Atlantic 10 commissioner Bernadette McGlade speaks at Media Day in October in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Aaron Bracy)
By AARON BRACY
December 31, 2024
The Atlantic 10 Conference is losing charter member UMass next season, as the Minutemen followed the football trail to the Mid-American Conference. The departure leaves the A-10 with 14 teams for the 2025–26 season.
Will the conference replace the Minutemen? Or even add more teams? That was one of several questions I asked to commissioner Bernadette McGlade during a wide-ranging interview on Monday on Episode 40 of the Bracy Sports Media podcast.
“We really like the composition of our members right now,” McGlade told me. “We’ve got strong footprint, we have basketball-centric institutions that are really funding their basketball programs at a very high level to be competitive nationally. But I would not be telling you the truth if we always didn’t keep an eye on realignment.
“Is there another member out there? Or more than one member that would be complementary and bring value to the A-10? Every commissioner has a responsibility to be looking out for the solid membership of their league. Fourteen is a good number. The value, the compatibility, and the profile of the athletics and academics, that’s the priority, not necessarily how many teams we have in the league. Are we keeping our eyes on potential new members? Yes. Are we feeling stressed or pressured or anxious that we have to either expand or constrict? No.”
In her 17th season as A-10 commissioner, McGlade addressed several top-of-mind topics regarding the league, including nonconference play, scheduling, potential NCAA tournament bids, and more.
The league finished the nonconference portion of the season a combined 129-65 (.665), and six teams—Dayton (42), St. Bonaventure (53), Rhode Island (67), VCU (68), George Mason (88), and Saint Joseph’s (95)—were ranked in the Top 100 of the latest NCAA NET Rankings, released on Monday, December 30. The same six teams also were in the Top 100 of KenPom.
Outside of the ACC, Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, and SEC, all of which have double-digit teams ranked in the Top 100, the A-10 is joined by the West Coast Conference (WCC) with the next-most at six apiece.
Pointing this out led me to ask McGlade about the A-10 being classified as a “mid-major” league, something Saint Joseph’s coach Billy Lange called out following the Hawks’ 76-58 victory over Delaware State on Saturday at Hagan Arena.
“I don’t think we are a mid-major in the sport of basketball,” McGlade said. “I would stand up and defend the A-10, and especially this year, (to people) that would say we’re not a significant player in Division I men’s basketball. We’re a multi-bid league. You look at the coaches, you look at the wins we have, you look at the schedules being built, and I think ‘mid-major’ when put on the A-10’s back is a little bit of a cop-out.”
You can listen to the entire interview by clicking on the YouTube link below.
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Aaron Bracy has been covering Philadelphia sports since 1996. Follow Bracy on X: @Aaron_Bracy and like his Facebook and Instagram pages. His book on the 2003-04 Saint Joseph’s men’s basketball team is expected to be published on March 1, 2025. Read a summary and preorder it by clicking HERE. Contact him at aaron@big5hoops.com.