GW Hoops / UMASS Leaving the A10 for the MAC

**Posted by Tennessee Colonial** 2/27/2024 12:57 am

Not many teams I can think of down here but Belmont. Right here in Nashville. Can't believe A10 has fallen so far.

**Posted by Alum '04** 2/27/2024 10:54 am

Tennessee Colonial wrote:
Midwestern Conference. Only Buffalo in East. Good academic fit too. It may be a hockey move.

It's not a hockey move. The MAC doesn't sponsor hockey and only three existing schools have hockey (Western Michigan, Miami U, Bowling Green).

**Posted by Alum '04** 2/27/2024 10:57 am

Gwmayhem wrote:
I've heard that sentiment about Maryland and the Big 10 over 100 times. It's one thing to chase money but quite another to need it to survive. Maryland athletics were getting (financially) destroyed with more than just a handful of sports on the chopping block at the time the move to the Big 10 was made. Under their circumstance, if I'm Maryland, I make that move 10 out of 10 times. Literally saved their athletics program as a whole.

It's important to mention that MD was only in that position due to extreme incompetence of athletic department leadership and univ leadership who authorized breaking the bank on renovating the football stadium. If the university doesn't pursue that money pit, MD is possibly still in the ACC, though the Big 14 money would have been hard to resist regardless.

Last edited by Alum '04 (2/27/2024 10:57 am)

**Posted by Alum '04** 2/27/2024 10:59 am

Tennessee Colonial wrote:
Not many teams I can think of down here but Belmont. Right here in Nashville. Can't believe A10 has fallen so far.

Thanks, Bernadette and university presidents.

**Posted by GW0509** **Online!** 2/27/2024 12:42 pm

Alum '04 wrote:
Tennessee Colonial wrote:
Not many teams I can think of down here but Belmont. Right here in Nashville. Can't believe A10 has fallen so far.
Thanks, Bernadette and university presidents.

I always see Bernadette getting blamed for the A-10's drop-off but it's never been fully explained what she should've done to prevent it.

She becomes the Commissioner in 2008.

First big change comes in 2012-2013 when the A-10 adds Butler and VCU and becomes a 16-team conference. That year we get 5 teams into the tournament.

2013-14 is a big year for the conference. Butler and Xavier leave for the new Big East. Unclear how Bernadette could've prevented that. Temple leaves for the AAC for football and Charlotte returns to the CUSA. We add George Mason, which at least for men's basketball has been a negative. We get 6 teams into the tournament that year, our high-water mark.

14-15 we add Davidson who immediately wins the conference. Sounds like Bernadette made a pretty strategic addition coming off of the 6 bid year if you ask me. 3 bids.

15-18 3 bids per year. In 2018 the A-10 started broadcasting games on ESPN+ and now you basically can see every league game either on USA, ESPN, CBSSN, or ESPN+ streaming.

18-22 2 bids per year and then last year we were a one-bid league. In that time we saw multiple schools go through coaching changes, the adoption of the NET ranking system which favors the bigger conferences, P6 schools no longer scheduling away games vs. the A-10, NIL and the transfer portal, etc. We add Loyola Chicago who seems poised to become one of the top teams in the conference after a growing pains year. We're set to lose UMass, who like Temple, is willing to put all its future into a failing football team.

Yes, it stinks that the league no longer has 6 teams going to the tournament and we've seen the MWC take over the best non-P6 spot. I don't really see how Bernadette can control that. Even as "bad" as the A-10 has become, we're still currently the best non P-6 conference east of the Mississippi. The P6 schools (really the Big Ten, SEC, and Big 12) are responsible for the destruction of a league like the A-10 due to consolidation.

