Front page Sports story in today's Indy Star on the possible move - this is probably an easier read if you click on the link
http://www.indystar.com/article/20120429/SPORTS0605/204290342/Do-dollars-make-sense-Butler-join-Atlantic-10-?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|IndyStar.com|sMoving to the Atlantic 10 Conference could increase Butler's sports travel costs by more than $500,000 a year.
But that should not prevent the Indianapolis-based Bulldogs from leaving the Horizon League and joining the East Coast-based conference, according to athletic directors whose schools made similar moves.
"It's very manageable," said Xavier athletic director Mike Bobinski, whose school moved from the then-Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now Horizon) in 1995. "You have to strategize and plan for it. It's not insurmountable, by any stretch."
Richmond left the Colonial Athletic Association for the Atlantic 10 in 2001. Athletic director Jim Miller said the cost of travel was not relevant.
"What is relevant is being in the best basketball conference we can be in," Miller said.
Both athletic directors said they would welcome Butler's admission. There has been speculation that Colonial members Virginia Commonwealth and George Mason will announce as soon as this week that they will join the Atlantic 10.
All three prospective new members have reached the Final Four since 2006.
New members would not play in the Atlantic 10 until the 2013-14 school year. The league will lose Temple to the Big East after next season.
Athletic director Barry Collier has declined to comment on Butler's interest in the Atlantic 10.
Butler, as a private school, is not required to release all financial data. The Indianapolis Star obtained the most recent figures available for revenues and expenses from two public schools in the Atlantic 10 -- Massachusetts and Charlotte -- and two in the Horizon -- Milwaukee and Wright State.
Excluding UMass football, which has played in the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA), travel costs for the two A-10 schools were 41 percent greater than for the two Horizon members.
The average difference was $638,033, a steep price to pay annually. The cost could be greater than that for Butler, whose campus is 500 or more miles from eight of the 12 other A-10 members in a league that stretches from St. Louis to Charlotte to Amherst, Mass.
Horizon Commissioner Jon LeCrone didn't specify what the exit fee would be if Butler left.
Butler's motivation to join the Atlantic 10 would be to enhance its men's basketball program. Theoretically, the Bulldogs could more easily get into the NCAA tournament, increase attendance and exposure, and widen recruiting.
Butler would likely receive more from an A-10 share of NCAA tournament revenue because the conference consistently puts multiple teams in the field.
But more tournament revenue could still leave Butler with a shortfall. Charlotte's A-10 distribution was $960,289, compared with Milwaukee's $660,200. That would be a net gain of $300,089, or about half the amount of the higher travel expenses.
(UMass' distribution was about $1.3 million. A UMass spokeswoman declined to specify why the amount exceeded that of Charlotte. Distribution includes revenue for postseason appearances in sports other than basketball.)
Broadcast rights money for all four schools studied was negligible.
In a letter to trustees last month, Butler President James Danko wrote that A-10 membership was worth considering but that "we would need to undertake a full cost/benefit analysis."
Butler would earn more if basketball attendance increases in the 10,000-seat fieldhouse. Averages of the past three seasons represent the highest figures in four decades: 6,953 in 2009-10; 7,178 in 2010-11; 6,599 in 2011-12.
One option would be to reduce sports offered from 19 to the Division I minimum of 14. However, Butler would be reluctant to do so, having already dropped men's lacrosse and swimming.
Travel in individual sports -- cross-country, track, tennis, golf and swimming -- would be minimally affected. Those teams could retain current schedules, with the exception of travel to conference championships.
Bobinski said schedules can be adjusted outside the conference so that teams play closer to home, compensating for miles traveled inside the A-10.
"We don't fly every time we go on these trips, either," he said. "There are times when we have kids on fairly long bus trips."
Bobinski said Xavier improved its academic support for athletes because of time lost in transit but that technology allows them do class work from laptops almost anywhere.
"I don't know what would happen if you're on the bus for 13 hours to Kingston, R.I., or Amherst, Mass.," said Steve Farley, in his 21st year as Butler's baseball coach. "When is it a bus trip and when is it a flight?"
Employees in the athletic department said there hasn't been much office chatter about conference realignment.
In basketball, if not in geography, Butler is already closer to the A-10 than it is to its Horizon brethren. No Horizon team other than Butler has received an NCAA at-large bid since 1998. The A-10 had three at-large bids this year and 24 since 1998.
The Bulldogs' basketball budget of $3.5 million was 35 percent more than that of the Horizon's second-largest, Milwaukee. Butler would rank fourth in the A-10, led by Richmond's $4 million.
A 16-team league split into divisions could ameliorate costs for all schools.
Even without divisions in a 16-game basketball schedule, Butler could be assigned annual road games at Xavier (112 miles), Dayton (112), St. Louis (243) and Duquesne (359 to Pittsburgh). Those are routine Horizon trips, potentially leaving the Bulldogs with only two long trips of two games each.
Five A-10 schools once belonged to the MCC or Horizon: Xavier, Dayton, St. Louis, Duquesne and La Salle.
Miller said additional travel costs were "insignificant," compared to the benefit of playing in a strong basketball conference.
Bobinski said he was "not trying to poach the Horizon League" but that Butler was "a natural" to join Xavier in the Atlantic 10.
Atlantic 10 vs. Horizon League
What would it cost Butler to move from the Horizon League to the Atlantic 10? The Star received detailed data on athletic budgets from four public universities -- two in the Atlantic 10 (Massachusetts and Charlotte) and two in the Horizon League (Milwaukee and Wright State) -- to answer that question. (As a private school, Butler does not have to divulge such information.) Below is the primary financial benefit and detriment if Butler were to make the switch.
Revenue
Category UMass Charlotte Milwaukee Wright State
a-Conf. share $1,315,984 $960,289 $660,200 $633,166
Total travel expenses
Category UMass Charlotte Milwaukee Wright State
b-Total travel $1,884,563 $1,261,238 $1,043,715 $826,016
a -- NCAA/conference distributions, including all tournament revenue.
b -- Excludes $506,281 in UMass travel costs for football.
