Atlantic 17?

Temple is most likely going to the Big East in for the 2013/2014 season. One of the Atlantic Ten's best basketball programs will no longer be a dominant member of the conference. Instead, they head for greener pastures with the likes of Villanova, Georgetown, and UCONN.

Fans of the Atlantic Ten should have seen this coming. Bigger name conferences, such as the Big East and Pac 12, have been adopting successful teams from smaller conferences to ensure their own survival in the recent conference shake up/ mess.

Initially, many though this would mean the Atlantic 10 would loose its top programs like Xavier and Dayton. However, the A 10 has been just as active as some of the big conferences in terms of taking actions to ensure it's own survival. So it lost Temple, but now it looks as though it may gain Butler, VCU, and George Mason.

Butler's men's team has been to the championship game the last two years, VCU went to the final four last year, and who could forget MAson's terrific run only a few years back. All three teams have been no stranger to the NCAA tournament, and success in basketball in general. This would be a huge get for the conference, and make the loss of Temple irrelevant.

It doesn't end there, conference officials have also been reportedly talking to Creighton from the Missouri Valley Conference about possibly joining the league, though due to distance, this seems slightly unlikely. Should all chips fall into place, this would put the Atlantic 10 at 17 teams, which is a lot. But it is also likely that UMASS and Charlotte will leave to go to football emphasized conferences in the near future.

All we know now is that the future is uncertain, but the league is setting itself up to be stronger than ever, maybe even just as good basketball wise as the Big East when all is said and done.