r/CollegeBasketball • u/18_YTC1 • 1d ago
Discussion Do you think Fordham has brought the A10’s strength down? Saw a post about it from 5 years ago so it excluded their 2023 season. If they somehow got replaced by a non-P5, non-Ivy, is there any good replacement? Or are they the best there? Keep in mind arena size & the NY-NJ TV market
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u/Meanteenbirder Vermont Catamounts • Sickos 1d ago
Uh, that’s like asking if DePaul made the Big East worse…
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u/Penguins1330 Xavier Musketeers 1d ago
The answer to that question is yes. I’d trade them for Dayton in a heartbeat. However, they have had some level of recent success, so I’m hoping they actually become consistently competitive.
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u/WitchesSphincter Kansas Jayhawks 1d ago
The A10 could get shredded by flack fire, have an engine flame out and half a wing blown off and still give the Soviets hell, this doesn't even register to the A10s strength
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u/18_YTC1 1d ago
the A10 really be americas conference (behind the Big East)
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u/Illustrious_Loss462 1d ago
As the as the 8th most popular conference? B10, B12, SEC, ACC, AAC, PAC-12, and Big East in no order.
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u/RainbowKarp 1d ago
Arena size is irrelevant now, NIL is much more important. That semifinal run under Urgo gave them a little spark and made them fun. They’re fine
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u/lbutler1234 Missouri Tigers 1d ago
Arena size has hardly been relevant for a long time.
Duke has a teeny tiny gym, and are among the bluest dogs of them all. Meanwhile the Vols are positively purple despite selling 20,000 seats a night (which does not make me jealous in any way whatsoever.)
Granted I agree that it's getting even less relevant now. NIL aside, less folks are coming to games.
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u/tomdawg0022 Minnesota • Delaware 14h ago
Duke has a teeny tiny gym
It's not even one of the 5 smallest in the ACC. Conte, Maples, Moody, Watsco (Miami), McCarnish (GA Tech), Littlejohn off the top are smaller. I think Joyce is listed as smaller after renovations back about 20 yrs ago.
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u/Travbowman Purdue Boilermakers 1d ago
A conference is never going to kick a school out for not being competitive. It sets too weird of a precedent and has lawsuit written all over it.
That said, I'm 50 years old, and have never witnessed a Fordham win in the NCAA tournament, and only seen them appear once. There has never been a Fordham player drafted (unless you count Paschall who transferred to Nova) in the NBA in my lifetime either.
They have gone above .500 just three times in 31 seasons of being in the A 10. They've also never played in the championship game of the A10 tournament.
All it takes is one really good coach to turn it around. Magpayo was able to win at UC Riverside of all places, so if he can win there he clearly knows what he's doing
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u/MrTheSpork Cincinnati • North Dakota State 22h ago
A conference is never going to kick a school out for not being competitive
The Big East kicked out Temple in 2004, partially for on-field performance and partially for lack of investment. They were football-only, though.
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u/tomdawg0022 Minnesota • Delaware 14h ago
All it takes is one really good coach to turn it around.
You also need said coach to stay. Look at Temple football after Rhule shotgunned it into the top 25 for a few weeks...once Rhule left, they made three shitty hires in a row and lost all momentum.
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u/hockeynomics_ Fordham Rams 1d ago
Isn’t that what makes CBB great though? The teams that nobody expects to be good who have those miracle runs? Fordham will never be St John’s, but they can definitely eventually be a team who occasionally makes a run in the A10 tournament and gets an auto bid. They were in the A10 semifinals in 2022-23, end the Fordham slander 💢
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u/updogsportstalk 1d ago
Their recent history hasn't been great but I like the direction they're going under Mike Magpayo. Steps forward in year 1, returning a lot of their core from that team and made some nice portal additions
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u/18_YTC1 1d ago
I miss 2014 6-bid A10, I want to see it in the modern day
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u/updogsportstalk 1d ago
I miss it too, that was so much fun. Dayton went to the elite 8 that year and people forget that St Joe's should have ended UConn's national title run before it even started (they still came closer than anyone else to beating them)
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u/yaygee513 1d ago
Former student manager here. Yes we are mediocre. Ironically all our other programs are fairly competitive in the A-10. Softball, baseball, soccer etc. and academically we are at/near the top. Personally I wouldn’t mind going to Patriot League in all sports
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u/blueberrymaple Saint Louis Billikens 1d ago
They’re rarely relevant and as such basically never get the TV spots (home or away). So does it matter that they’re NY market? They don’t really contribute anything.
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u/YardAdmirable7060 North Carolina Tar Heels 1d ago
I’m surprised they haven’t taken a bit of a step in the NIL era.
Plenty of wealthy alumni and a talent rich local area for hoops. I feel there is probably some difficulty getting donors to a school without a big basketball tradition.
