George Washington and the University of Richmond, which play this evening at the Robins Center, are Atlantic 10 Conference neighbors, but not particularly heated rivals.
At UR, a game against the Colonials has been no different from a game against Saint Joseph's or Charlotte in terms of anticipation or crowd size and intensity. Spiders fans would prefer to face Xavier and Temple at the Robins Center every season, but that's not happening under the existing scheduling structure.
A potential new A-10 scheduling setup would provide additional chances for Richmond to develop, or enhance, intraleague rivalries with more twice-a-year meetings. It could get Xavier or Temple to the Robins Center every season, rather than every other season, which is the case now.
The conference is exploring a possible change from 16 annual league games, the arrangement since the Spiders joined the A-10 for 2001-02, to an 18-game obligation, commissioner Bernadette McGlade confirmed this week.
League and school officials are "discussing the pros and cons of an 18-game conference schedule, (and) the decision will be made by the May spring meeting," McGlade said.
The Big East Conference and the CAA already have 18-game schedules. The ACC is going from a 16-game schedule to an 18-game schedule for 2012-13, whether or not Syracuse and Pittsburgh are members by then.
The A-10 consists of 14 schools, and its current scheduling format calls for each team to play all 13 of the others once. The additional three obligations are rematches involving predetermined partners, with UR's being GW, Saint Joseph's and Charlotte this season. Before Saint Louis and Charlotte joined for 2005-06, there were two A-10 divisions. Teams played opponents within their division twice, and others once, for 16 games.
UR athletics director Jim Miller said he will examine the situation more closely before supporting a move to 18 league games or no change. He said some A-10 athletics directors like the idea, and some do not, with some undecided. More nonconference games could be viewed as a positive or a negative from an RPI standpoint, depending on the strength of the A-10 and a program's ability to schedule quality nonconference opposition.
"This year, we'd rather play 18. That would be two more chances to play a top-100 team, most likely," said UR coach Chris Mooney.
The A-10 has nine members in the RPI's top 100. Only the Big East has more teams (12) in the top 100. Though he continues to study the topic, Mooney said that in general, he prefers a 16-team game league schedule. An 18-game obligation would eliminate the Spiders' opportunity to meet two strong nonconference opponents.
Richmond has earned three at-large bids to the NCAA tournament, and each was tightly linked to notable nonconference victories. In 1985-86, UR beat Providence, Wake Forest, Stanford and Virginia. In 2003-04, the Spiders won at Colorado and Kansas. In 2009-10, Richmond beat Mississippi State, Missouri and Florida.
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