Butler University’s athletics department is on “an island of its own.”

The budget is a mystery to the public. No one from the athletics department will discuss information about this year’s budget, and officials in other departments say they don’t know much either.

Butler athletics has the right to keep budget information private since the university is a private institution.

WHAT WE DO KNOW

The U.S. Department of Education requires colleges and universities to submit an annual report about participation, staffing, revenues and expenses.

Through that report—the Equity Athletics Data Analysis—students can access Butler athletics’ 2011-12 revenue and expenses. Some information can also be found on Butler’s 990 tax form.

Butler Athletic Director Barry Collier, through Sports Information Director Jim McGrath declined an interview regarding any questions about the budget.

He deferred any budget matters to Bruce Arick, vice president of finance.

REVENUE

According to the EADA, Butler’s revenue and expenses for last year were $14,738,745. This was a nearly $1 million increase from 2010. The Collegian reported in February 2012 that the 2010 revenue was $13.7 million, according to the EADA.

The report submitted to the EADA for 2011-12 lists the revenues for each sport at Butler. The three Butler sports that produce the most revenue are football and men’s and women’s basketball.

According to the EADA, men’s basketball revenue was $3,924,026, women’s basketball revenue was $1,194,883 and football revenue was $648,837.

Arick said these three sports bring in the most revenue for most universities.

He said men’s and women’s basketball bring in the most money at Butler. This is in part due to the revenue generated from the NCAA tournaments  being distributed to conferences and teams.

Arick said after the NCAA pays all their expenses, there are significant dollars left that are distributed back to the conferences. The biggest distributions go to the teams that participated in the tournaments. The money is allocated to those teams depending upon the number of games they played in the tournaments.

Arick said the disbursement of money is made to each team over the course of five years.

Despite several media reports and anonymous sources saying that the university will change athletic conferences, officials are mum.

Butler University is one of five institutions rumored to be moving to the reorganized Big East.

A new move could mean more media exposure, less travel time, new competition and a larger athletics department budget.

Butler—along with fellow Atlantic 10 member Conference Xavier—is a heavy favorite that could join the conference as soon as 2013-14, according to media outlets, including ESPN, the Associated Press and USA Today.

A group of schools, collectively known as the Catholic 7, will begin their new league July 1.

BUTLER’S ROLE

Butler has not issued an official statement to address any conference switch.

President Jim Danko wrote in an email to The Butler Collegian that most of the media reports have been based on speculation.

“Obviously the media continues to speculate about how the splintering of the Big East will play out, but so far, most of what I have read has only been based on speculation,” Danko wrote. “It is flattering that Butler is receiving such positive attention since it is an indication of the respect others have for Butler’s approach to athletics and academics.”

Danko also said Butler has been “extremely pleased with the A-10, as this has proven to be a truly exciting season, as we have had the opportunity to compete with many outstanding basketball teams.”

Both Athletic Director Barry Collier and Sports Information Director Jim McGrath declined to comment.

Danko’s Chief of Staff Ben Hunter also declined to comment.

Atlantic 10 Commissioner Bernadette McGlade told reporters no schools had given a notice of withdrawal before the Butler-VCU game Saturday.

“I’m just like every other conference commissioner,” McGlade said. “We try to stay focused on our realignment concerns as we can be, but by the end of the day, institutions will still make the decision about what conference they affiliate with.”

The A-10 could lose four teams by 2014-2015 if ESPN and AP reports are correct. Dayton and Saint Louis are expected to join the Big East in the 2014-2015 season.

Rumors surfaced about Butler’s possible move from the A-10 after less than six months in the conference.

In December 2012, The Butler Collegian reported that Danko neither confirmed nor denied any of the speculation about a conference switch.
On Dec. 17, Danko sent out an email to the university community.

“In terms of the announcement by the Catholic 7 schools to separate from the Big East, I greatly respect—and agree with—their collective conviction that, if they do not control their own destiny, someone else will,” Danko wrote. “Butler, too, has controlled its destiny proactively, for example, when it made the decision to join the excellent Atlantic 10 Conference.”

THE SPLIT

At the beginning of the 2012-2013 school year, there were 16 teams in the Big East, with Temple contributing football.

