be grouped with Dayton, Duquesne, Xavier, etc...
That being said, maybe Charlotte ought to look at joining the CAA for soccer, or even the Big South. Otherwise, all their conference games would be up north in the frozen tundra. I could see SLU joining the Valley, but if I was Charlotte, I would try to stay in a league in the south.
I know this is slightly off topic....but being the St Johns fan that I am. WOW. Look at how the BigEast lines up for basketball (assuming Marquette, DePaul, Cincy, Louisville come in). Thats a deep conference. What they lose in football, the BigEast gains back in every other spot. Besides, the ACC took arguably the worst 2 basketball schools of the BigEast's hands.
Doesn't matter that they took the two worst...they still have Carolina and Duke, Roy and Coach K. Next to those two, the Big East is the Big Least.