ESPN Men's Basketball

Updated: November 6, 2003, 3:42 PM ET

Charlotte, Saint Louis offered A-10 spots

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By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
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The Atlantic 10 has offered Charlotte and Saint Louis membership for the 2005-06 season, the league said Thursday.

Charlotte and Saint Louis are expected to accept. If they do, the league would include 14 teams.

Atlantic 10 commissioner Linda Bruno said she wouldn't divulge the entrance fee.

"We issued the invitatioins with the understanding that they're going to accept them and they'll be part of the decision of divisions and how the league will be made up,'' Bruno said.

Bruno said she wasn't worried about managing a conference of 14 schools.

"We did it with 12 and we can do it at 14,'' Bruno said. "The old double round-robin days are long gone. We do need to protect rivalries for television purposes.''

Bruno said the Atlantic 10 wasn't just throwing a life line to Charlotte and Saint Louis after the Conference USA shakeup.

"We looked at who was the best teams available and we feel these two teams will make us better in basketball,'' Bruno said.

Bruno said the A-10 won't change its name, even though it will have 14 teams.

"We haven't been 10 in so long so why revise history,'' Bruno said.

The A-10 had also been considering extending an invitation to Boston University of the America East.

If they had remained in Conference USA, Charlotte and Saint Louis would be the only non-football schools in the new-look conference in 2005-06.

Conference USA lost all-sports members Cincinnati, Louisville and South Florida and non-football members Marquette and DePaul to the Big East earlier this week for the 2005-06 season. Conference USA added SMU (WAC), Tulsa (WAC), Rice (WAC) , Marshall (MAC) and Central Florida (MAC/Atlantic Sun) for '05-'06.

The Conference USA holdovers are all-sports members East Carolina, Houston, Memphis, Southern Miss, Tulane, UAB and TCU, assuming the Horned Frogs do not bolt for the Mountain West, yet it is highly likely that the eight-member Mountain West intends to invite TCU. If that were to happen, then Conference USA would look to Louisiana Tech out of the WAC as TCU's replacement.

"Conference USA has been very good to us," Charlotte men's basketball coach Bobby Lutz said, but the new Conference USA would be a tough sell for Charlotte and Saint Louis. Lutz said the Atlantic 10 is the best conference in the nation sans major college football teams.

Conference USA commissioner Britton Banowsky said Wednesday that he welcomed Charlotte and Saint Louis to remain in the league but did say an all-sports conference was preferable.

The exit fee for teams leaving Conference USA has been altered. No longer are the schools fully responsible for the decrease in a television contract. The original exit penalties included a clause that teams leaving would be responsible for the difference in dollars of a negotiated television contract. Conference USA's television contract will drop considerably, to the tens of millions of dollars, once the teams leave for the Big East. ESPN has the right to re-negotiate with a conference once its league membership changes. Instead, the departed schools must agree to schedule the remaining teams.

Charlotte and Saint Louis have been traditionally strong competitors in Conference USA; neither team has been an easy out on the road against the top teams. Charlotte last qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2002, while the Billikens qualified in 2000, 1998, '95 and '94 under two different coaches. Charlotte has been more of a regular recently, reaching the tournament eight times under three different coaches since 1988.

The Atlantic 10 would likely remain a 14-team, two-division conference, although teams could be moved to accommodate the additions of Charlotte and Saint Louis. The current format: Saint Joseph's, Temple, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Fordham and St. Bonaventure in the East; Xavier, Dayton, LaSalle, Richmond, George Washington and Duquesne in the West.

Once the A-10 makes its moves, the next dominoes to fall will be TCU (to the Mountain West or C-USA); Louisiana Tech (C-USA or WAC); Boise State (MWC or WAC); North Texas (Sun Belt or WAC); and Idaho (Sun Belt/Big West or WAC).

The departure of Boston College from the Big East to the ACC remains an issue.

BC wants to be on board for the 2004-05 season with Virginia Tech and Miami, but the Big East is demanding that BC honor a 27-month, $5 million exit fee agreement from the summer. Virginia Tech and Miami only had to give one year's notice and pay $1 million to leave. BC has said it is willing to pay the higher fee but is trying to negotiate the lower payment of $1 million. If they fail, the Eagles might have to remain in the conference for two more seasons.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.