these are all awful suggestions. BU, Siena, Belmont, Davidson? The A10 is better than that. Way better. IMO Creighton doesn't bring more to the table than the A10 brings to it.
And in general, I'm opposed to conference sprawl… Keeping a tight, focused league where rivalries permeate the schedule and fan interest is high is paramount to publicity and media attention. What would Omaha bring to that equation?
I agree with a lot of that, but disagree overall for a very simple reason:
#1-
Creighton qualifies as "best available" and its not even close. Its Secretariat at the Belmont.
All available schools (No one in the Mountain/Pacific time zone, or with FBS football)
NCAA bids: 16 Creighton, 14 Murray St, 12 Holy Cross, 10 So. Illinois, Chattanooga, Davidson.
NCAA wins: 11 Bradley, 10 Creighton, 8 Davidson
Murray State is in the middle of no where. Holy Cross has won the (abysmal) Patriot a few times, but they haven't won an NCAA game since 1953.
#2 - What "mid-majors" are left? With the WCC adding BYU and all the western changes*; CAA, CUSA, MWC and Horizon losing their an "at-large" hopeful (SDSU will be Big West auto instead of a MWC at-large), there are (a) more NCAA bids available going forward and (b) NO MID-MAJORS LEFT. Except the MVC.
Plucking Creighton could make the MVC a one-bid league… like almost everyone else. You could realistically see a situation where the only multi-bid leagues were the BCS Six, A-10, WCC and either MWC or CUSA.
*The MWC is an interesting case. They didn't miss a beat losing BYU and add Nevada, Fresno State and Utah State, some pretty good programs. But there are SO FEW teams in the west that they all play each other anyway, and it drives their SOS's closer to .500. It will be worse going forward because TCU and La Tech (who played vastly different OOC schedules) headed east and Denver (vastly different conf. schedule) headed west. Throw in that SDSU's BWC slate will make them a far less attractive SOS/OppSOS team, and the MWC's going to 16 or 18 game schedules, and the MWC could lose an at-large from "schedule math."
The consolidation of the WAC/MWC into one conference doesn't make them stronger. It makes them weaker. Because there's no one outside of each other to beat that they weren't beating already. Same as the 16-team WAC.
I only see two issues holding up Creighton:
1. Geography (but not that challenging considering Creighton is loaded)
2. Walking away from a far better conference in terms of facilities and basketball support in order to play in a half dozen HS gyms in the A10.
These moves are about two things: TV and NCAA Access (which both translate to "money.") If joining the A-10 means more TV games, more guaranteed marquee games and more NCAA tournament access, Creighton won't care what kind of gym/arena they play in. Playing at the RC, Gola and Rose Hill en route to the NCAAs is better than playing in nice arenas in the regular season AND the NIT.