Big East Basketball: Could expansion force conference realignment?

NEW YORK, NY - MARCH 14: James Farr #2 of the Xavier Musketeers and Daniel Ochefu #23 of the Villanova Wildcats jump for the opening tip during the championship game of the Big East basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden on March 14, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Alex Trautwig/Getty Images) /

3 of 4

WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 08: Justin Mazzulla #0 of the George Washington Colonials is defended by Jalen Johnson #20 of the Saint Louis Billikens during the first half in the Second Round of the Atlantic 10 Basketball Tournament at Capital One Arena on March 8, 2018 in Washington, DC.(Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images) /

Saint Louis Leaves A10, Joins American

In a different scenario, Foley pitches the Wichita State Shockers leaving as opposed to UConn. Should this occur, the American should once again shift their focus to the Atlantic 10 for who they will replace the Shockers with.

The Billikens are in the middle of a full-blown resurgence under coach Travis Ford. SLU, currently sitting at 7-3, hold wins over Seton Hall, Butler and Oregon State while pushing Houston the brink before falling just short.

With serviceable options everywhere you look, Ford has shown to be able to build a roster through recruiting or via the transfer market.

Losing out on Wichita State would mean losing out on a Mid-West strong hold and a frenzied fan base who you could bank on to make the trip to tournaments and big road games. As Saint Louis continues to reemerge to what it once was, it’s likely the dormant fan base will reemerge and make playing at Chaifertz Arena a true task.

The Bills are a basketball first program, something the American got with Wichita. If the Shockers were to make the leap to the Big East, which seems to be a bit of a long shot, it could trigger the pouching of an A10 heavyweight.

Old Dominion Leaves C-USA, Joins A10

The Atlantic 10 already has a firm strong hold in the state of Virginia with VCU, Richmond and George Mason all proud A10 members. But if they were to need to replace the Billikens, and if there aren’t any viable options, it wouldn’t hurt to go ahead and try to add another member of the Virginia contingent in the conference.

Since the KenPom era, 2002, the Monarchs have had ten 20+ win seasons and only two losing seasons. While they haven’t made the NCAA tournament since 2011, this is a program with some success to it’s name in relative recent history.

ODU is in Mid-Major purgatory in Conference USA where their non-conference slate has them in flux. They’re good to the point where High-Major’s won’t schedule them, but not good enough to get in to the tournament on the strength of their resume. The only time in the past 15 years where they had a Top-100 strength of schedule came in 2011, when their strength of schedule was 100th in the nation.

For the Monarchs, jumping to a historically multi-bid league where they will face tougher competition, and potentially be able to leverage a better OOC schedule, would prove to be beneficial for their program.

Home/Big East