Atlantic 10 is trying to shake the mid-major label

When Rivals.com named Xavier's Drew Lavender Mid-major player of the week earlier this season, the school turned the award down. AP

MAILBAG Submit a question or an opinion to Stewart. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

Last week, Sports Illustrated sent me back to my hometown, Cincinnati, to cover the Dayton-Xavier game. Played in front of a packed house at the 10,250-seat Cintas Center, Xavier's pristine, seven-year-old on-campus arena, the matchup had all the makings of a big-time college atmosphere -- two ranked opponents, fireworks during the introductions and an amped-up student section.

One of those students held up an interesting sign for the TV cameras. It read, in part: "Xavier is ... NOT a Mid-Major."

As my colleague Bill Trocchi wrote last week, there's been much discussion of late as to whether Xavier's conference, the Atlantic 10, qualifies as a mid-major, the increasingly ubiquitous and overused term that became en vogue two years ago with the rise of George Mason and the Missouri Valley Conference.

During my two days around the Xavier and Dayton programs last week, it was clear the debate has become quite a touchy subject in the A-10. When Rivals.com tried to name Xavier guard Drew Lavender as its "Mid-Major Player of the Week" on Jan. 9, the school -- which has played in 16 of the past 22 NCAA tournaments and which Forbes recently dubbed one of the nation's 20 most valuable programs -- declined the award.

"To allow yourself to be branded as second-tier can have an effect on things like recruiting," said Dayton AD Ted Kissell, whose school has ranked in the top 25 in attendance seven of the past eight years. "It's important to fight it because it's just plain wrong."

You'll find no argument here.

There are currently five Atlantic 10 teams -- No. 11 Xavier (17-4), No. 16 Dayton (14-4), No. 25 Rhode Island (17-3), No. 26 Massachusetts (13-6) and No. 43 St. Joe's (12-5) -- in the RPI Top 50, according to CollegeRPI.com. Only the Big East and Big 12 have more. "We're a league that competes with anybody right now," said UMass coach Travis Ford.

The league's non-conference performance this season certainly bore that out. Xavier scored lopsided wins over Indiana (80-65), Kansas State (103-77), Virginia (108-70) and Auburn (80-57). Dayton, which has since lost two of its top four scorers to injury, won 70-65 at Louisville and stunned then-undefeated Pittsburgh 80-55. Both UMass and Rhode Island won at Syracuse, while the Minutemen won at Boston College and Charlotte won at Clemson.

It seems to me the only people who would think to describe the A-10 as "mid-major" are those who started following college basketball in 2005.

It was only a year before that, the conference placed two teams, St. Joe's and Xavier, in the Elite Eight, with the Hawks producing an undefeated regular season and rising to No. 1 in the rankings. It was also a period during which the A-10 sprouted consecutive national players of the year -- Xavier's David West (2003) and St. Joe's Jameer Nelson ('04).

Meanwhile, this is the same conference in which John Calipari and Marcus Camby (another national player of the year) led UMass to the 1996 Final Four, Hall of Fame coach John Chaney roamed the sidelines for two decades and first-round draft picks like Aaron McKie (Temple), Yinka Dare (George Washington), Lamar Odom (Rhode Island) and James Posey (Xavier) honed their skills.

Let's face it: In almost no previous era would the label have even merited consideration.

"The mid-major is a media creation," said Atlantic 10 associate commissioner Ray Cella. "We're going to fight it 'til the end because it's not true of this league."

That the conference even has a stigma to fight is the result of two converging events. For one, it seems the "BCS" and "non-BCS" designations that have become so inherent to college football have spilled over to basketball, which negatively impacts a basketball-driven league like the A-10. It seems pretty silly considering, as Cella put it, "Whether you're a BCS conference or a non-BCS conference, you're all playing for the same [NCAA] trophy."

More tangibly, the A-10 is only now emerging from a particularly noticeable down period in the three seasons following the league's aforementioned 2004 apex.

A coinciding exodus of stars like Xavier's West, St. Joe's Nelson and Delonte West and Temple's Mardy Collins, as well as coaching changes at Dayton (where Brian Gregory replaced Oliver Purnell in 2003), Xavier (Sean Miller for Thad Matta in '04), UMass (Travis Ford for Steve Lappas in '05) and Temple (Fran Dunphy succeeded Chaney in '06), sank the league into rebuilding mode. After earning at least three NCAA tournament bids every year but one from 1996-2004, the A-10 earned a combined five berths the past three seasons (and would have been a one-bid league each year had its regular-season champion not lost twice in the conference tournament).

"Our conference as a whole did not do a good enough job in the non-conference season," said Xavier's Miller.

In an effort to boost its teams at-large credentials -- in particular its RPI ratings -- a committee of league coaches and athletic directors convened in the summer of 2006 to institute a new scheduling policy that went into effect this season. Based in part on the Missouri Valley's successful model, teams projected to finish high in the standings must schedule a certain number of foes with high RPI ratings the previous season.

The league also employs "tiers" when constructing its conference schedule, in which the 14 teams play three opponents twice. For instance, preseason favorite Xavier's home-and-homes are with 14-4 Dayton, 12-5 St. Joe's and 5-10 George Washington, whereas preseason No. 11 Duquesne, which is off to a surprising 13-5 start, has doubleheaders with 7-9 Fordham, 6-11 LaSalle and 6-13 St. Bonaventure.

As a result, the A-10 currently ranks No. 7 in the conference RPI ratings, its highest spot in 10 years. "The last three years was not what the Atlantic 10 is," said Cella. "What you're seeing this year is what the Atlantic 10 is."

Considering it took four years to get to this point, it's no coincidence the league's top teams are filled with senior starters who have developed into stars over their careers. Chief among them: Dayton guard Brian Roberts (19.3 points per game), a recent second-team selection to Seth Davis' Midseason All-America Team. Roberts' production has gradually increased each season, culminating in eye-opening performances against Pittsburgh (31 points) and Louisville (28).

"It's really hard in this day and age to find a kid who has the patience to do that," said Dayton's Gregory.

Roberts is one of seven seniors who rank among the league's top-10 scorers, including UMass guard Gary Forbes (20.3 ppg), Charlotte guard Leemire Goldwire (20.1) and Rhode Island forward Will Daniels (18.6).

A downside to the league's increased talent and depth is that even the top teams could finish with numerous conference losses.

Already, UMass has endured a pair of losses to St. Joe's while knocking off Dayton; Xavier crushed Dayton 69-43 but lost 78-59 at Temple; and Rhode Island lost to St. Louis just a week after George Washington beat the Billikens 49-20.

"In certain conferences, when you get into January or February and they start beating each other, it means that's a tough league," said Xavier's Miller. "I'm curious, as we go through to March, will our league get that same respect?"

Certainly, more respect than your average mid-major.