Soon it will be official that seven of those schools, known as the “Catholic 7,” will depart from the current Big East to create their own league, taking the naming rights with them.

The Big East conference was established on May 31, 1979, and is typically characterized as a football conference in the media.

The seven teams leaving are better known for their basketball teams’ successes.

The schools made the announcement in December that they would be leaving the conference, and there have been negotiations and discussions ever since.

Despite all seven being Catholic institutions, the group is opening up its new league to non-denominational universities such as Butler, according to media reports.

Negotiations regarding the split are still ongoing and are likely to finish in the coming week, according to national media outlets.

THE MEDIA DEAL

A major incentive for Butler to join the new Big East is the Catholic 7 schools’ proposed television deal with FOX.

The media organization is planning to launch a new sports channel, FOX Sports 1, to replace the Speed Channel. The new network is set to debut Aug. 17.

According to an ESPN report, FOX has reportedly offered a 12-year, $500 million deal for television rights to the Catholic 7 schools’ athletic events.

Reports have the amount of money the seven Big East schools would earn ranging from $2 million to $5 million per year.

Butler and Xavier would split what is left over from the television deal after the Big East schools take their share. Regardless of what that amount is, they would end up making less money than the Big East schools.

A-10 schools earn approximately $440,000 per year in the conference’s current television deal.

MONEY

Most of the Big East’s negotiation has revolved around a $110 million reserve fund and determining how the money will be split among the 16 members.

The money comes from exit fees, tournament shares and conference reserve funds.

According to the AP, the Catholic 7 schools would receive $10 million of that to split among themselves, in addition to keeping the Big East name and the right to play conference tournament games at Madison Square Garden.

On the other side of the money ledger, Butler would be forced to pay a $2 million exit fee for not giving the A-10 at least 27 months’ notice before changing conferences, according to the AP. The fee would have been cut in half if Butler had given a year’s notice, according to Tom Eiser, Xavier’s associate athletic director for communication.

Butler’s 2011-2012 athletic budget of $14.7 million was less than half the athletic budget at St. John’s, Georgetown and Villanova.

TRAVEL

Butler would face, on average, slightly decreased travel distances and times with a move to the Big East.

According to Collegian calculations, Butler’s average trip in the A-10 is approximately 549 miles, straight from Indianapolis to the opponent’s home site. That number drops to 522 miles per trip with a move to the new Big East.

Not all of Butler’s athletic teams are able to take chartered flights like the basketball team, so that time on the road could become a reality for some squads.

A bus ride to Providence College would last longer than any trip Butler experiences within the A-10.

Providence is approximately 913 miles from Butler, or about a 14 and a half hour bus ride.

Still, it would not be much of a change from the school’s current longest trip, 895 miles to Rhode Island University.

Xavier in Cincinnati would still be Butler’s closest in-conference competition—assuming the Musketeers leave the A-10 as well—at 118 miles away. DePaul University in Chicago is about 184 miles from Butler, providing another reasonable drive for league action.

NEW COMPETITION

In general, Butler’s athletic teams faced tougher competition in the A-10 than the Horizon League. Despite this, many of the teams have had success.

The Catholic 7 schools offer a new slate of competition that is arguably even tougher than that of the A-10.

Georgetown and Marquette have both been ranked in men’s basketball this season. The bottom-tier Catholic 7 schools in men’s basketball have similar records to those in the bottom of the A-10.

The new conference would also offer multiple strong opponents in such sports as women’s cross country, women’s volleyball, men’s soccer and baseball.

ACADEMICS

A move to join the Catholic 7 would put Butler in a league with other well-performing and highly ranked institutions.

Butler, which is ranked No. 2 in the U.S. News and World Report’s Best in the Midwest list, would join the likes of Georgetown and Villanova—ranked 21st among national universities and first among regional universities in the North, respectively.

Butler has been ranked No. 2 for the past three years.

Butler would be the smallest school in the league by student enrollment.

The average student enrollment at the Catholic 7 schools is about 15,240, including both undergraduate and post-graduate students. Butler’s current enrollment is 4,771.
RECRUITING

Butler teams will, theoretically, be able to recruit athletes and students by having more conference contests in the East.

