Media Day Coverage: Big East & Atlantic 10

ounty Daily News While the Big East and Atlantic 10 Media Days were about as different at Atlantic City and midtown Manhattan, each offered an excellent opportunity to catch up with a plethora of players and coaches.

For my look at the issues of the day at the Big East Media Day, go here. (For extra news and notes, go here as well)

To see my story on where Saint Joseph's, Temple and La Salle rank in the Atlantic 10, go here.

Some musings...visiting each conference's Media Day back-to-back showed the ever-widening gap between of the two leagues and how they are viewed. In the Theatre Lobby inside Madison Square Garden, the tables of Jim Calhoun, Jim Boeheim, John Thompson III, Jay Wright, Bob Huggins, et all, were surrounded by local and national media. ESPN was in the house and everyone from Sports Illustrated's Seth Davis to Fox Sports Jeff Goodman to CBS' Bill Raftery milled around. The following day, the Atlantic 10 invaded Atlantic City's Boardwalk Hall and no one seemed to notice. The closest thing to national media in attendance was CSTV...who the A10 has a television contract with...meaning they had to be there. Instead of shouldering for position to find out how Fred Hill feels about his freshmen at Rutgers, member of the media could basically pull up a chair and sit down and chat with Sean Miller, the coach of the league's preseason favorite, Xavier.

Remember 1996, '97 and '98? Neither does anyone else. During that stretch, the A10 put 14 teams in the dance, while the Big East saw 13 teams reach the field of 64. That was then this is now...in the last three years, five A10 schools have made it in and the Big East has countered with...22.

I know it is far from breaking news that the Big East has lapped the A10 like Carl Lewis at the Special Olympics, but c'mon now. Not only has the A10 fallen off the map, but the Missouri Valley has quickly become a higher profile conference and, look out, the CAA is gaining a head of steam. The A10 is dangerously close to becoming insignificant and it's due to a lack of television exposure as a result of their diminishing tourny bids. Facts are facts. This season, two teams from the A10 should make the tournament and if that number doesn't move back to three or four teams per year soon, the ol' Mid-Major stamp will be firmly dropped on the conference's logo.