Big East Basketball: Could expansion force conference realignment?

What happens if UConn goes to the Big East?

If the American Athletic Conference were to lose the Connecticut Huskies, they would lose a strong foothold in the northeastern part of the United States.  A team with name and a history with the Big East, it wouldn’t be terribly outlandish to see the Huskies leave for their former home.  So if Dan Hurley were to take UConn to the Big East, why not have his former right hand man at Rhode Island, David Cox, replace him with the Rams?

Rhode Island would help the American keep a foothold in the northeast, as Kingston, Rhode Island is just a mere one hour and 26 minutes from Storrs.

The Rams bring a familiar style that teams in the American know; defense.  In fact, in a bit of transition year, the Rams are ranked 35th in adjusted defensive efficiency (94.6) which would make them tied for third best in the American only behind Cincinnati (92.5), Houston (94.3) and eye to eye with UCF (94.6.)

As of right now, the Rams also hold more KenPom Top-50 wins, a neutral court victory over West Virginia, than South Florida, Tulane, Eastern Carolina, SMU, Wichita State, Temple, UCF, Memphis and Cincinnati.  Tulsa and UConn both hold one KenPom Top-50 win, while Houston has more than one.

A young team and a staff busting with recruiters, the Rams would be a team who could make logical sense for location and basketball reasons.

Buffalo Leaves the MAC, Joins the A10

Should the Rams leaves the Atlantic 10, conference officials would be smart to act fast and try to replace them with the best possible team.  Rhode Island has been a tournament team for the past two seasons so why not go and replace them with a program who has danced in 2015, 2016 and 2018?

The Buffalo Bulls have been an emerging star on the Mid-Major scene, much in part to the coaching skills of Nate Oats.

With the loss of the Rams, the Atlantic 10 would be wise to replace one of their more reputable Mid-Major teams with a program that has already turns heads on the national scene.  In the Oats era, Buffalo has earned wins over West Virginia and Arizona.

By the time the Bulls make this transition, they would be without key players CJ Massinburg, Jeremy Harris, Nick Perkins and likely Nate Oats but this wouldn’t act as a determent to the league.

Oats has Buffalo in a position that whoever takes over next will have the blue print in place and the chance to rebuild with a bigger platform.