Plus, the chance to compete against well-known schools such as Georgetown, Villanova and Marquette could be a strong draw in Butler’s recruiting process.

TITLE IX

Butler could expand its athletics department if it went to the new league.

Currently, Butler funds 17 varsity sports. All of them are sponsored in the A-10—with the exceptions of football, which is in the Pioneer League, and women’s golf, which is in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

The new Big East could bring the potential of adding teams, both in terms of revenue and venues for competition.

The Big East sponsors 21 varsity sports, including field hockey, men’s and women’s lacrosse and women’s rowing.

Butler’s football team will most likely stay in the Pioneer League. Only two of the Catholic 7 schools have football teams in the Big East.

Butler used to have a men’s lacrosse team that competed at the Division I level from 1993 until it was cut in 2007, along with the men’s swimming team.

Collier made the decision in his first year as athletic director.  He said it was due to finances and not being able to properly fund 21 varsity sports with a “bottom-of-the-barrel financial aid budget.”

Because of Title IX, Butler did not cut any women’s programs.

The men’s lacrosse team continues to be a popular club sport at Butler.

The team plays in the Central Division of the Central Collegiate Lacrosse Association, and Butler employs head coach Kyle Mates.

The Big East would have four other men’s lacrosse programs with Providence, St. John’s, Georgetown and Villanova. Notre Dame also has a program if it chooses to stay in the Big East for an additional year before moving to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Even with potential changes, Butler has to be vigilant of Title IX restrictions and regulations.

Just this past year the athletics department came under review by the Office of Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education.

Title IX requires the ratio of women in sports to be substantially proportionate to the undergraduate enrollment.

During the 2010-2011 school year, women made up nearly 60 percent of Butler’s full-time undergraduate students and only around 37 percent of athletes.

In September 2012, Beth Goetz, former associate athletics director for administration, said the department believed it was in compliance with Title IX.

“We believe we offer every sport in which there is an interest and ability on campus,” Goetz said.

She said that met one of the required exceptions of the legislation if the percentage was not proportionate.

Butler also has a women’s lacrosse club team, though it is not as popular as the men’s team.

The Big East would only have two remaining women’s lacrosse programs.

Butler might be able to add women’s scholarships or sports to be compliant with the Big East and Title IX.

BUILDING A LEAGUE FROM THE GROUND UP

One of the biggest differences in this speculated move for Butler is the foundation of what it’s joining.

The A-10 was an established league with a foundation for tournaments, scheduling and monetary issues.

While the Big East has been around for 34 years, Butler would essentially be helping to build an entirely new conference.

The league that is scheduled to begin on July 1 still needs to find a commissioner and league officials.

This becomes an issue when sports such as soccer and cross country start their seasons just a month after the league start date.

The conference will have established schools with rich athletic histories. Butler would be joining a group of experienced Division I schools.

The fact remains that there are still many uncertainties.

AS TALKS CONTINUE

Officials from the NCAA could not be reached for comment on Tuesday afternoon.

Officials from Georgetown and Providence declined to comment when contacted by The Collegian.

The Collegian did not receive a response as of press time from Villanova, DePaul, Seton Hall and St. John’s.

Big East negotiations are expected to be finalized tomorrow.

The Collegian will continue to update this story online as more information becomes available.

Jim McGrath, Butler associate athletics director for communications, has been announced as an inductee in the College Sports Information Directors of America Hall of Fame.

“It’s hard to wrap your hands around when you’re being honored for doing your job,” McGrath said. “I’m doing something that I love, and I try to do it the best that I can. And then to be honored for it, it’s a little bit overwhelming.

McGrath said he considers it “a tremendous honor” to be considered for accolades alongside people he has known and learned from. McGrath has worked at Butler since 1981 when he became the school’s first and only sports information director.

He has also been the host sports information director for four NCAA men’s basketball Final Fours and one women’s basketball Final Four.

Josh Rattray, assistant sports information director, said McGrath was a major draw in his decision to work for Butler.

