Hearing that Dayton is #10

[ChiFlyer]

Although UDPride is the most visited site, it really doesn't represent the UD following very well. Chris R, the webmaster, is a clown. There are a cast of others that are just total tool bags with no sense of reality. Swampy Meadows and Rollo are two of the biggest offenders. UDPride I think is mostly full of older Flyer fans and Dayton locals who are out of touch with landscape. Blackburn Review is awesome, but very tongue and cheek and it does not have a message board. I obviously want Dayton to get into the new league, but I am also able to make an objective case about their strengths and weaknesses. Here is my breakdown of the Flyers.

Pros
Plenty of Money (Athletic Budget & Endowment)
Consistent program that will never be the doormat of the league (Top 75 RPI almost every year. Their ability to at or near the bubble is uncanny.)
Ravid Fan Base (Although somewhat irrational)
City of Dayton is a great college basketball town. (They sell out the first four, which I do think is a nice perk for the league. Every bit of exposure matters.)
Solid Arena
Travels extremely well (They will have more fans in Brooklyn for the A-10 tourney than the other schools and travel the farthest along with Xavier.)
Strong Olympic Sports (Not sure if this is a factor)

Cons
Lack of recent NCAA Success (The 60's, 70's, & 80's do not matter. UDPride really struggles with this concept.)
City of Dayton market size (UD will deliver the whole market, but if St.John's or DePaul ever get their acts together they will bring huge attention from their cities to the league.)
Proximity to Xavier & Butler
Low ceiling (I don't know if UD can be a final 4 team. Sweet Sixteen yes. You could have said the same about VCU & Butler.)

I think this league is capable of having a strong top, with GT, Butler, Marquette, and XU being perennial NCAA teams. Then the rest of the league will hopefully grab 1-3 bids. Hard to do in a 12 team league. One key is to make sure that none of these teams are a total doormat. I think this could be a league that puts 10 teams in the top 100 RPI every year. You don't ever want a road loss in conference to be a bad loss. That is where the a-10 really sucks. Fordahm and a rotating cast of others are terrible.

I hope UD gets in. Ironically, if they do not, I think they may actually get more NCAA bids being in an inferior conference, but you can never say to no to an invite to a higher profile league. It will raise the ceiling for all programs involved.

I've really enjoyed this site. For an internet message board, most of the thoughts have been rational. Its a nice change from UDPride. (BTW, I never post there because its just pointless.)

[Flyer11]

Although UDPride is the most visited site, it really doesn't represent the UD following very well. Chris R, the webmaster, is a clown. There are a cast of others that are just total tool bags with no sense of reality. Swampy Meadows and Rollo are two of the biggest offenders. UDPride I think is mostly full of older Flyer fans and Dayton locals who are out of touch with landscape. Blackburn Review is awesome, but very tongue and cheek and it does not have a message board. I obviously want Dayton to get into the new league, but I am also able to make an objective case about their strengths and weaknesses. Here is my breakdown of the Flyers.

Pros
Plenty of Money (Athletic Budget & Endowment)
Consistent program that will never be the doormat of the league (Top 75 RPI almost every year. Their ability to at or near the bubble is uncanny.)
Ravid Fan Base (Although somewhat irrational)
City of Dayton is a great college basketball town. (They sell out the first four, which I do think is a nice perk for the league. Every bit of exposure matters.)
Solid Arena
Travels extremely well (They will have more fans in Brooklyn for the A-10 tourney than the other schools and travel the farthest along with Xavier.)
Strong Olympic Sports (Not sure if this is a factor)

Cons
Lack of recent NCAA Success (The 60's, 70's, & 80's do not matter. UDPride really struggles with this concept.)
City of Dayton market size (UD will deliver the whole market, but if St.John's or DePaul ever get their acts together they will bring huge attention from their cities to the league.)
Proximity to Xavier & Butler
Low ceiling (I don't know if UD can be a final 4 team. Sweet Sixteen yes. You could have said the same about VCU & Butler.)

I think this league is capable of having a strong top, with GT, Butler, Marquette, and XU being perennial NCAA teams. Then the rest of the league will hopefully grab 1-3 bids. Hard to do in a 12 team league. One key is to make sure that none of these teams are a total doormat. I think this could be a league that puts 10 teams in the top 100 RPI every year. You don't ever want a road loss in conference to be a bad loss. That is where the a-10 really sucks. Fordahm and a rotating cast of others are terrible.

I hope UD gets in. Ironically, if they do not, I think they may actually get more NCAA bids being in an inferior conference, but you can never say to no to an invite to a higher profile league. It will raise the ceiling for all programs involved.

I've really enjoyed this site. For an internet message board, most of the thoughts have been rational. Its a nice change from UDPride. (BTW, I never post there because its just pointless.)

Perfect post Chi. Really could not have done a better job of summing this up. I visit UDPride often, but never post. Useless.

Anyway, great board guys. Keep it up. I hope that UD gets invited. Would be great to be in a conference with a bunch of great fan bases.

Flyer11

[Flyer11]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/college-basketball/news/20130109/catholic-7-tv/index.html?mobile=no

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