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The Atlantic 10 will play a 16 game league schedule

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On Wednesday, we wrote about how the SEC’s league schedule will change with the addition of Texas A&M and Missouri next season.

Today, we write about the Atlantic 10 and how the addition of Butler and VCU will change the way their conference schedule is structured. And, simply put, it won’t.

The league will still play just a 16 game schedule, which, with 16 league members, means that every team will get a single home-and-home series with a rival while playing the other 14 teams just once.

Now, if the A-10 does things right, this could work out pretty well. Richmond and VCU have to be rivals because, well, they’re rivals. Temple and St. Joe’s need to be, as well. Not only are they already Big 5 rivals, but they are going to be the two best teams in Philly next season. We need them to play twice. For the good of the country, or something like that.

St. Louis and Butler should both be top four teams in the conference, so it would be nice to see them play twice, and Xavier and Dayton have cultivated a pretty solid rivalry during their time in the conference. Few would complain about seeing the Cintas Center and Dayton Arena filled for basketball games. UMass and Rhode Island make too much geographical sense not to happen, which leaves La Salle, Fordham, Charlotte, St. Bonaventure, Duquesne and George Washington.

Having 16 teams in a single conference is too many. No one is going to argue that. With the number of quality teams in the Atlantic 10 next season, the fact that so many of these matchups will only happen once -- VCU-Butler, UMass-St. Joe’s, Temple-St. Louis, it goes on and on and on -- is borderline criminal.

Rob Dauster is the editor of the college basketball website Ballin’ is a Habit. You can find him on twitter @robdauster.