This looks like it could be a great year for the A10. 3 good wins for the A10 today: Temple over Nova, Xavier over Cincy, and Rhode Island over Boston College. Xavier almost always is toward the top of the conference and Dayton was picked to win the this year, but several other teams have had a great start to the season:

Charlotte is 8-1 and won on the road at Louisville
Rhode Island is 8-1 and beat Boston College today
Temple is 8-2 with wins over Villanova, Penn State, and Virginia Tech
Dayton is 7-2 with a win over Georgia Tech and the 2 losses to Kansas St. and Villanova in Puerto Rico
George Washington is 7-2
Richmond is 7-2 with wins over Mississippi St. and Missouri
Duquesne is 7-3 with a win over Iowa
LaSalle, Saint Louis, St. Bonaventure, and Xavier are all 6-3
Massachusetts is 5-5
and only St. Joes and Fordham have losing records.

How do you see the league playing out this year? How many A10 teams will make it to the NCAA tourney?

too many slightly above average teams, they will all beat up on each other. 3 max will make the tourney. Temple seems to get it done late in the year so i'll take them along with UD and X.

Some good games today:

Richmond upset #13 Florida
Temple gave Seton Hall their first loss of the season
Massachusetts beat Memphis in the Battle of schools put on probation thanks to John Calapari
...and Xavier got homered at #17 Butler

Dave, you may be right about teams beating up on each other in conference play. I think 4-5 teams could make the tourney with some combination of Temple, Dayton, Richmond, Charlotte, Rhode Island, and Xavier, but if the teams beat up on each other and there are lot of teams around .500, there won't be that many teams getting in.

I think we get 3. And at this point the Xavier Musketeers are not one of them. This schedule is biting us in the ass. But its to be expected. Glad to see its more than just Dayton and X representing us this year so far.

How awesome of a win was that for Temple at Nova?

The 34th Annual Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Championship begins a new three-day weekend format in Atlantic City. Basketball fans can purchase all-session tickets starting Friday, November 27 at 12:00 noon. Prices are $200 for gold, $100 for silver and $75 for bronze. Tickets can be purchased at the Boardwalk Hall Box Office, all Ticketmaster locations, by calling 800-736-1420 or at ticketmaster.com. Fans interested in group sales or who wish to reserve seats in specific school sections can call 609-348-7021.

The Atlantic 10 Conference will hold its 2010, 2011 and 2012 men's basketball championships at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J., where the Championship has been held for the past three years. In 2010, a new format will be in place for the A-10 Men’s Basketball Championship. The top 12 teams will qualify for the Championship; however the opening round games will be hosted on the campuses of teams seeded #5, #6, #7, and #8 on Tuesday, March 9, 2010. The top four seeded teams (#1-#4) will again receive a bye into the quarterfinal round, scheduled for Friday, March 12, 2010. Semifinal action will take place on Saturday, March 13 with the Championship game held on Sunday, March 14, and televised live at 1:00pm on CBS Sports for the first time in A-10 history.

martinfoster wrote: The 34th Annual Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Championship begins a new three-day weekend format in Atlantic City. Basketball fans can purchase all-session tickets starting Friday, November 27 at 12:00 noon. Prices are $200 for gold, $100 for silver and $75 for bronze. Tickets can be purchased at the Boardwalk Hall Box Office, all Ticketmaster locations, by calling 800-736-1420 or at ticketmaster.com. Fans interested in group sales or who wish to reserve seats in specific school sections can call 609-348-7021.

The Atlantic 10 Conference will hold its 2010, 2011 and 2012 men's basketball championships at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J., where the Championship has been held for the past three years. In 2010, a new format will be in place for the A-10 Men’s Basketball Championship. The top 12 teams will qualify for the Championship; however the opening round games will be hosted on the campuses of teams seeded #5, #6, #7, and #8 on Tuesday, March 9, 2010. The top four seeded teams (#1-#4) will again receive a bye into the quarterfinal round, scheduled for Friday, March 12, 2010. Semifinal action will take place on Saturday, March 13 with the Championship game held on Sunday, March 14, and televised live at 1:00pm on CBS Sports for the first time in A-10 history.

Oh hey thanks random A10 intern. Atlantic City is a terrible venue.

US Bank Arena >> Boardwalk Hall

UD Arena >>US Bank Arena>>Boardwalk Hall

patriots34 wrote: UD Arena >>US Bank Arena>>Boardwalk Hall

I think it needs to be at a venue that isn't a schools homecourt is the only reason I say US Bank. UD and Xavier would be awesome places to have it, but I think that would create an unfair advantage.

Anything is better than Boardwalk Hall though. That is a terrible place to watch anything.

Amazing conference start! I assume it is the best "midmajor" conference in the nation? I have trouble calling Xavier and Dayton by that term though. Their success warrants major billing, but their conference holds them into the term kind of I guess. Great schools though either way you want to call it!

#4 conference RPI the last time I checked.

Overrated

The A-10 still has a conference RPI rank of 4 and a strength of schedule of 1.

Some pretty big games this weekend for the A-10's top teams:

Thursday:
Richmond at Wake Forest

Friday:
Dayton at #17 New Mexico

Saturday:
#19 Temple hosts #1 Kansas
Charlotte hosts #20 Georgia Tech
Rhode Island hosts Oklahoma State

Sunday:
Xavier at Wake Forest