“Being able to work with Jim,” Rattray said, “a guy with his profile and his national reputation was a big plus for me to come here to Butler.”

Five other sports information directors will be inducted alongside McGrath.

McGrath said he looks forward to seeing friends and colleagues at the induction ceremony, which will be held at the CoSIDA annual convention in June in Orlando, Fla.

McGrath said he is glad for the opportunity to be inducted with  Notre Dame’s Bernadette Cafarelli.

“We’ve been friends for years and years, and we worked together in the NCAA Final Four media coordination staff,” McGrath said. “I’m as excited for her going in as I am for me.

“I get to see a lot of people I’ve worked with through the years, really from back in the days when I was at Augustana College.”

McGrath said the many assistant sports information directors, as well as coaches and administrators who have worked with him, deserve credit for their support.

“It’s made it the kind of job that you can stay on for 32 years, and made it easy for me to do my job and put me in a position to get this kind of a recognition,” McGrath said.

Sports injuries can be a scary thing for athletes, family and fans.

The Butler community realized this when standout senior transfer Rotnei Clarke flew headfirst into the base of a hoop in a win against Dayton on Jan. 12.

Clarke was fouled hard by Flyers defender Matt Derenbecker and hit the basket, suffering a neck sprain. He was taken off  the court on a stretcher after nearly eight minutes in front of a packed arena and a national TV audience on the NBC Sports Network.

The entire country heard him  tell trainer Ryan Galloy and team doctor, Tom Fisher, “I can’t move.”

Doctors told Clarke not to move after he said he felt numb.

This was all heard on national television, and this didn’t sit well with Butler officials.

The university filed a complaint with the Atlantic 10  conference and the NBC Sports Network because fans watching the broadcast knew more about his status than his family and team did.

Galloy said he wasn’t paying attention to the cameras at the time but later learned about the situation.

“I thought it was rather unorthodox that they recorded everything,” Galloy said.

Jim McGrath, Butler sports information director, learned about the situation when Fisher contacted him after returning to Indianapolis. McGrath forwarded Fisher’s concerns to A-10 officials, who, in turn, contacted the NBC Sports Network.

Drew Dickerson, A-10 director of communications and media relations, said they contacted the network, as well as every institution in the conference.

“We contacted the NBC Sports Network, and they apologized,” Dickerson said. “They assured to contact production teams.”

Dickerson said each institution’s game management personnel was instructed on the importance of managing TV crew during games.

Normally during an injury in any sort of game, cameras will focus on an injured player but not record sound.

McGrath said NBC was in agreement that the coverage went too far and it should have backed down on the audio coverage.

Fisher’s main goal was to make sure something like this never happens again, McGrath said.

Analyst Jay Bilas said it’s a “hard sell” to convince him that television shouldn’t cover an event as it’s happening live.

“(This is) something that everybody should talk about and decide what’s the right thing to do because those are important issues that need to be discussed in a serious manner,” Bilas said.

McGrath also said this is an important issue in the world of sports.

“It raises an interesting question,” McGrath said. “In a public place, where is the line drawn that the public is not allowed to find out what is going on?”

Clarke said he doesn’t think much of the controversy but understands the situation.

“I was just in the moment and worried about and thinking about my health at that point,” Clarke said. “It was a little bit of invasion of privacy, but it wasn’t that big of a deal.”

Clarke is ruled out for tonight’s game at La Salle but is expected to return Saturday night against Temple.

“I’ve progressed daily,” Clarke said. “I think I’m doing well and ahead of schedule.”

Clarke said he wasn’t feeling pain the day before the Gonzaga game, and he was able to get in the gym and take a few shots.

Tonight’s game is televised on WNDY, and Saturday night’s game will be on ESPN2. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m.

Jim McGrath wanted to be a pharmacist.

Butler University’s sports information director of 31 years never intended to become involved in the sports information field.

A 1971 graduate of Augustana College in Rock Island, Ill., McGrath considered attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison, among others, to study pharmacy.

“When I got to Augustana, I found out they didn’t have a pharmacy school,” McGrath said. “To get into a pharmacy school, the stuff that I was taking at Augustana was not going to help me.

“So I said, ‘OK, we’ve got to do an about- face, change where we’re going.’”

