Connecticut writer: AAC should call Dayton, VCU after adding Wichita State

Big news today in college basketball: Wichita State is joining the American Athletic Conference.

A writer for the Hartford (Conn.) Courant suggests the AAC should not stop there.

That’s because while football mobility and lucrative television contracts might still be hard to come by for members of the former Big East, the league can play its way up the basketball ladder by regularly getting more teams into the NCAA tournament.

Two games against Wichita State are good for the RPI. They reduce the burden to take on a major nonconference game on the road or neutral site, and allows for some home-cooking games to bolster the treasure chest and the RPI... 

If Wichita State is successful, it should wake up some football-first AAC schools and other football-centric people around the league to look at the depth and NCAA units VCU and Dayton can bring in basketball.

Wichita State is leaving the Missouri Valley Conference to more permanently beef up its schedule, and what the Shockers bring the AAC is another team with name recognition and a recent history of making and winning in the NCAA tournament.

RELATED: Dayton and Wichita State have a lot in common

Making the NCAA tournament and winning games there brings extra money from the NCAA.

Dayton and VCU, of course, are accustomed to March Madness as well, so there would seem to be some merit in the mutual benefits such a move could bring.

They are also in a situation in which scheduling can be tricky as Power 5 teams are wary of having to play in their arenas and a sizable chunk of the Atlantic 10 proves to be an anchor on their RPIs.

That gets in the way of getting into the NCAA tournament — not to mention getting the type of seed that lends itself to multiple wins once there.

And that is how teams like the Flyers and Shockers end up facing each other in the first round despite many around the basketball world thinking both teams deserved a better fate.

Perhaps what is good for the Shockers could be good for the Flyers, too.

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