Why does the A-10 Conference have colleges from all over the place? Due to conference realignment, the A-10 had to raid other conferences in order to survive and nobody blames them for it. Davidson College and George Mason University are joining the conference in the future which helps the A-10 maintain a conference of successful basketball teams, but what happened to in-state and Northeastern/Mid-Atlantic college rivalries? I hope you all know that the A-10 in the 1970's and early 1980's consisted of predominately Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic U.S universities. The A-10 has teams like Virginia Commonwealth University(VA), Richmond University(VA), George Mason University(VA), Davidson College(NC), St. Louis University(MO), and University of Dayton(OH) who are clearly not part of the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic portion of United States. How do you expect those teams and schools to create rivalries with schools located in the Northeast like St. Bonaventure University(NY), St. Joseph's University(PA), Fordham University(NY), University of Rhode Island(RI), George Washington University(DC), La Salle University(PA), and Duquesne University(PA)? Think about it, would you want to travel from Missouri all the way to Rhode Island to see your beloved school play on the road? Say goodbye to the money you had once saved for your promising vacation to Aruba, you are now spending all of that money to watch your school play half way across the country! Lets be honest guys, the entire process is indeed a HUGE hassle. Now, here is my point on the whole rivalry issue.....
In order to avoid getting steamrolled during the course of conference realignment, the A-10 will need to look at potential schools that can contribute to the success of the conference. As stated earlier, the A-10 added George Mason and Davidson but, should they have reviewed the Northeastern schools situated around the present Northeastern/Mid-Atlantic schools in the A-10? The answer is a HUGE yes. They should completely consider adding Hofstra University(NY) and Drexel University(PA) from the Colonial Athletic Association. They should seek to add Iona College(NY), Siena College(NY), and Niagara University(NY) from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. They should look to bring in Robert Morris(PA) via the Northeast Conference. These teams have had success in the NCAA and NIT tournaments in recent years and can definitely contribute to the conference because of their winning histories and geographical locations. The additions of these teams will create new rivalries within Pennsylvania and up-state New York. When these newly added universities play home-and-home games with the rest of the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic schools in the A-10, rivalries will undoubtedly rise again within the conference. As well, transportation problems are solved for a decent number of schools. I am not saying I want the other schools who are in different regions in the U.S. out of the conference, I firmly believe that there should be two separate divisions within the conference based solely on geographical location.
Rivalries are important in college sports and rivalries are being lost constantly. It may be too late for other Division 1 conferences to create and maintain rivalries but, there is still an amazing opportunity and chance to generate and sustain rivalries in the Atlantic 10. All of the other six power basketball conferences continue to be greedy and keep on going up to the buffet to get anything from french fries to gummy worms. Those conferences are picking schools that should have no reason to be connected to their conference. The A-10 can continue to be polite, eat a fresh home-cooked meal, and quietly cook up a meal that actually makes sense. They can go out to take a quick drive to one of the nearby trusted supermarkets that are close to them. They can still manage to cook up a meal full of flavor, variety, and substance.
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