McGrath decided to move in the direction of a law career. His interest in political science and history prompted him to sculpt his time at Augustana with law school in mind.

It was not until his later years as an undergraduate that his first opportunity in sports information presented itself.

“I was looking for a job at the school, and I noticed they had an opening for a student sports information director,” McGrath said. “I had no idea what that was, but the word ‘sports’ intrigued me.”

Even during his two years in the position, McGrath still anticipated attending law school. It was not until just after his graduation that Augustana’s athletic director approached him with an offer to be the school’s first full-time SID.

“I took the job thinking, ‘I could still go on to law school a year or two down the road if I don’t like this,’” McGrath said. “That was 41 years ago, so law school is still on the back burner.”

McGrath spent his first 10 years in the profession at Augustana. While there, he served as the host SID for five NCAA Division III national basketball championships and acted as the director of communications for the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin for five years.

“It turned out to be just a blessing,” McGrath said. “I’ve loved every minute of the job. I could’ve seen myself staying at Augustana forever, but there was a desire to move on and get into a Division I atmosphere.”

After he made the decision to look elsewhere, McGrath wrote to 50 NCAA Division I schools. Among the schools McGrath sent letters to were UCLA, Pepperdine, Florida State and Arizona.

He also included many schools in the Midwest. Butler was among them.

“I really didn’t know a whole lot about Butler at the time,” he said.

Of the 50 schools he contacted, 48 responded to McGrath’s letter. All 48 thanked him for his time but expressed no interest in bringing him aboard. He never heard from the other two universities.

“I thought, ‘Well, it was worth the exercise, and I’ll consider other options,’” he said.

About two weeks later, McGrath received a phone call from former Butler athletic director and football coach Bill Sylvester. Sylvester asked McGrath to become the school’s first full time SID in 1981.

“When I first got to Butler, I thought this would be a good place to springboard my career in Division I,” he said. “I thought I could see myself working here three to five years, then maybe moving on to the Big 10.”

Five years into his career at Butler, McGrath got a call from a friend living in Chicago. There was an opening in the Chicago White Sox public relations department, and McGrath’s friend encouraged him to take a look at it.

McGrath and his wife, Judy, are both Chicago natives.

“I’m a lifelong Chicago White Sox fan,” McGrath said. “I went home that night and asked my wife what she thought about going back to Chicago.”

She did not have the reaction McGrath anticipated.

“My wife said she really liked it here,” he said. “And I said, ‘You’re right, I like it here too.’”

McGrath never applied for the position and has never pursued any other job than the one with the White Sox, a testament to his love for Butler athletics.

“I’ve been a Butler person through and through since then,” he said. “As she’s been throughout our marriage, my wife was right.”

Under McGrath’s watchful eyes, the Butler athletics department has grown to heights never before anticipated.

The greatest amount of growth has come in the last five years, during which the men’s basketball team has experienced success.

“He’s responsible for covering everything that we do, and he’s seen a lot of growth,” Athletic Director Barry Collier said. “Jim knows Butler and knows his role better than just about anybody. He provides leadership.”

During McGrath’s time at Butler, he has served as the host SID for four NCAA Division I men’s basketball Final Fours and one women’s Final Four.

Butler has also hosted the first and second rounds of the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament nine times. Since Butler hosted these games, McGrath was responsible for behind-the-scenes operations during each event.

McGrath also was recently inducted into the Butler sports Hall of Fame.

Many of Butler’s coaches have expressed appreciation for all that McGrath does.

“In the 12 years that I’ve been here, Jim’s been that one steady figure,” volleyball coach Sharon Clark said. “He’s so knowledgeable. He’s seen so much of the evolution of where the athletic department is now.”

Football coach Jeff Voris has worked with McGrath during the entirety of his Butler career and says he would not have it any other way.

“He is class, professionalism, everything rolled into one,” Voris said. “There’s not a job that we request that he doesn’t complete with enthusiasm, and he’s provided everything we’ve needed.”

One of the things Butler coaches like best about McGrath is his ability to stay involved in virtually every program while giving each one so much attention.

