By Keon Edington / Jambar Contributor
Since beginning competition in 1976, the Atlantic 10 Conference continues to raise its national profile through added broadcast partnerships, postseason success and an expanded interest in women’s athletics — promoting YSU thorough competition exposure.
Headquartered in Washington, D.C, the Atlantic 10 is a mid-major collegiate conference that competes at the NCAA’s Division I level. The conference consists of 15 institutions.
The conference also adds affiliate members such as Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania and High Point University. This year, it sent six men’s basketball teams to the 2025 National Invitational Tournament.
Virginia Commonwealth University claimed its third A-10 basketball championship last month — its third title in the last five years. The school was the only one in the conference to earn an NCAA March Madness bid for the second time in three years, giving the conference much-needed exposure.
Kim Record, senior associate commissioner of the Atlantic 10, said the goal is to gain finances through winning games.
“The visibility of the VCU brand, the visibility of the Atlantic 10 brand, it’s hard to calculate what that value is,” Record said. “VCU would get a bigger share because they are the conference champions.”
Beyond basketball, the A-10 sponsors 22 sports including men’s and women’s lacrosse, soccer, baseball, golf and cross country, with two sports ranked in the top 25.
Social media gives the conference a way to promote the sports along with news media.
Ben Kessler, associate director of communications for the Atlantic 10, said keeping the relationships between different media partners is important.
“Creating those relationships because of the [publicity] you get when someone else talks about you in a positive light, it means a lot more than when you talk about yourself in a positive light,” Kessler said. “External media is always the most important and just developing those relationships, so you have the trust with those people and those outlets.”
Along with men’s sports, the A-10 has a major investment in women’s sports and raised its profile over the years with women’s basketball, volleyball and lacrosse.
The conference sold out its women’s basketball championship game and was one of only three conferences to have two women’s basketball teams make the NCAA tournament — the University of Richmond and St. Joseph’s University.
Kessler said a main goal is to inevitably get a neutral site venue for a championship game.
“That’s a big way that we’re looking to elevate women’s basketball is having that neutral side championship to give our student athletes and programs that feel like a huge event where many — more than half of the conferences in the country — don’t do it,” Kessler said.
As women’s sports have grown more popular throughout the years, Kessler said they’ve become easier to cover with added publicity.
“From a national sports, college sports perspective, it’s not just women’s basketball,” Kessler said. “You’re seeing more and more opportunities, you know, female student-athletes can make money off their name, image and likeness now.”
Another way the conference makes revenue is with its TV partnerships. The conference has broken into mainstream media coverage, securing media rights with CBS, ESPN and NBC Sports. These agreements include broadcasting nationally televised games, along with offering a Friday-night package, “Friday Night Lights,” with each team appearing once on a national network.
Record said that the conference schedules games far in advance based on matchups, scheduling windows and school systems.
“We have to be mindful that each school has a certain number of appearances,” Record said. “It doesn’t have to be equal, but there is a minimum that everybody has to be on [national TV] once.”
The A-10 will be down to 14 schools as the University of Massachusetts Amherst will leave July 1, while it’s not actively looking to expand, the conference leaves the door open for the right fit.