By Kyle Zamiara
Promotions Editor
This past spring, the Atlantic 10 added two new schools to its conference after losing Temple to the Big East and Charlotte to Conference USA from the 2013 season on.
The Butler Bulldogs, formerly from the Horizon League, and the Virginia Commonwealth Rams, formerly from the Colonial Athletic Association, joined the A-10 May 2 and 15, respectively.
VCU officially joined the conference July 1, while Butler will wait until the 2013-14 academic year to join.
Baseball head coach Larry Sudbrook said VCU is likely going to be near the top of the conference this season.
“You’re allowed 11.7 full rides in Division I baseball, and they have that,” Sudbrook said. “They’re a southern school with three full time assistant coaches. So they’ll be a power right off. They’ll be one of the teams that should be competing to make the post season tournament.”
On the other hand, Sudbrook picked Butler to be an easier opponent down the road.
“They’ll certainly be competitive,” Sudbrook said. “But the conference they’re coming from is not as good at baseball as the A-10.”
Sudbrook said an explanation for the A-10 picking up these teams was simple.
“All the decisions for the Atlantic 10 are based on men’s basketball,” Sudbrook said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with women’s basketball or anything at all to do with non-revenue sports. When I came into this job, Penn State was in our conference, West Virginia was in our conference. We had Rutgers and Virginia Tech in our conference at different times. Anytime any school has left it’s because it can help them basketball wise.”
“This is one of those decisions where you have two schools like VCU and Butler that have been to the Final Four in men’s basketball in the last three to four years. That’s why they’re in,” Sudbrook said. “Most administrators would give you an answer of, ‘Oh yes, absolutely. We’re looking at all things and how it’s a good fit for everybody.’ It’s all a bunch of bull. It’s all got to do with how we can make this a better basketball conference.”
Jason MacBain, Sports Information Director, agreed with Sudbrook and also said the new teams fit the A-10 conference conveniently.
“They’re the two best programs that were out there,” MacBain said. “They fit geographically. They fit academically, and they’ve obviously had a lot of recent success going to the Final Four the last few years.”
The Rams made a postseason tournament every year since 2007 and made the Final Four as an 11 seed in 2011. Butler has made the NCAA tournament every year, besides this past year, since 2006-07, including two trips to the championship game where they lost to Duke and Connecticut.
MacBain said the addition of these teams will bring in more press and money.
“VCU and Butler will help because: A. they expect success and they’ve had a lot of success to get to where they are and B. the added competition with the high caliber teams in A-10 play,” MacBain said. “Butler and VCU are national names. They’re not just Midwest names. They’re not just Northeast Mid-Atlantic names. The entire country knows Butler and VCU.”
MacBain also commented on how he thinks the Bonnies will fair against their new opponents.
“In terms of a basketball standpoint, we’re the flagship right now,” MacBain said. “We are the defending Atlantic 10 champions so technically we have the targets on our backs.”