“He cares as much about our program as he does about the rest of the programs,” Voris said. “He’s hands-on with every program. He truly is Butler athletics.”

While so much of his time has been spent on advancing the Augustana and Butler athletics departments, McGrath has also found ways to get his name known on an international level.

During his 41-year career, he has served in press operations for United States amateur national championships in boxing, swimming and track and field.

He also held a press officer position at the 1986 Olympic Festival and at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. At those games, McGrath sent a young and tattoo-less Mike Tyson to fetch him popcorn at a boxing event. The now infamous boxer was a team alternate at the Los Angeles games.

McGrath also worked for the 1987 Pan American Games when Indianapolis hosted them.

McGrath and his wife have three sons—Chad, Scott and Christopher.

While McGrath has said nothing of retiring, he will eventually leave a void not easily replaced, Voris said.

“He doesn’t have an offseason,” he said. “The pride he puts into Butler and our programs, I can’t say enough about him.”

By his own admission, McGrath doesn’t have any favorite moments or athletes, just years of good memories and positive experiences.

“My favorite moments,” he said, “pretty much always come back to the athletes.”

On Saturday night, Butler inducted seven new members into its Athletic Hall of Fame.

The inductees were Clyde McEntire, Norman “Norm” Ellenberger, Lynn Schreiber Wallace, Charles “Chuck” Orban, Beth Christiansen Hutson, Fraser Thompson and James “Jim” McGrath.

“It’s a tremendous honor,” McGrath said. “To be recognized for doing your job is almost beyond the scope of belief.”

The Athletic Hall of Fame began in 1992 and a class has been inducted  every year since then.

The earliest athletes can be inducted is 10 years after their graduation, and for an athletics department inductee, a minimum of five years of service is required.

A maximum of five members are elected every year. Exceptions to this are honorary inductees, who qualify as  non-athletes, coaches or   posthumous inductees.

This year, out of the seven inductees, McGrath received an honorary induction, and McEntire was honored posthumously.

McEntire, who graduated in 1950, is only the second golfer to be inducted.

His score of 66 in the 1950 Mid-American Conference Championship is still a league and school record to this day. He also received medalist honors in the conference three times.

Ellenberger, who graduated in 1955, was a three-sport athlete.

He played under legendary coach Paul D. “Tony” Hinkle in  men’s basketball.

In football, he was the team captain and was named an All-Conference player. In baseball, he pitched one of five no-hitters in Butler baseball history.

Wallace, who graduated in 1979, was a two-sport athlete for all four of her years at Butler.

She played No. 1 singles and doubles for the women’s tennis team in addition to helping the women’s basketball team achieve an undefeated regular season in 1978.

Orban, who graduated in 1991, was a linebacker for the football team.

He still holds the record for the most career (487) and single-season (181) tackles.

He also won Butler Defensive MVP twice, third team All-American and led the team to three conference championships.

“I think the best way to put it is it’s the journey of what you experienced at Butler,” Orban said. “It’s recognition, but it’s not only recognition for me. It’s recognition for the people I was here with.”

Orban said his best memory was his sophomore year when his team made the playoffs.

“We were a young team. Nobody really picked us to do much, and we all played very well,” Orban said.  “It was so fun because everybody played together as a team.”

Hutson, who graduated in 1991, is one of two female athletes from Butler to earn the Midwestern Collegiate Conference Cecil N. Coleman Medal of Honor.

Her total blocks, aces and hitting percentage place her second in school history.

In 1988, Hutson and the Butler volleyball team compiled a 29-7 record, the best in school history.

“This university is an amazing place, and I’m incredibly honored,” Hutson said.

Thompson, who graduated in 2000, was a track and cross country runner from Melbourne, Australia.

He received several NCAA honors, including All-American and All-Conference in both sports and the Coleman Medal of Honor.

McGrath has worked 31 years with Butler and has been involved with media relations for over 3,000 Butler athletic events.

“I’ve devoted 31 years of my life to this university, and you don’t do that unless it’s a really special place, and Butler has been just that,” said McGrath. “To get an honor like this from Butler means the world to me.

