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Majerus: A-10 awful for Saint Louis

2:00 AM Friday, January 22, 2010

ST. LOUIS — Saint Louis University men’s basketball coach Rick Majerus is no fan of the school’s affiliation with the Atlantic 10 Conference. Too much travel, too expensive, too hard on the student-athletes.

If Majerus had his way, the school would sacrifice a bit of prestige, put the athletes first and play in a league closer to home.

“We belong in the Missouri Valley,” Majerus said after the Billikens whipped Fordham 75-48 Wednesday night, Jan. 20, “if we care about the kids’ academics.”

It’s not a sentiment likely to endear the ever-opinionated Majerus to the Rev. Lawrence Biondi, the school president who orchestrated the move from Conference USA to the Atlantic 10 for the 2005-06 season. But Majerus said he’s concerned about all those trips to the East Coast leading to multiple classes missed.

“The A-10’s a good league, but you’ve got to cross two states,” Majerus said. “What rivalry do we have? Dayton or Xavier? They sure don’t consider us to be big rivals.”

Those are the schools within reasonable distance. Then there’s Fordham, Duquesne, George Washington, La Salle and St. Bonaventure.

“No one wants to go to Olean, N.Y., (St. Bonaventure) and Massachusetts and those places,” Majerus said.

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