The news that the 2012-13 basketball season will be the last one for the Butler Bulldogs in the Horizon league is not a surprise. The move has been rumored for months and a program that played in consecutive National Championship games as a mid-major was naturally going to be a hot commodity. Right now, the Butler brand is about as high as it could get in the Horizon League, and the Bulldogs clearly want to build on the success they have created.
In moving to the Atlantic-10 they get what they want for their flagship program: a better conference that regularly sends multiple teams to the NCAA Tournament. No longer will the Bulldogs enter every conference game, especially on the road, with a target on its back as the undisputed king of the conference. Instead, they enter a conference that regularly produces teams that reach the Sweet 16 and has a threat to reach a Final Four.
The Bulldogs won't have to search long for rivals, either. Old Midwestern Collegiate Conference rival Xavier plays in the Atlantics-10. the Dayton Flyers and St. Louis Billikens should also form a nice regional rivalry with Butler, who won't even be the western-most outpost in the far-flung league.
This past season Xavier, Temple, and St. Bonaventure St. Louis all reached the NCAA tournament with UMass, LaSalle, Dayton, and St. Joseph's all winning at least 20 games. The small private school nature of Butler should fit in quite nicely with several other small, city-based private schools.
The Bulldogs now have a chance to get high-profile wins in conference instead of following the Gonzaga method of scheduling a difficult non-conference schedule and hoping not to slip too many times in conference play. As ESPN's Eamonn Brennan states, the school has already committed to basketball as well:
The men's basketball program already receives a lion's share of the program's athletic spending. Hinkle Fieldhouse, one of the nation's most beautiful and historic basketball arenas, is set to receive a $25 million renovation in coming years. Stevens is under contract for 10 more seasons -- 10 more seasons! -- and he is believed to make just more than $1 million per year. Butler will surely have to spend more on game travel and recruiting, but the increased revenue from the move should help to offset those costs.
This is a good move for Butler in the long run. As the most successful program in the state this century, the Bulldogs are doing everything they can to stay on top. This is simply the next move.
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