“The thing that I will remember the most is the athletes,” McGrath said. “We’ve had such a high-caliber group of great individuals come through Butler University.”

Athletes are nominated by former Butler athletes. The nominees are then reviewed by the B-Association Hall of Fame Committee, which is made up of five or six members of the B-Association Board of Directors.

The B-Association is the alumni association for all former Butler athletes.

“To have the opportunity to be recognized by your peers and other former Butler student athletes is a great honor,” Bill Lynch, associate athletic director for development, said.

Junior Chrishawn Hopkins has been dismissed from the Butler men’s basketball team, according to a press release from sports information director Jim McGrath.

The release was made public shortly after 5:45 Wednesday evening.

In the release, coach Brad Stevens said Hopkins was dismissed for “a violation of team rules.”

“I am sorry to have to announce that Chrishawn Hopkins has been dismissed from our team,” Stevens. “We consider it a privilege to represent Butler University as a member of our team. With that privilege, comes a requirement and responsibility to meet the standard of our team rules.”

Sophomore and former teammate Roosevelt Jones said the news was “sad to hear.”

“He was like a brother to me and everybody else on the team,” Jones said. “He will be greatly missed, but I know he will bounce back from this.”

The Collegian will report further information as it is released through www.thebutlercollegian.com and Twitter (@butlercollegian and @BUSportsWriters).

In recent weeks, reports from ESPN and CBS led many to believe that Butler may switch athletic conferences within the next few years.

Butler could make the transition from the Horizon League to the Atlantic 10 conference and replace departing Temple.

The Owls of Temple are currently part of the A-10 in all sports except football.

For football, Temple is an associate member of the Mid-American Conference.

Temple is joining the Big East next season for football and all other sports the following year.

According to reports, Butler may likely be the team to fill the spot left by Temple in the A-10.

Butler would bring all of its athletic teams to the A-10 except for football, which is a member of the Pioneer Football League.

The change would go into effect beginning with the 2013-2014 school year.

Other schools that ESPN and CBS consider to be candidates for filling the A-10 vacancy are Virginia Commonwealth and George Mason.

If the crossover is made, Butler would be the second-smallest university in the league.

Butler would have more students than only St. Bonaventure, which has an enrollment of approximately 2,400.

Butler’s athletic programs would compete against schools with more than 20,000 students, such as Charlotte, George Washington University and the Massachusetts.

However, most of the schools in the A-10 have between 6,000 and 15,000 students.

The Butler athletics department declined to comment on conference affiliation or changes, other than Associate Athletic Director Jim McGrath saying that “we are members of the Horizon League.”

The move would likely benefit Butler’s men’s basketball team, which competed in back-to-back NCAA championship games in 2010 and 2011.

This season, the A-10 placed four teams in the NCAA tournament—Xavier, St. Bonaventure, Temple and Saint Louis. The Horizon League sent only Detroit to the Big Dance.

The Bulldogs would see an increase in competition and would have a traditional conference rival in Xavier.

Senior guard Rotnei Clarke has experience playing in a collegiate athletic conference more prominent than the Horizon League.

Clarke transferred from Arkansas—a member of the Southeastern Conference—last year and sat out this season with a year of eligibility remaining.

“It’s a cool thing being able to play in a power conference,” Clarke said.

The A-10 is not nearly as big as the SEC, but the A-10 tends to draw more attention from major media outlets—specifically ESPN—than the Horizon League.

Clarke said the media exposure he experienced during his time in the SEC was a good experience.

Clarke will graduate from Butler prior to any of Butler’s teams competing in A-10 play, but he said he thinks the men’s basketball team would still measure up in the new conference if they moved.

“I feel like we would compete in the A-10 for sure. No doubt about it,” Clarke said.

Like the men’s basketball team, the other squads would see an increase in competition but not necessarily unfamiliar opponents.

Men’s basketball, women’s soccer, baseball, men’s tennis and women’s tennis all played or will already play at least one A-10 team during this academic school year.

Baseball coach Steve Farley said both Xavier and Dayton, two teams from the A-10 that Butler has faced or will face this season, were in the conference when he took his current job more than 20 years ago.

Farley  also said he would be OK with the new competition, but he is wary of the way the conference is spread out.

