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.

Collegiate sports in the 21st century often are marred by mistakes and scandals.

Over the past few years, Butler University has demonstrated that a program can gain just as much attention and success while abiding by the rules.

Rotnei Clarke, one of the premiere players in the prestigious Southeastern Conference will be suiting up in Bulldog blue and white while attempting to keep par with Butler standards.

Clarke, who averaged more than 15 points per game last season for Arkansas, announced earlier this month he would transfer to Butler where he will use his final year of eligibility in the 2012-2013 season.

Considered one of the nation’s best shooters, Clarke shot 44 percent from beyond the arc last year en route to gaining second-team All-SEC honors.

Clarke had narrowed his choices to the national runner-up Bulldogs and his home-state Oklahoma Sooners.

So, what set Butler apart?

I’m sure back-to-back national title game appearances didn’t hurt, nor did three conference tournament championships in the past four years.

But, coincidentally, just three days before Clarke’s official announcement, the Oklahoma men’s basketball program admitted to two major NCAA violations, marking its second severe infractions case in the past five years. As a repeat violator, the program is in danger of losing scholarships or being dropped altogether for one or two seasons.

The story is a microcosm of disparaging behavior that is becoming close to commonplace in college athletics.

Just last week, the national sports scene was rocked by Yahoo! Sports’ unveiling of an 11-month investigation of multiple University of Miami teams, including football and basketball.

A Miami booster said he provided thousands of impermissible benefits to Miami athletes from 2002 to 2010.

The alleged involvement of coaches and at least 72 student-athletes puts the Miami football program at risk of being the first Division I team to receive the “death penalty” since Southern Methodist University in 1987.

The death penalty, the harshest reprimand an NCAA member can receive, is a ban that would keep the Hurricanes from stepping on to the gridiron for at least one season.

But Miami isn’t the only powerhouse program to find itself in hot water recently.

Within the past calendar year, violations have cost top-tier college coaches their jobs, such as Ohio State’s Jim Tressel and Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl.

One hundred and sixty four institutions have been penalized over the past decade, according to the NCAA database for major violations. Since 1953, Butler has had an impeccable bill, amassing zero violations.

Clarke’s choice to attend Butler rather than Oklahoma brings to light encouraging truths.

During a time when colleges and athletic programs are becoming muddled in controversy and asterisks are being accepted as commonplace in record books, Butler has done things the right way—”The Butler Way.”