A10 Basketball: 3 reasons why the conference can receive multiple 2019 bids

After a solid season in 2018-19, many pundits have been speculating that the A10 will be a one-bid conference in 2019. Will this actually be the case?

In his latest preseason Bracketology, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi tabs Davidson as a No. 11 seed and that exhausts all of his love for A10 basketball. Our latest preseason Bracketology also agrees on the A10 only sending one team, and that is Saint Louis with a No. 12 seed. At first glance, these takes might seem pretty safe.

For one, just look at the two at-large teams that made it to the Big Dance last season and how different they’ll be in 2018-19. First, Saint Bonaventure lost Jaylen Adams and Matt Mobley, who combined to average ~37 points per game. Then, Rhode Island not only lost head coach Dan Hurley to UConn but also the core of players that provided them back-to-back tournament bids (and two great wins).

In addition to the wounded former powers, the “one-bid A10” crowd has another argument to make: the league isn’t top heavy with any obvious juggernauts. There is a crowd of 5-8 teams that could all plausibly be cutting the nets in Brooklyn at the A10 Tournament. In a mid-major Conference like the A10, that situation doesn’t lend itself to a lot of pre-season March Madness hype. It’s a gamble to single out any one of them enough to have full confidence in, so people are left having to choose whoever they think is the favorite (Davidson, for most) and that’s it.

So yes, I understand why the trend is to project the A10 as a one-bid league. It makes logical sense, but I still doubt that it will actually play out that way. Here are 3 reasons why: