Have reports of the Atlantic 10's death been greatly exaggerated?
Since the conference in 2013-14 garnered an all-time high of six bids to the NCAA men's basketball tournament, it has endured a downturn in national standing, to be sure.
That dip in collective form culminated in the 2022-23 season, when VCU captured the A-10's regular-season and tournament titles, only to receive a No. 12 seed and the conference's sole bid to the Big Dance.
"We underperformed last year, and our coaches and schools took responsibility for it," said Atlantic 10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade, in her 16th year leading the conference.
That was the first time since the 2004-05 season that the Atlantic 10 did not earn an at-large bid to the NCAA men's tournament.
McGlade meets with conference leadership at the end of each season, and that summit sets out strategic planning goals.
One of those goals in men's basketball is to be in the top seven or eight nationally-ranked conferences in Division I.
"We took a good, hard look at our nonconference schedules, because we always know that our conference schedule will be a gauntlet," McGlade said.
"I'm proud of the fact that our schools and our scheduling folks at our institutions elevated their nonconference schedules. And you've got to go out and win the games. What was considered a year ago to be the bottom echelon of the league needed to get better, and in fact, they did.
"And the top echelon of the league continued to maintain their strength. Collectively, that's what you have to do to prove your conference profile."
Indeed, in 2023-24, the roots of an A-10 renaissance began to take hold.
Six teams made the postseason -- former VCU coach Anthony Grant's Dayton program was the standard bearer all season, spending much of the campaign in the AP Top 25 and earning a No. 7 seed in the Big Dance; Keith Dambrot's final season leading Duquesne concluded in storybook fashion, as the Dukes captured the A-10 tournament title to garner a No. 11 seed in the NCAA tourney; and Richmond, VCU, Saint Joseph's and Loyola Chicago all competed in the NIT.
Both the Flyers and Dukes won their first-round games, the first time since 2016 that the A-10 has notched multiple NCAA tournament victories.
McGlade traveled to Omaha for Duquesne's first-round contest, a 71-67 win over No. 6-seed BYU.
"They controlled that game from start to finish, it was not a fluke," McGlade said.
"It was really heartwarming and really rewarding to see that success. Everybody loves it when teams, people, the underdog overcomes that challenge and winds up on top."
The Rams won a pair of NIT games against strong Villanova and South Florida teams to advance to the quarterfinals. Between eight and 10 A-10 teams were ranked in the NET top 100 all season, and just one program finished outside the top 200 -- to McGlade's point, the bottom of the A-10 didn't drag its upper echelon down as it did in 2022-23.
Dayton led the way at No. 23 nationally in NET, followed by VCU (71), Richmond (73), Duquesne (80), Loyola (85), St. Bonaventure (87), UMass (91), Saint Joseph's (92), George Mason (93), Davidson (121), Fordham (176), George Washington (192), La Salle (195), Saint Louis (197) and Rhode Island (211).
When asked what she'd like to see change in the NCAA committee's evaluation process, McGlade said there is perhaps too much reliance on NET rankings as an end-all metric.
She added that evaluation of a team's final 10 games or so should play a larger role, and pointed to Duquesne and VCU as examples of instances in which a strong finish and the classic "eye test" should hold more weight in the committee's eyes.
"Look at NC State's last 10 games," McGlade said, referencing the No. 11-seed Wolfpack's magical run to the Final Four.
"The eye test, it's a really good evaluation tool. Because teams peak and dip. You've got to be peaking by the time selection comes around.
"If VCU got into the NCAA bracket, I believe they're winning a game or two."
Dayton's nonconference strength of schedule was No. 17 nationally. VCU was No. 53, Duquesne 73, Richmond 90, Loyola 123 and Saint Joseph's 124.
Though luring strong opponents to places like UD Arena and the Siegel Center can be an ordeal, McGlade was enthused by the A-10's collective nonconference scheduling.
"The quad(rant) 1 games that we want to get into our arenas, they don't play that strong of a nonconference schedule, and they know that VCU, Dayton, the top of the A-10 can have a high percentage opportunity of beating them, especially when you have rabid, capacity crowds in the Siegel Center and UD Arena," McGlade said.
"Nationally, within the NCAA, within the selection criterion, for the good of the game, there should be some metric in there that incentivizes more of a balance in every institution playing both home and away games.
"It makes a league like the A-10 double-down to try to get great, quality opponents to come into our arenas."
Of the downturn in A-10 form since that 2013-14 zenith, McGlade said the evolving modern college hoops landscape centered around the transience of the transfer portal played a role, as did the COVID year that likely robbed Dayton of a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
"We had a great year (in 2019-20), and then everything got shut down," McGlade said. "Prior to that, we were solidly a multi-big league."
The commissioner said the A-10 hierarchy and its coaches looked at 2022-23 as an outlier season.
And the rebound in 2023-24 was significant, with programs such as VCU, the Spiders and Ramblers finishing on the periphery of the NCAA tourney picture.
That reality even prompts inclinations of tournament expansion for McGlade.
"It's time to expand that bracket by eight or 12 teams," she said.
"The quality and parity across the country is absolutely there."
On the women's side, McGlade said the conference deserves more respect nationally. Regular-season and tournament champion Richmond earned a No. 10 seed in the NCAA women's tournament.
The A-10 last received more than two women's NCAA bids in 2015-16 when Duquesne, GW and SLU all made the Big Dance.
"I firmly believe we should have been a multi-team league for the NCAA," McGlade said, adding that six A-10 women's teams earned postseason berths and one, Saint Louis, was still alive as of Wednesday in the WNIT semifinals.
"Not only did our schools step up with tying their shoelaces on the men's side, we did equally as well in terms of toughening up on the women's side. We'll use that as a springboard for success next year.
"We have to get more respect nationally on both the men's and women's side. When you pull back the curtain, the A-10, no doubt, is clearly in the top eight of the best conferences in the country."
Basketball gallery: Richmond vs. VCU, Feb. 3, 2024
The University of Richmond won its first Atlantic 10 Conference women's championship at the Henrico Sports & Events Center. The Spiders advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2005.
Richmond’s Chris Mooney was named the Atlantic 10 coach of the year after leading the Spiders to a 23-8 record and the regular-season conference championship after being picked to finish 11th in the preseason.
The Richmond Spiders celebrate after claiming the first Atlantic 10 women’s tournament title in program history Sunday at the Henrico Sports & Event Center. The Spiders are headed back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2005.