“Fifteen-hour bus rides to places like Massachusetts, Rhode Island and upstate New York don’t excite me that much,” Farley said.

Volleyball coach Sharon Clark said she is not familiar with the A-10 but thinks it would be a little tougher from a traveling aspect as well.

As for football, scholarships are available for players in the A-10 but not in the PFL.

Reports indicate that if Butler jumped to the A-10, its football team would remain in the PFL.

Published March 28, 2012

The Horizon League has been in existence since 1979. Likewise, Butler has been a member of the Horizon League since the conference’s inception into NCAA Division I athletics.

As the saying goes, the two go together like peas in a pod.

This may be changing in the near future, however.

Butler could make a jump to the Atlantic 10 conference as a replacement for Temple, according to a report released by ESPN two weeks ago.

Associate athletic director Jim McGrath said that the report is merely speculation at this point and that Butler has not even received a phone call about such a jump from those in charge of the A-10 conference.

McGrath also said he has heard that Virginia Commonwealth and George Mason are possible replacements for Temple in the conference.

Upon hearing this, the question Butler athletes, coaches and fans should not be asking is “Will Butler make the jump?”

Instead, they should be asking why Butler would make such a move.

The recent success of the Butler men’s basketball team would seem to be the most obvious reason to move.

One of the teams the Bulldogs have played in recent seasons is Xavier, a member of the A-10 and a Sweet 16 finalist of this season’s NCAA tournament.

Moving to the A-10 would provide Butler with tougher competition both in and out of conference play. This could give Butler a better chance at the NCAA tournament.

This was despite the fact that Valparaiso finished with a better winning percentage than both Xavier and St. Bonaventure, another A-10 team that cracked the tournament field.

Better competition and a greater chance at making the NCAA tournament field each season would also bring more exposure to the school as a whole.

Butler might also like to join a conference that has some lucrative ties to corporate partners such as Powerade and Geico.

The A-10 primarily features East Coast schools.

However, Xavier, Dayton and Saint Louis are all Midwestern schools within the conference.

Also, the average enrollment between the two conferences is separated by fewer than 600 students.

However, the negatives of a conference jump may outweigh the positives in this case.

The effect of moving to a bigger conference could be troublesome to Butler’s other athletic teams.

Many of Butler’s athletic teams have to battle and claw their way through both non-conference and Horizon League play, and a berth in their respective NCAA tournaments is a great achievement.

The A-10 is not the Big East or Big Ten, but it is not a cakewalk of a conference either.

Butler’s athletic teams would have to make their way past 13 other teams instead of nine to achieve at least a conference championship.

In sports with individual competitions, some Butler athletes could go from being near the top of the Horizon League to the middle of the A-10 pack thanks to better competition.

Situations like this could factor into the loss of potential athletic scholarships, costing current and future Butler students.

The fact that most of the A-10’s teams are on the East Coast also changes the amount of time Butler’s student-athletes would have to spend on the road.

Currently, Butler’s longest in-conference road trip is approximately 350 miles to Youngstown State. Eleven of the 14 teams in the A-10 are further from Butler than that.

Butler has stability in the Horizon League. If something is not broken, it does not need to be fixed.

Butler should not make this move simply for the money, increased recognition and benefit of the men’s basketball team.

If moving to the A-10 benefits Butler and all of its athletic teams, then the school should go for it. Otherwise, Butler should continue its tenure in the Horizon League.

According to a report first released by ESPN, Butler University may be considering changing athletic conferences.

All of Butler’s athletic teams, excluding the football team, play in the Horizon League. The Horizon League currently has 10 member schools from Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio.

Butler has been a member of the conference since its creation in 1979.

The move of Butler to the Atlantic 10 Conference would be a way to fill a void left by Temple University, which is departing for the Big East in 2013.

Associate Athletic Director Jim McGrath said that Butler is following changes in conference affiliations throughout the nation, adding that Butler is ”still a member of the Horizon League.”

Five former members of the Horizon League, including Xavier University, have made a jump to the Atlantic 10.

Such a change in conferences would not appear to affect the football team, which is part of the Pioneer Football League.