If she's at fault for anything, it was her insistence on telling coaches to schedule difficult OOC slates during the early years of the NET. As the MWC has figured out, you really only need 1-2 Q1 or Q2 games and then beat cupcakes to get into the top 75 in NET before conference play. Then your conference season has multiple Q1 opportunities instead of the A-10 maybe getting 1-2 out of Dayton and VCU. Our league spent way too long chasing and losing games to KenPom 125-175 teams. Well that and taking the conference championship away from AC.

Last edited by GW0509 (2/27/2024 12:51 pm)

**Posted by Alum '04** 2/27/2024 1:10 pm

Good assessment, but my beef with Bernadette, proven with the MWC, is that there has not be a whole of conference approach IMO to increasing the number of tournament bids. Like what is she doing? It's every school for itself?

She hides in her office so people can pretend there's nothing she can do about the A-10 falling apart? I mean give me a break. Bernadette should tell Jon Rothstein what she's actaully doing to turn around the league and justify her bloated salary instead of hiding in a bunker and pretending there's nothing she can do. She's not protecting classified information or business secrets. She's covering her own ass.

I guess we shouldn't blame Bernadette as much as we should blame the university presidents who renew her contracts despite turning A-10 men's bball into the Titanic.

Last edited by Alum '04 (2/27/2024 1:13 pm)

**Posted by The Dude** 2/27/2024 1:27 pm

It is sexist to constantly refer to women in power only by their first name

Also your obsession with trying to fire everyone is revealing

Both are

**Posted by Joel Joseph** 2/27/2024 2:13 pm

Bernadette has been there since 2008 so she isn't to blame for the current situation. The A-10 had some very good years between 2008 to 2016 or so as I recall.
It's the individual school leadership that bears full responsibility for their respective athletic departments. Stop looking for a fall guy (or gal). With us, the buck stops with our university leadership. Let's start holding them accountable. Which always comes back to - why is TV still here?

**Posted by Gwmayhem** 2/27/2024 2:28 pm

In addition to all that's been mentioned on her behalf, Ms. Bernadette McGlade (let's make The Dude happy) has also negotiated television deals with CBS, NBC and ESPN (this was her strength while at the ACC), including changing the A10 Championship Game to Sunday at 1:00 (from Saturday at 6 where it was being buried by Big 12 and Pac 12 competition). If you need more convincing of her presumed value, I will submit for your consideration her predecessor, Linda Bruno. Defense rests.

**Posted by Alum '04** 2/27/2024 3:11 pm

Gwmayhem wrote:
In addition to all that's been mentioned on her behalf, Ms. Bernadette McGlade (let's make The Dude happy) has also negotiated television deals with CBS, NBC and ESPN (this was her strength while at the ACC), including changing the A10 Championship Game to Sunday at 1:00 (from Saturday at 6 where it was being buried by Big 12 and Pac 12 competition). If you need more convincing of her presumed value, I will submit for your consideration her predecessor, Linda Bruno. Defense rests.

When was the A10 title game last on Saturday at 6? Don't remember that.

**Posted by BC** 2/27/2024 3:51 pm

Bruno was the worst!

**Posted by Gwmayhem** 2/27/2024 4:27 pm

Alum '04 wrote:
Gwmayhem wrote:
In addition to all that's been mentioned on her behalf, Ms. Bernadette McGlade (let's make The Dude happy) has also negotiated television deals with CBS, NBC and ESPN (this was her strength while at the ACC), including changing the A10 Championship Game to Sunday at 1:00 (from Saturday at 6 where it was being buried by Big 12 and Pac 12 competition). If you need more convincing of her presumed value, I will submit for your consideration her predecessor, Linda Bruno. Defense rests.
When was the A10 title game last on Saturday at 6? Don't remember that.

For many years, the championship game would be played on Saturday at 6. A while ago, the game was on ESPN and was the lead-in to the Big East title game. Then, the Big 12 final was moved from Sunday to Saturday. ESPN had the Big 12 final at 6 (still do) while ESPN2 had the A10 final at the exact same time. And in some years, CBS would be showing the Pac 12 final, also at the same time.