I have two mindsets with this.
First, if teams do get poached by the Big East, I think the A10 is certainly in a stable place with 12-14 teams. With UMass leaving and Temple and Charlotte who left many years ago, every school in the A10 will be basketball centric and not have football heavily influencing decisions. As far as basketball centric conferences go, the A10 is the 2nd best option in the country besides Big East and the Big East won't poach too many teams from the A10 so even if a few leave, for everyone else that remains this is the best option as far as conferences go.
Secondly and more importantly is that I want us to have the mindset that we belong in the Big East and should have a goal to be one of those teams that gets poached. I am not saying that right now our resume is eye-popping and that we are a must-have for them. However, we are a great, small, private academically elite school in similar geographic footprint with the conference. We fit the identity of what the Big East seeks in schools. In terms of basketball pedigree, we definitely need to improve our success in that regard, but we are a solid program that invests a lot in basketball and has good results. We need to take the next step and get towards Dayton/VCU level of success. Remember, we were considered in 2013 originally. I am well aware that there is still a ways to go for this. Regardless of whether we should be in the Big East now or not, I believe that having the mindset to strive towards being one of those teams that moves up to the Big East is something I hope we aspire to. I agree with some posts above, that we shouldn't just wait around and hope things work out. Let's be the creators of our destiny.