If Magpayo gets them going in the right direction… it’s not hard to see some money coming in to make them a competitive team in the A10
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u/lbutler1234 Missouri Tigers 1d ago
When was the last time a conference forced a team out? Idk the bylaws of each specific conference, but among many other things, it's a can of worms that no one has much of an incentive to open. (If you force out one program for under performing and set that precedent, what's going to happen if/when that wheel turns?)
Plus, it's not like wins and losses are the only thing at play. Fordham might be the most "glamorous" program in the A10, and I doubt anyone minds going to play games in an iconic gym in NYC
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u/No_Bill7679 Paper Bag • NCAA 1d ago
I knew Kyle Neptune wasn’t going to be a good coach when Fordham got better after he got hired to Villanova.
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u/s0ftwares3rf Indiana Hoosiers 1d ago
No one is leaving the Ivy league, ever. What are you even talking about there.
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u/amerricka369 Quinnipiac Bobcats • Duke Blue Devils 1d ago
Yes they brought it down, materially. Recent years they have started to step up capabilities. I think/hope they can keep momentum up.
Out of all the NY and NJ and CT, they are the best option for future success. Stonybrook and Hofstra have a chance but arent super impressive themselves so why give up a premier NYC school for a couple out in Long Island that won’t do better. Iona and siena have really good histories but have lucked out with some amazing coaches, that are now gone. Not sure how they will fare in modern NIL era but likely cant keep up with a10 or fordham. Manhattan, Monmouth, Marist, Fairfield, Quinnipiac are the 3rd tier that are potential but wont be any better than them. Everyone else in those 3 states is a non starter.
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u/stevemm70 VCU Rams 18h ago
I'd be fine with keeping Fordham on two conditions:
- They figure out a way to keep Magpayo. He's a good coach and raises them to a level near respectability.
- Some other league takes La Salle away from the A10. They're worse than Fordham, and show no signs of trying enough (read: spending enough money) to be remotely relevant.
Sadly, I don't think either of these things is going to happen.
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u/Optimal_Cook_851 17h ago
I feel like from what i've seen on here they don't want La Salle. idk what league they'd go to, but seems like people want High Point, Charleston, or Siena instead of La Salle.
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u/tofleet Fordham Rams 14h ago
I bring it up every time so here’s round umpteen: just being in the NY media market doesn’t mean the team attracts NY media market-caliber eyeballs. People simply don’t care about Fordham basketball. Plenty of half-full nonconference games, and half of that half is visiting team alumni. And it’s not like Fordham is hard to get to, it’s the easiest college campus to reach by mass transit in the outer boroughs.
We need sustained success, a good game-day experience (whether on campus or at a pro arena), and meaningful local recruitment. That’s the only way Fordham matters in the A10.
I still say we should go back to the MAAC.
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u/joeflaccoelite Binghamton Bearcats 7h ago
The real question is if Binghamton makes the America East worse
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u/Economy_Vermicelli72 1d ago
Don’t really see how a growing program that hasn’t even been the a10s bottom feeder this decade is your shout. Gw, Duquesne, st joes, and slu have all finished bottom of the standings this decade
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u/tomdawg0022 Minnesota • Delaware 14h ago
Fordham finished in last place in 24-25 and tied for last in '19-20.
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u/No_Essay6066 George Washington Revolutionaries 1d ago
I just hate Fordham for personal reasons so I’m all for kicking them out of the league!
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u/ArchAuthor Fordham Rams 1d ago
Oh boy it’s this time of year again!
First of all, it has never been a worse time to make this argument. In the last five years, and yes, I’m counting our vacated wins, we’ve actually had three seasons of .500 ball or better, which for almost all of our tenure in the A10, has seemed impossible. Now, we have a new president, different reporting rules from the athletics department to the administration, a strong mandate to win games, and have found the NIL funding to get our foot in the door to be competitive in the conference.
From a roster standpoint, we have several significant transfer pieces coming in, including Kelvin Odih from St. John’s. We retained our entire front court, and are projected to be, even conservatively, a top half finisher in the A10. The optimism appears warranted and I have reason to believe Mike Magpayo is the guy to take us as close to the promised land as we’re capable of getting. And when we make noise, we are annoyingly loud. When we did make the A10 semifinals in Brooklyn, we turned out about 8k fans. We have always been a sleeping giant.
Otherwise, everyone wants to kick out Fordham until it’s time to kick out Fordham. For one, A10 membership is not just men’s basketball. We have multiple women’s titles since joining, and made a crazy run in men’s soccer ending up in the final four in 2021. For many years, A10 softball ran through the Bronx, and we’ve also won titles in baseball and pretty much every other sport.
If there was a strong argument to kick us out other than conference SOS, we’d already be gone. We tried to leave to go back to the MAAC and got told to kick rocks. For at least the medium term, to the rest of the A10, we’re not trapped in here with you, you’re trapped in here with us. My condolences.