One thousand five hundred and thirty-eight.
That is the number of miles between the Gampel Pavilion in Storrs, Conn. and Charles Koch Arena in Wichita, Kan.
To be totally fair, geography in college athletics is like "wins" or "runs batted in" in baseball - it doesn't matter anymore (according to nerds, anyways). It's not like BC and Miami or Washington State and Arizona or Nebraska and Rutgers are next-door neighbors in their respective conferences.
But what the ACC, Pac-12, B1G and all the other power conferences have is stability. The American Athletic Conference has stability like the National Inquirer has credibility.
Make no mistake about it, despite the absurd traveling distance between UConn and Wichita State, this is a great move for the American - from a basketball perspective.
UConn and Cincinnati - and to a lesser extent, Memphis and Temple - are all legitimate basketball programs. Yes the Huskies were rather horrid this year but any one of those four teams appears on your nonleague slate and you'll at least give a nod of a approval, if not pop your eyes open.
UConn and Cincy will bounce for the ACC or B1G or Big East the first chance they get, no question about it. The next major wave of conference realignment is probably still eight or so years away, when the Big 12's "Grant of Rights" deal expires. In the meantime, the next tier of conferences - the American, the Atlantic 10, the Mountain West, etc. - are the ones to keep an eye on.
Which makes you think...why didn't the A-10 get out ahead of the curve and shoot Wichita State an invite?
The A-10 has taken its share of lumps this decade, but rather than be reduced to a lower-tier conference, it has reloaded quite nicely. Temple, Xavier, Charlotte (and in an abbreviated stay, Butler) are gone, replaced by VCU, Davidson and George Mason. Maybe still a net negative but hardly a death kneel.
There's the whole matter of Wichita not being anywhere close to the Atlantic Ocean but again, geography is irrelevant. You can't exactly skip rocks into the Atlantic from the campus of Saint Louis University.
But wait, Lev, the A-10 would have an odd number of teams! How can you make a schedule with 15 teams?!
The ACC - which just produced the national champion - has 15 teams for basketball.
The A-10 also competed with 13 teams not long ago while waiting for Davidson to arrive.
The A-10 and American have been fairly neck-and-neck in terms of tournament bids received since the American's inception in 2014. The A-10 has earned 15 bids (11 at-large) over the last four seasons, the American has earned 12 (eight at-large).
UConn won the national championship in 2014 and that's clearly a mega counter point. Adding on the Shockers, which have made the tournament six seasons running and are widely expected to be a top-10 team in the preseason next year? The scales they are a-tipping.
If (when) the Big East decides to go to 12 teams for basketball (remember, it's not a football conference anymore), the A-10 will once again have a slew of candidates ripe for the picking. Would Wichita State's inclusion in the A-10 be enough to sway a program like Dayton from leaving for the Big East? Doubtful.
But even then, it could have been a strong preemptive strike to take on the Shockers, who made it abundantly clear they were searching for a new home.
There's also the matter of UMass, which pretty desperately needs a new home for football. Well, just a home period.
With Wichita State in the fold, the American maintains a 12-team football membership (Navy is a football-only member), while it becomes a 12-team league in basketball. Could the island of misfit toys that is the American be interested in adding UMass as a full member - which would no doubt appease UConn a bit?
The "Power 5" are the "Power 5" and the Big East really makes it six in basketball. The American just drained one from the parking lot in an effort to keep up, while the Atlantic-10 may have just clanked one off the rim.
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